Explore the ethics of the circular economy and its alignment with sustainability. While the circular economy aims to redefine growth and benefit business, people, and the environment, it sometimes falls short of societal goals. An ideal circular economy should prioritize social well-being and can be measured using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs cover people, prosperity, planet, peace, and partnership, addressing poverty, health, education, environmental responsibility, and more. By adopting ethical circular economy principles, we can achieve the SDGs and create positive impacts in economics, ethics, and the environment. Smiling at the possibility of a sustainable future.
Are the principles of the circular economy truly in alignment with sustainability, or could it be incomplete?
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines a circular economy as one that aims to redefine growth in a restorative and regenerative way. It is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials, decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It is a resilient system that is good for business, people and the environment. Ellen Macarthur Foundation's three key principles for the circular economy are eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerating nature.
While it has been gaining traction as a sustainability strategy, circular economy theory sometimes falls short of its societal goals. Examples of circular economy in practice do not always produce broad, socially desirable outcomes.
Our linear economy today leaves billions of people behind in terms of health, prosperity, and access while harming the planet. You can also imagine a perfectly circular economy, as currently put into practice by many organizations, that resolves all the planetary environmental impacts, but can still leave billions of people behind.
The ideal circular economy should be intentionally and proactively designed to maximize social wellbeing, for everyone on the planet – I prefer to call this the ethical circular economy.
But then the question then is, how do we measure social wellbeing? Who gets to decide? This is where ethics comes into the conversation.
We can all debate different ethical frameworks at the individual or community levels based on personal or cultural value systems, norms and practices, and probably disagree on what wellbeing means.
Or, we can use a globally accepted ethical framework – the sustainable development goals, or “SDGs.” If achieved in any substantial measure, they would put the vast majority if not all of humanity on a substantially sustainable trajectory.
The 17 SDGs focusing on the 5 Ps – People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace and Partnership – start by focusing on people with poverty, hunger, health, education and gender equality; and their basic needs - clean water, sanitation and energy; followed by prosperity through economic opportunity - work and economic growth, innovation, infrastructure and reduction of income inequality, sustainable cities and supply chains; then planet environmental responsibility on climate, water and land; and completed with strong institutions founded on peace, justice and partnership.
The SDGs were developed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janiero in 2012. The 17 goals were aspirational global goals to be achieved by 2030, and were agreed to by 193 countries, with experts defining 169 targets and 232 indicators. 10 of the goals directly drive social impact, and 7 directly drive environmental impact.
A circular economy would directly affect SDG 12, but an Ethical Circular Economy, if done effectively, would impact all 17 SDGs.