Sustainable Business Through Circularity: A Practical Framework for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Europe

This chapter provides high-level guidance on how European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can transform themselves into more sustainable businesses through the adoption of circular economy (CE) principles. SMEs struggle to turn themselves into sustainable businesses, mainly due to limited resources and insufficient technical expertise in designing and implementing sustainable practices, products, and business models. While the CE allows SMEs to grow sustainably in a profitable way, introducing circular practices and products adds more complexity to already significant existing challenges many SMEs face. SMEs require simple low-cost solutions, based on clear principles shaping effective pathways, and easy-to-use frameworks and practical tools that help to reduce complexity and increase the chances of achieving a successful transformation. As a central part of the CE toolbox, the authors of this chapter propose the Sustainable Circularity Framework (SCF)—a practical and easy-to-use assessment, planning, and management tool specifically tailored to the needs of SMEs that are in a transformation toward business sustainability, or plan to do so. The SCF assists SMEs in their efforts to make their businesses more sustainable through the adoption of circular thinking. The underlying idea is to design and implement steps following circular economy (CE) principles to support achieving specific UN (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, the SCF aims to empower SMEs to contribute to the acceleration of the CE as a means for achieving national, regional, and global SDGs.