EMF Framework for Circular Economy

» Framework Overview

Core definition and intent. Across the publications, the circular economy is presented as a systems-level economic model designed to decouple value creation from the consumption of finite resources while reducing exposure to material price volatility and supply risks, and avoiding an end-of-life “waste” outcome by design.

Three principles (design-led). The policy goals publication explicitly frames the circular economy around three upstream principles—eliminate waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems—and positions them as the foundation for policy alignment and system transition.

Why multiple documents are needed. The attached set functions as a “stack”:

• The Towards the Circular Economy volumes (1–3) describe economic rationale, business model logic, and how circular value is captured (including scaling through complex supply chains).
• Completing the Picture connects circular strategies directly to the climate mitigation gap and provides a sector logic for food, built environment, goods, and mobility.
• Universal Policy Goals translates the model into five government-aligned goals and examples of supporting measures.
• Circularity Indicators provides measurement: a core Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) plus complementary indicators and reporting uses.
• Intelligent Assets focuses on how connectivity and data can act as enabling infrastructure for circular flows and utilisation.
• The Policymakers’ Toolkit provides structured approaches, the ReSOLVE action set, and implementation pathways.

Towards the Circular Economy – Vol 1 (main sections)

Contents / main sections. The volume is organised around: Executive summary, then five main parts: (1) The limits of linear consumption, (2) From linear to circular, (3) How it works up close, (4) An economic opportunity worth billions, (5) The shift has begun.

Executive summary (Vol 1)

Central message: a linear “take-make-dispose” model faces structural pressure (resource constraints, price volatility, and loss of embedded value), and a circular model is positioned as a value-preserving alternative enabled by design, reverse cycles, and new business models.

1) The limits of linear consumption

This section frames the economic and physical limits of a system based on cheap virgin inputs and short utilisation cycles, highlighting how value leakage accumulates when products are underused and then discarded rather than maintained, reused, or recovered.

2) From linear to circular

Here the focus is on the structural shift: circularity requires design choices and operating models that maintain materials in use, supported by collection and reverse flows, and business model changes that incentivise longevity and recovery.

3) How it works up close

The volume uses case examples to show circular mechanisms in practice (e.g., product design for longer use, component cycles, and recovery pathways), emphasising system design rather than end-of-pipe recycling alone.

4) An economic opportunity worth billions

This section quantifies the scale of potential value capture as circular strategies reduce virgin input needs and preserve embedded material and manufacturing value—framing circularity as a major economic opportunity rather than solely an environmental measure.

5) The shift has begun

The volume positions circularity as an emerging transition, supported by enabling trends and early adoption signals, and suggests the shift is practical where business incentives align with recovery and utilisation improvements.

Towards the Circular Economy – Vol 2 (main sections)

Contents / main sections. Vol 2 uses the same top-level structure as Vol 1: Executive summary, then (1) The limits of linear consumption, (2) From linear to circular, (3) How it works up close, (4) An economic opportunity worth billions, (5) The shift has begun.

Scope emphasis: Vol 2 is commonly associated with applying circular logic to high-volume consumer categories (e.g., fast-moving consumer goods), demonstrating how circular strategies can apply even where product lifecycles are shorter—by redesign, packaging/material choices, reverse systems, and new delivery models.

Executive summary (Vol 2)

Core message: circular approaches can be designed into consumer-facing systems through material choices, system incentives, and reverse logistics—shifting the objective from “better waste management” to system redesign that prevents waste and keeps value circulating.

Chapters 1–5 (Vol 2)

Vol 2’s chapters mirror Vol 1’s logic but apply it to a context where scale, standardisation, and system coordination (e.g., collection infrastructure and product/service redesign) are decisive for circular outcomes.

Towards the Circular Economy – Vol 3: accelerating scale-up across global supply chains

Positioning and collaborators. This report is framed as a collaboration with the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company and targets the practicalities of circular value capture in global, multi-tier supply chains, including persistent leakages and how partners can address them.

Contents / main sections. After the executive and benefits sections, Vol 3 is structured around: (1) Benefits and limits/accelerating a proven concept/case examples/economic opportunity, (2) Why act now, (3) Leakage points, (4) Solutions, and an action-oriented continuation.

Executive summary (Vol 3)

Key propositions include:

• Circular supply chains exist and can scale globally, with economics shaped by raw material prices and reverse-cycle costs; enabling trends include urbanisation and tracking/treatment technologies.
• Supply chains are the unit of action: the report describes a global conveyor-belt pattern and highlights the need to address leakage points and barriers (e.g., dispersion, complexity, lock-in).
• Materials formulation and “pure” flows matter: complexity and proliferation of materials make recovery harder; reorganising and streamlining purer material flows is positioned as a route to profitable reverse cycles.

1) Benefits of a circular economy (Vol 3)

The report reiterates the scale of opportunity and the way circular models can disrupt linear flows through design, service models, and recovery methods—while emphasising that scaling requires supply-chain-level coordination and standardisation.

2) Why the time to act is now

This section highlights mounting pressure on resources and the alignment of enablers that reduce the cost and friction of reverse cycles and tracking—making scale-up more feasible.

3) What are the leakage points?

Leakage is explained through:

• geographic dispersion (materials spread across locations and actors),
• complexity/proliferation (harder sorting and recovery),
• linear lock-in (systems built around one-way flows).

4) What are the solutions?

The report groups solutions around:

• setting up reverse networks,
• reorganising for purer material flows,
• innovating business models focused on demand and utilisation,
• starting with materials stock management and flow quality.

» Completing the Picture – How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change

Core climate claim. The policy-aligned documents state that renewable energy and energy efficiency address about 55% of emissions, while the remaining 45% relates to how products and food are made and used, and can be reduced through circular strategies.

Contents / main sections. The report is structured around: Executive summary, then (1) The challenge, (2) The opportunity, (3) Food, (4) Built environment, (5) Goods, (6) Mobility.

Executive summary

The executive summary positions circular economy strategies as a climate mitigation lever for the “product and food” share of emissions, and sets up the sector pathway approach (food, built environment, goods, mobility).

1) The challenge

This section frames the climate gap that cannot be solved by energy transition alone, linking it to material extraction, production systems, and linear consumption patterns.

2) The opportunity

It describes how circular strategies—applied upstream—reduce demand for virgin materials and avoid emissions embedded in production and disposal, establishing the logic for sector chapters.

3) Food

Food systems are addressed through strategies that reduce losses and waste and redesign production/consumption loops, connecting material flows and biological cycles to emissions outcomes.

4) Built environment

The built environment chapter focuses on materials-intensive assets (buildings and infrastructure), highlighting lifetime extension, reuse, and construction system redesign as routes to reduce embodied impacts.

5) Goods

For goods, the emphasis is on utilisation, durability, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, and recovery systems that preserve embedded value and reduce the need for virgin production.

6) Mobility

Mobility is treated as a system where shared and service-based models, asset utilisation, and design choices influence material throughput and related emissions.

» Universal Circular Economy Policy Goals

Purpose. This document proposes five universal policy goals to reduce fragmentation and help governments and business align around a common direction of travel, with measures applicable across contexts.

Contents / main sections. The publication includes: Executive summary, Chapter 1 (why goals and why now), Chapter 2 (goals and example measures), a section on how goals interconnect, plus endnotes/acknowledgements.

Executive summary

Key points include:

• Circular economy is framed as an economic model that is resilient, distributed, diverse, and inclusive, and addresses root causes of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
• It is positioned as broader than waste management and recycling, emphasising upstream and systemic change.
• It calls for alignment around common policy goals to scale innovations and lower transition costs for business.

Chapter 1 — establishing universal goals for scale

Chapter 1 explains why the transition needs to accelerate and why aligned goals reduce fragmentation in a globalised production/consumption system; it highlights the circular economy’s role in addressing the “remaining 45%” emissions share and wider environmental pressures from extraction and processing.

Chapter 2 — goals and example policy measures

GOAL 1 — Stimulate design for the circular economy.
Policies are framed around upstream design and innovation to eliminate waste/pollution and enable circular flows.

GOAL 2 — Manage resources to preserve value.
Emphasis is on business models and systems that keep products/materials at highest value (repair, sharing, resale, remanufacturing), enabled by Goal 1 design approaches.

GOAL 3 — Make the economics work.
The goal targets economic signals (costs, taxes, incentives, procurement rules) so circular options become competitive and scalable.

GOAL 4 — Invest in innovation, infrastructure, and skills.
This focuses on enabling infrastructure (collection, sorting, reverse logistics), innovation capability, standards, and skills needed to implement circular systems.

GOAL 5 — Collaborate for system change.
It frames circular transition as cross-actor coordination—across value chains, sectors, and jurisdictions—supporting shared standards, data, and multi-stakeholder governance.

» Circularity Indicators — Project Overview

Why the indicators exist. The overview states there was no established way to measure how effectively a company is transitioning from linear to circular models; the project addresses this by providing product- and company-level indicators plus a tool.

Indicator set.

• Main indicator: the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI)—measuring how restorative material flows of a product/company are (0 to 1).
• Complementary indicators: optional risk and impact indicators (e.g., scarcity, toxicity, energy use, CO₂) to reflect priorities and trade-offs.

Intended uses. The overview lists use in product design, internal reporting, procurement/investment decisions, evaluation/rating, education, research, and policy contexts.

Information needed to compute MCI. The overview explains that MCI inputs cover: virgin vs recycled/reused inputs, utility during use phase (lifetime/intensity vs industry average), end-of-use destination (landfill/energy recovery vs collection for recycling/reuse), and recycling efficiency; it notes a detailed bill of materials is needed.

» Circularity Indicators — Methodology (key methodology sections)

Product-level methodology. The methodology defines the product MCI as a measure of how much linear flow is minimised and restorative flow maximised, combined with a utility factor reflecting how long/intensively the product is used compared to an industry average.

Core construction of MCI. The product MCI is constructed from three characteristics:

• mass of virgin raw material used,
• mass of unrecoverable waste attributed to the product,
• a utility factor accounting for length and intensity of use.

Linear vs circular extremes. The methodology describes “fully linear” (all virgin feedstock, ends in landfill) vs “fully circular” (no virgin feedstock, fully collected for recycling/reuse, 100% efficiency) and places real products between 0 and 1.

Open-loop allowance. It explicitly notes the methodology does not require a closed loop; recycled feedstock can be sourced from the open market.

Calculation approach. The method defines MCI based on the Linear Flow Index (LFI) and a function of the utility factor, including adjustments to avoid negative values for highly linear products with below-average utility.

Utility factor detail. Utility is built from lifetime and functional units (intensity), and the methodology discusses how changes in industry average affect MCI and why this encourages continuous improvement.

Intelligent Assets — Unlocking the Circular Economy Potential

What the report is about. The report connects digital transformation and the Internet of Things to circular economy outcomes, asking how connectivity can enable effective material flows and keep products/components/materials at highest value, and how embedding circular principles in smart systems can amplify the opportunity.

Useful definitions.

• IoT: networked connection of physical objects (as used in the report).
• Intelligent assets: physical objects that can sense, record, and communicate information about themselves and/or surroundings.

Value drivers (circular + digital). The report links circular value drivers (extend use cycle, increase utilisation, loop/cascade through additional cycles, regenerate natural capital) with intelligent asset drivers (knowledge of location, condition, availability), framing IoT as a kind of virtual infrastructure for asset flows.

Scope of examples. It discusses opportunities across electronics/equipment, energy infrastructure, buildings, food systems, and smart cities, and presents the work as part of a collaboration (Project MainStream).

Data governance and collaboration needs. The report highlights the need for new rules of the game around data circulation, compatibility, and IP, and notes expert views that companies may need to shift toward more open, collaborative data platforms, while addressing privacy and security concerns.

10) Delivering the Circular Economy — A Toolkit for Policymakers (high-level structure)

Purpose and positioning. The toolkit is designed to help policymakers translate circular economy principles into actionable policy pathways, including framing, diagnosing opportunities, selecting interventions, and sequencing implementation.

ReSOLVE action set. A key organising concept is ReSOLVE—a set of action types commonly presented as: Regenerate, Share, Optimise, Loop, Virtualise, Exchange—used to structure policy and business interventions that move systems toward circular outcomes.

How it supports implementation. The toolkit provides structured guidance and examples for policy measures, governance, enabling infrastructure, and the transition design process, aligning with the broader “design-led, system change” framing in the other publications.

Adaptation Notice under the EMF Framework for Circular Economy

This text has been adapted in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the EMF Framework for Circular Economy. In our efforts to ensure transparency, accountability, and alignment, we have carefully reviewed and incorporated the EMF Circular Economy Framework into the content. This adaptation process reflects our commitment to high-quality, accurate, and ensuring that the information presented adheres to an internationally recognized framework.