Business case

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Designing products to resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life.

Design for physical durability

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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 SAFETY FIRST, FOLLOWED BY SUSTAINABILITY. WHAT DOES CIRCULAR MANUFACTURING MEAN TO EMMA?  Full circular manufacturing at EMMA Safety Footwear means, among other things: Every circular shoe has its own material passport. The materials in the shoe have been selected for their long useful life. All raw materials are reused. A future application is known for every material. All shoes are individually identified in order to be able to trace them throughout the chain.         We just want to leave a positive footprint. We strive to leave the planet better than how we got it. That is why we do business on the basis of the principles of the circular economy. In concrete terms, this means for EMMA the pursuit of avoiding the use of (primary) raw materials, avoiding energy use and CO2 emissions, the recovery of raw materials and the use of recycled material in new products. We use materials with a longer service life and ensure that the shoe can be dismantled, due to less material usage and other material constructions. All materials that we use in our circular collection are environmentally safe and recyclable. All our circular shoes are PVC-free. All circular shoes are also provided with a material passport. In addition, we strive to have good working conditions throughout our entire chain. For us, it is natural to contribute to a safe working environment for our customers and to the sustainable development and employability of our employees. Ever since its founding in 1931, EMMA has created a positive social impact by opting for diversity and inclusiveness in its organization. More than 100 people currently work at EMMA who have a distance to the labor market. EMMA offers its staff the opportunity to optimize their talents and to develop themselves personally. The working conditions in The Netherlands are not only taken in consideration. We also work hard to ensure that suppliers and chain partners offer a safe environment to people who work on EMMA shoes on a daily basis. We are the only shoe manufacturer committed to the Dutch Sustainable Clothing and Textile Covenant, whereby we continue to work on themes such as child labor, animal welfare, living wages, raw materials and water, chemicals and energy. More information about this covenant can be found on the covenant website. For our company, circular entrepreneurship is not only a different way of producing, it is also a different way of thinking: we have to deal with a system change. We see this transition as a journey, so that we are inspired and motivated by the positive steps we take. 

Netherlands

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EMMA Safety Footwear

<p>EMMA Safety Footwear sells circular safety shoes for various industrial activities, serving as a great leader in the fight against the immense textile waste produced by the clothing industry. The company is very environment friendly and circularity centered, producing their shoes from durable and recyclable material while also paying attention to energy and emissions efficiency.&nbsp;The company also provides a material passport to its products to ensure transparency of their circular production.</p>