Labor Market Aspects of Transformation: The Case of Different R-Concepts of the Circular Economy

Sustainability transformation is a multi-dimensional and comprehensive approach covering various aspects, environmental, economic, and social, and transformation itself. To give direction to sustainability action, sustainable development goals (SDGs) play an essential role. Even though SDGs are comprehensive and give orientation for sustainability actions, they neither cover the solutions to be implemented nor quantify the transformation. In this regard, circular economy (CE) is a useful approach when it comes to finding possible solutions. Within the context of CE, life cycle thinking plays an essential role, and tools, such as environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social LCA (sLCA), are widely used. Another important aspect that should be considered within CE is the labor market effects. The labor market will strongly be shaped by CE and the implementation of CE depends on labor market conditions. Yet, means to meaningfully measure the labor market needs and impact of CE are still missing. This chapter takes a closer look into how labor market assessment and life cycle thinking can be combined in order to implement sustainable industrial transformation.