Measuring and Reporting Circular Economy in Business

• Climate Action
• Healthy_Environment

This report sets out indicators for effectively measuring and reporting circular economy in business.

While environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is rapidly becoming a mainstream practice for corporate UK¹, there is not yet a clear approach for businesses to report on resource use or progress in the transition to a circular economy. Several metrics and frameworks exist, but these are designed to perform different functions and, therefore, use a wide range of indicators. This makes consistent measuring and reporting circular economy difficult for businesses and harder for investors to direct money towards the most successful circular opportunities.

Many businesses are either unaware of or are overwhelmed by the complexity of metrics which deal with holistic circularity. Instead, they report against the familiar key performance indicators (KPI) of waste generated and recycling rates. However, these KPIs fail to measure true circularity in a credible way and can even be counterproductive.

Business in the Community (BITC) has reviewed measuring and reporting circular economy frameworks. We have also gathered insights from member businesses on this topic which are presented in this report. The result is a set of circular economy KPIs, derived from established metric frameworks. BITC recommends that companies adopt these at scale. The result will be consistent with organisational circular economy measurement and reporting.

About Business in the Community’s Circular Economy campaign

BITC is innovating towards a circular economy to sustain and repair the planet. Businesses must embrace circular economy solutions to reduce carbon emissions and pressure on nature.

We work with businesses along a set of key-value chains to solve problems collaboratively and enable circularity. By 2023 our ambition is to equip 60 businesses with the skills and knowledge to adopt circular principles in their procurement, increasing the demand for circular solutions.

Our Circular Economy Taskforce steers our circular economy campaign. This group of chief executive officers (CEOs) and other senior executives delivers a high-impact programme bringing the circular economy to life.

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