Watch the webinar replay here, or scroll down for a summary and a preview.
Are you ready to eliminate the risk of greenwashing from your circular economy strategies? In this webinar industry experts unpack the newly published ISO 59000 series of standards.
thinkstep-anz’s Head of Circular Economy Jim Goddin and Walter Jager, from the Canadian mirror committee on the standards, who both helped develop the standards, explain how they support businesses to implement and measure circular economy strategies effectively.
What we have learned
- Understanding circular economy:
Circular economy focuses on keeping materials in use by recovering, retaining, or adding value to resources while promoting sustainable development. - ISO 59004 standard:
Provides a common vocabulary and principles for implementing a circular economy, ensuring consistency in how it is discussed and implemented. - Six principles of circular economy:
These include systems thinking, value creation, value sharing, resource stewardship, resource traceability, and ecosystem resilience. - ISO 59004 standard:
Emphasises considering these principles early in the design process and throughout the product lifecycle, promoting transparency and risk management. - ISO 59010 standard:
Guides businesses in transitioning from a linear to a circular economy model. This involves understanding the business's economic rationale for circularity, setting goals, understanding the current model, and continuous improvement. - ISO 59020 standard
Provides a framework for measuring circularity, including selecting indicators, acquiring data, and calculating results. - Circularity indicators:
Core indicators to measure circularity include resource inflows (reused, recycled, renewable content) and outflows (reused products, recycled materials), with additional indicators for energy, water, and economic factors. Some established metrics, including the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) already use these core indicators. - Continuous improvement:
Circular economy implementation is an ongoing process, requiring regular monitoring and adjustment to improve circularity and achieve sustainability goals.
ISO-59000 Circular Economy standards Q&A
Jim and Walter didn’t have time to answer all the participants’ questions during the webinar.
Here are the answers to the remaining questions:
Question: Do you think that the ISO definitions of CE focus on circulation at all costs, or recognise that in some cases linearity may be less harmful than circularity (at least with current technologies)?
Answer: The focus of the circular economy should be on the impacts of circularity. These are the economic, environmental and social indicators that form part of the six principles in ISO59004. Circularity for its own sake is not typically what we're trying to achieve, the holistic nature of the circular economy encourages us to look for system models where circularity creates the impacts we're looking for and so is certainly not "circularity at all costs".
Q: For businesses looking to implement these standards, what are the biggest challenges that you are seeing?
A: These standards are relatively new and so feedback so far is limited. However from the businesses we have taken through the standards so far the biggest challenges have been:
- The ownership of the transition, empowering those who can make the changes to act.
- Establishing the economic rationale behind the transition.
The first of these is commonly addressed through strong leadership and clear internal communication and the second requires business case development and often the use of small-scale pilots to de-risk the transition and to develop confidence.
With regard to measuring circularity (ISO 59020), the most common challenge we encounter is identifying all of the relevant resource flows and then measuring and/or collecting the data for those flows.
Q: Are examples of measurable targets provided?
A: Target setting isn't the objective of the standards but it is certainly something that can be enabled by the standards. The TC323 working group is preparing a series of case studies that demonstrate how the standards apply. However we would expect the standards to be adopted by regions, sectors and businesses and for these to set the targets that are appropriate to them.
Q: The International Resource Panel (the IPCC for circular economy) makes it clear in their new Global Resources Outlook 2024 that we need to reduce extraction of new primary raw materials (especially non-renewable materials) from the environment in order to bring the footprint of our consumption and production within the planetary boundaries. So being more circular is not enough without also narrowing our material cycles. How do the ISO standards address this need to narrow our material cycles?
A: A fundamental driver for the use of circularity metrics is the different options for delivery (durability, reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, bio-based...) are all quantified differently. A primary function of a circularity indicator is to provide a single, common metric that applies to all of the available options to enable comparison and selection. The new ISO standards include all of these available options including "supply led" solutions such as recycling and "demand led" solutions such as reuse, remanufacturing and product durability - which operate to more fundamentally decouple from the need for new materials and narrow the flow of materials.
Narrowing primary non-renewable resources and reducing damage to the environment is a key objective of the ISO 590XX standards and is captured in the ISO 59004 principles under resource stewardship and ecosystem resilience.
ISO 59020 supports these principles by specifying a set of circularity indicators that capture the circularity of resource inflows -- the primary, non-renewable portion needs to be reduced. The indicators provide a snapshot of relative circularity performance. Measurements over time can then be used to track absolute narrowing of the primary, non-renewable material flows. The working group that developed 59020 investigated opportunities to measure absolute reduction in primary, non-renewable materials but there is no consensus yet on how to do this in a general manner without introducing biases that would be suitable for an International Standard. We expect that organisation or product-appropriate metrics will be used. Once a general approach reaches consensus, it will be incorporated into the International Standard.
Q: Many organisations have started their journey in circularity with Ellen MacArthur Foundation. How aligned are the two approaches? Are there key differences we should be aware of?
A: The Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is one of the indicators that we know already complies with ISO 59020. The indicator uses all of the mandatory core indicators and one of the optional core indicators to quantify the level of circularity in the product or business. This is perhaps unsurprising given the role of the EMF and other authors of the MCI methodology in developing the standards.
Q: Could application of the standards lead to certain resources not being used in the first place, staying in the ground, due to low stocks and high risks?
A: The standards put an emphasis on using resources that are already within the economy instead of extracting new materials and bringing them into the economy. So, certainly, this is one possible outcome. In the case of critical minerals, we may not be able to escape use completely, but by adopting a "demand led" circularity mindset and keeping products in use for longer and enabling reuse and remanufacturing, we certainly stand to limit the quantity of these materials we need to extract to the minimum required. This in turn should open up opportunities to extract what we do need in a more sustainable and ethical way.
Q: And ISO26000 where is the social indicators in this so it aligns with the Doughnut?
A: The ISO 59000 standards incorporate the principles and methods from ISO 26000, ensuring that circular economy initiatives also consider social responsibility and sustainability aspects, including the seven core subjects of environment, human rights, labour practices, consumer issues, organisational governance, fair operating practices and community involvement and development.
Q: How does the ISO 59020 interact with the ISO 14001 - Environmental Management Systems?
A: ISO 59020 outlines the requirements and guidance for organisations to measure and assess their circularity performance. This includes the collection and calculation of data using circularity indicators, which can complement the environmental performance indicators specified in ISO 14001. Additionally, ISO 59020 references ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 for life cycle assessment (LCA), reinforcing the importance of assessing environmental impacts throughout the product lifecycle. This linkage is well established and is why the leading LCA software packages were the first to adopt the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) originally proposed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2015. Indeed compatibility with LCA, particularly in terms of data, closely informed the development of the MCI.
Q: Can manufacturing processes rather than products be assessed?
A: The ISO 59000 standards cover processes as well as products and provide a framework for measuring and assessing circularity that applies to both. It sets out principles for boundary setting, circularity measurement, data acquisition, assessment and reporting.
Q: Has any consideration been given to inter-operability with other standards / guidance e.g. GRI?
A: ISO 59020 interacts with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards through its complementary methods, enabling organisations to measure and assess circularity performance while aligning with established sustainability reporting frameworks. The GRI standards are globally recognised for sustainability reporting, and their use alongside ISO 59020 facilitates comprehensive sustainability and circularity assessments.
ISO 59020 includes guidance on applying additional methods and frameworks that can complement circularity assessments. These include established standards such as ISO 14025, ISO 14040, and ISO 14044 for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which are relevant to GRI's environmental performance indicators. By integrating these methodologies, organisations can ensure that their circularity metrics are robust, verifiable, and comparable with broader sustainability reports.
Q: Containers for the product especially plastic. Need to use only recycled plastic containers? Thinking around food safety standards.
A: Actions taken to improve circularity need to be done in the context of ensuring that regulatory requirements, including safety of food contact materials, are met. The options for circularity covered by the standard are not limited to recycling. Safety can also be considered alongside different circularity options when assessing circularity under ISO 59020. The objective is to design a circular system that fulfils the requirements and these need to be determined early by the business, usually during the conceptual design stage, and then revisited throughout the design and deployment process.
Q: What tools can do this analysis that covers the core indicators based on the ISO standards?
A: At a product or business level, the established tools that can calculate circularity according to ISO 59020 include those that rely on the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) methodology or the Circular Transition Indicator (CTI) methodology. The MCI can be found in most Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools, including Gabi, Simapro, OneCLickLCA and OpenLCA. MCI has also been adopted by some product passport systems, such as Madaster and you can also download a free tool from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website:
The CTI is available in a bespoke tool developed by Circular IQ although the documentation for the tool recognises that the CTI isn't a substitute for LCA tools and may be more suitable for the design stage of projects.
Q: I know these standards are new, but how is the feedback from business & industry?
A: The standards have been hotly anticipated by those working in the field and so far the feedback has been very positive. We're currently working with a number of businesses and accrediting bodies who want to use and align with the standards.
Q: Regarding Industrial Symbiosis, do you think it is a concept included in the circular economy framework, or an extension? Considering the importance of system expansion for effective sustainable development, do you think that combining companies' flows in complex ways will result in significant results in the long term?
A: Industrial symbiosis (IS) is explicitly included as a core concept in ISO 59000. ISO59010 provides detailed guidance on industrial symbiosis and the standards provide examples of how IS can be included. ISO 59020 includes industrial symbiosis under the Interorganizational system level for circularity measurement and assessment.
IS can be a highly beneficial model where it materially reduces the need for consumption of resources. As with all circular systems however, we are encouraged to ask "what happens next" and to ensure that the products we produce have a circular solution waiting for the end of their use. This may include ensuring that products developed from waste streams can be readily recycled or that sufficient knowledge over chemicals content is captured to comply with future regulations that might prevent reuse.
Q: Does the ISO standard include guidance on reporting data quality (completeness and accuracy?)
A: Data quality is an important aspect of ISO 59020 and detailed requirements for setting and documenting data quality to ensure transparency and verifiability are provided. These include context and application, data sources, modelling choices and data ownership.
Q: Can you explain the statement that “Circularity does not come at all costs” An example would be good. If we do circularity properly then the costs and impacts will be by definition acceptable?
Jim: Additional to Q1: We need to be careful in differentiating between "circularity" and the "circular economy" The first is a measure of the decoupling of a system from the consumption of non-renewable resources and the production of waste. The second encompasses the benefits of that decoupling, including environmental, economic and social benefits. It's possible to make virtually anything circular, the standards call for us to focus on the holistic benefits that circularity delivers and to optimise the system so that circularity delivers the benefits we seek.
Q: For conducting LCAs, is there a particular tool that you would recommended for best practice?
A: Most LCA tools already include ISO 59020-compliant circularity metrics through the adoption of the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI). Because the core indicators in ISO 59020 use the same data as an LCA, calculating circularity is a relatively low-cost addition for anyone already planning an LCA. If you're not at that stage yet, we have designed a free tool that is simple enough for most users to calculate their circularity, evaluate options quickly and start to design their transition.
Q: Has the standard looked at how to balance the competing challenge of using recycled material vs low carbon materials? Often recycled materials can be more carbon intensive. Big challenge for the industry to get their heads around how to get this balance right.
A: It can be difficult to reconcile circularity and carbon footprint and you're correct that recycling can sometimes be hard to justify on CO2 terms. The standards encourage us to look at the system and its alternatives holistically and to understand how to reconcile these metrics by considering the wider system that exists and the different stakeholders that influence the model. It's often important to understand not just what the optimum system is today but what it will be in the future. As we decarbonise our energy and transportation some linear systems that favour landfill based on carbon footprint will cease to be the optimum. The standards encourage us to consider how these tipping points can be accelerated by working with our value chains so that circularity and a low-carbon future are compatible.
Q: How do the standards suggest to avoid that (future) Circularity is claimed during the design phase but not executed at end of life? Especially when upholding Circular principles requires regular maintenance, which may not be done as diligently as required?
A: ISO 59020 mandates the use of realistic and conservative estimates that are based on actual data to avoid overstating potential circularity. This includes documenting assumed future recycing rates alongside historical data and justifications for any assumptions that have been made. If poduct-specific data is unavailable and industry average figures are used, then a conservative approach should be adopted that doesn't overstate the potential. We would also encourage assessments to be revisited throughout the lifetime of the product so that assumptions can be tested against reality to verify whether the indended circularity is being realised and whether any corrective actions can be taken to enhance circularity further.
Q: We do LCAs for buildings, does the same standard applies to circular design of the building?
A: Yes and we expect to start seeing the standard being referenced by building certifications soon. One of the advantages being that circularity metrics can be calculated at a building level as a function of the products they contain. This not only aids procurement but the reporting of circularity at a whole-building level.