Monitoring a sustainable circular economy: from the systems level to actors and organizations

The circular economy (CE) is increasingly positioned as key strategy for a sustainability transformation, by shifting focus on keeping materials in high value applications as long as possible, thereby reducing resource use, waste and emissions. A robust monitoring across levels and actors is needed to guide implementation, assess progress beyond specific cases and products, and to avoid problem-shifting or “circularity-greenwashing†. In developing such a monitoring, we identify a critical gap between actor- and product-oriented approaches and an economy-wide systems perspective on the CE. We discuss this gap vis a vis the economy-wide systems-level monitoring of the biophysical dimensions of the CE developed by some of the authors (Mayer et al., 2019) and as used in European policy. We propose a socio-metabolic conceptualization of actors to enable an integration into the existing CE monitoring already applicable from cities to nations, and discuss next steps. Achieving a sustainable CE on the systems level will require concerted action across actors and organizations, based on clear guidance and indicators.