Circular Economy Business Models and Sustainability in Practice : Case Studies from India

Circular economy business models (CEBM) offer key opportunities to businesses, creating value and prospects for a sustainable growth and long-term prosperity. However, being an emerging approach, issues such as its development and implementation, equity and social integration, its impact and relationship with the SDGs, continues to remain under-explored, particularly in a developing country context. This study uses an exploratory method supported by case studies, to underpin above issues. Possible qualitative relationship between circular economy practices or approaches with the SDGs are explored and mapped to showcase their specific contribution towards society, economy, and the environment. Four case studies covering e-commerce, construction and textiles sectors in India are presented to showcase their potential for CEBMs. This study offers research insights on key global and select local (India) business models, which may assist organisations towards sustainable circular transformation while reducing their impact on resources and the environment. This information may also help governments and policymakers in designing appropriate circular economy policies and prioritising sectors with high circular economy transformation potential. Insights from the Indian cases show that there is a lot of scope and opportunity to innovate CEBMs, not only in the commercial sectors which provide large employment, but also in the not for profit and social entrepreneurship segment which offer huge opportunities to address social and equity concerns existing in the developing countries