Urbanisation and climate change are urging cities to chart novel paths towards sustainable futures. Many cities are turning to the alluring ‘circular economy’ (CE) concept to guide this redirection. The CE concept re-imagines how flows of resources moving through economies might be ‘closed’. Here, we explore this new ‘circular city’ agenda by asking: How are cities adopting CE as a strategy?. We f

With an increasing population, a growing middle class and increased resource use, our current ways of living and doing business are unsustainable. Next to the implementation of innovative technology, sustainable development based on innovative business models, better understating of customer needs and behavioural change are crucial. This research aims at combining principles from both sustainable

In the face of growing sustainability challenges, pressure on businesses to decouple environmental impacts from growth is mounting. New sustainable business models can be a systemic driver for change in industry and the wider business innovation literature suggests that strategic design approaches can be at the heart of business model innovation. One such approach, service design, involves solving

The aim of this article is to explore how ecodesign dilemmas contribute to a firm's ecodesign evolution. The article achieves this through empirical research into a process of ecodesign decision-making in a single firm. The study spans a timeframe of nine years. The article describes how recognising and dealing with ecodesign dilemmas fuels cycles of learning, leading the firm towards business mod

While the terms Circular Economy and sustainability are increasingly gaining traction with academia, industry, and policymakers, the similarities and differences between both concepts remain ambiguous. The relationship between the concepts is not made explicit in literature, which is blurring their conceptual contours and constrains the efficacy of using the approaches in research and practice. Th

Purpose: To mitigate negative human-induced impact on the planet, consumption patterns need to be changed urgently. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies can drive sustainable consumption patterns. Design/methodology/approach: The paper discusses six illustrative cases of sustainable consumption initiatives by companies: their strategies, initiatives and impacts. Findings: A “b

This research paper shows how a firm pursues innovation activities for economic, social and environmental value creation in the context of time sensitivity. We make a conceptual link between lean startup thinking, triple bottom line value creation, and organizational capabilities. The case study firm uses a novel experimentation approach to pursue the goal of diverting all of its sold clothing fro

As smartphones are being replaced at an increasing rate, it becomes more and more important to find ways to reuse (parts of) existing phones. This research investigates the potential of selling refurbished smartphones using a quantitative study. An online survey was conducted questioning 250 respondents, in which the perceived consumer risks and benefits associated with refurbished phones were inv

The transition within business from a linear to a circular economy brings with it a range of practical challenges for companies. The following question is addressed: What are the product design and business model strategies for companies that want to move to a circular economy model? This paper develops a framework of strategies to guide designers and business strategists in the move from a linear

Companies aiming to be 'sustainability leaders' in their sector and governments wanting to support their ambitions need a means to assess the changes required to make a significant difference in the impact of their whole sector. Previous work on scenario analysis/scenario planning demonstrates extensive developments and applications, but as yet few attempts to integrate the 'triple bottom line' co

Consumer goods contribute to anthropogenic climate change across their product life cycles through carbon emissions arising from raw materials extraction, processing, logistics, retail and storage, through to consumer use and disposal. How can consumer goods manufacturers make stepwise reductions in their product life cycle carbon emissions by engaging with, and influencing their main stakeholders

Pressure on consumer goods manufacturers to develop new products with significantly less environmental impact is growing, through increased consumer awareness of environmental issues and governments setting ambitious emissions reductions targets. A strategic response to this pressure is to prepare a portfolio of innovative product ideas to meet a range of future emissions reductions targets. Howev