But this is not a new discussion: Lovins and colleagues already stated, in their 1999 article titled 'National Capitalism', that business strategies built around the radically more productive use of natural resources will solve many environmental problems at a profit.

Current trends, such as increasing consumption, new generations of consumers, urbanization and employment, tightening legislation, and technological leaps, accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The need for a circular economy is evident given that a significant proportion of non-renewable resources is diminishing and natural resource price volatility is increasing (EMF, 2012). The dominant linear economic model is running out of road, with non-renewable natural resources dwindling and becoming more expensive.

We present the results of a case study with a startup company, which was designed to test the framework and provide a concrete example of its usage and future development needs. In this article, we build a framework for sustainable circular business model innovation by adding important perspectives: recognizing trends and drivers at the ecosystem level understanding value to partners and stakeholders within a business and evaluating the impact of sustainability and circularity. Currently, a majority of the business modelling tools and methods lack at least some of the identified and needed elements for innovating business models in a circular economy. In order to make the circular economy mainstream, radical and systemic innovation is needed. The circular economy concept is a novel economic model aiming to foster sustainable economic growth, boost global competitiveness, and generate new jobs. Sustainability is not a luxury it is a basic human right.Įditor, journalist, and futurist Abstract Maria Antikainen, Katri Valkokari Download this article as a PDF

2016 business modelling tools