Circular2Impact: uma ferramenta para estimular a economia circular de alta performance e impactos positivos em negócios

Abstract

The circular economy is seen as a positive trend in business. The topc has gone through considerable advances in recent decades, and is anchored in making material and energy flows more circular within a production system. However, to achieve those goals, systems management based on circularity measurement is essential. The novelty of this research lie on a high­performance circular economy tool that can be applied in businesses involving any production system, as long as it has processes, and material and energy flows with origins and destinations. The tool also allows up to three levels of coverage. Therefore, this research aimed to propose a tool (Circular2Impact) that promotes a high­performance circular economy to generate a positive impact on businesses. The high­performance circular economy was characterized. For building the tool, and investigating the established criteria, literature reviews, circular economy reports, and existing tools were used as a basis, identifying opportunities for development. Some of these criteria are: having material and/or energy flows classified as being internal or external to the organization; naming and quantifying flows with origins and destinations; determining the origin of the material as being renewable or non­renewable; and informing the coverage level(s). To generate a high­performance circular economy, the flow of a productive system is identified as external. Thus, this is a potential point to be addressed by the organization, allowing to generate positive impacts on the social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability, from a qualitative approach. Circular2Impact is aimed at businesses that present production processes, with material and energy flows, so that the processes (or parts of them) act in a circular and non­linear way. For applying and validating the tool, three case studies were carried out, one in the national context, in the chicken farming sector, and two in the international context, in the civil construction sector, and in the dairy sector. The findings and the contributions are directed to the scientific environment, supported by the theoretical aspect; and to professionals and organizations who envisage to generate positive impacts on businesses, and to work towards a high­performance circular economy, supported by a practical appeal.