Sustainability and the Circular Economy

The circular economy is a systemic response to a linear model defined by waste, resource depletion and environmental degradation. It replaces the notion of waste with the continuous circulation, regeneration and retention of value – a transformation that reaches far beyond technical fixes, requiring coordinated change across social, economic and institutional levels and the redesign of systems from product design to global supply chains.

Pešalj, Ortiz de Montellano and Mitrović examine the building blocks of circular systems across interconnected layers: product design, circular business models and the organisation of supply chains. They assess the enabling role of policy, regulation and sustainable finance, alongside the structural barriers to meaningful change, and give particular attention to the relationship between the circular economy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting both the opportunities and the limits of aligning circular strategies with broader societal objectives.

Combining historical context, conceptual foundations, analytical frameworks and practical tools, Sustainability and the Circular Economy: Theory, Application and the Way Forward equips students and practitioners to understand, design and critically evaluate circular systems, and to engage with the circular economy as a pathway toward a more sustainable, resilient and equitable future.