From Circular Economy Disclosure to Circular Transformation: A Case Study From Food-Producing Companies

The article ‘From Circular Economy Disclosure to Circular Transformation: A Case Study From Food-Producing Companies’, written by Patricia Ruffing-Straube, Prof. Dr Ute Merbecks and Prof. Dr Inge Wulf, was published in the Early View edition of ‘Business Strategy and the Environment’ by Wiley.

Abstract: "Changing the use of resources and the treatment of waste is an important driver towards sustainable development. While this includes transformation of production processes, it also requires the transition of complete business models towards more circularity. Assessing and understanding drivers towards such transformations of business models are the focus of this paper. Therefore, a grounded theory–based content analysis is performed centring around the reporting requirements in European Sustainability Reporting Standard E5 on circular economy and resource use. Following the theory of targeted transparency, sustainability disclosures of large European food-producing companies are analysed to infer information on their way towards a circular transformation of business models. The findings show that firms report on circular economy, but that most disclosures inform stakeholders on the transformation of production processes. Only some firms provide substantial information on the circular transformation of their business models. The findings suggest that circular economy requires a systems thinking perspective that considers the whole value chain to induce effective transitions of business models towards circularity. Future research should aim at supporting firms in their transition and identify barriers to reduce."