The Role of Digitalization in the Circular Economy

Various challenges, including climate change and the consumption of natural resources have favored the emergence of new demands and tendency in the evolution of industries. Among them, the concept “circular economy” which involves a transition from a traditional production model, with linear consumption, to a circular one, by closing the consumption loop, with the reduction, reutilization, recycling, recuperation, efficient use of materials and resources used in production and distribution processes. Organizations’ adoption of digital solutions (artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud technologies, autonomous-collaborative robots, Internet of Things, digital work platforms, etc.) can stimulate the changeover from a linear to a circular economy model. This chapter tries to identify the role and the way in which the implementation of digital solutions can support organizations in their changeover towards a circular economy, respectively towards the implementation of practices characteristic to the circular economy (designing processes in order to reduce generated waste, reduce water and material consumption, reduce energy consumption, use renewable materials/energy and reduce pollutant emissions, green packaging and distribution, inclusion of environmental factors (air, water, soil) in the internal performance evaluation system, customer awareness, etc.).