1. Home
  2. Studies
  3. How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?
Sarah Lichtenthäler / Adriana Neligan in Intereconomics External Publication 31. March 2023 How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?

A low-carbon economy could be more readily achieved by improving resource efficiency and thinking in cycles. Consequently, we need a new understanding of economic activity and an alternative approach to raw materials.

to download
External Publication
How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?
Sarah Lichtenthäler / Adriana Neligan in Intereconomics External Publication 31. March 2023

How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?

to download Quote

Copy the information

The link was added to your clipboard!

Share this article:

or copy the following link:

The link was added to your clipboard!

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

A low-carbon economy could be more readily achieved by improving resource efficiency and thinking in cycles. Consequently, we need a new understanding of economic activity and an alternative approach to raw materials.

This requires the increased integration of alternative materials – for example secondary raw materials – into the value chain. The efficient use and recycling of materials and energy as well as the substitution of certain raw materials also play a crucial role for Europe’s industry.

The concept of a circular economy is strongly integrated in the European growth strategy, the European Green Deal (European Commission, 2019), and is seen as a prerequisite for achieving targeted climate neutrality by 2050. The European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan (European Commission, 2020) pushes regenerative growth and provides the framework for sustainable products, services and business models. The design and circularity in production processes, in particular, forms a critical element.

The transition towards a fully functioning circular economy is only in its early stages, both at the national and at the European level. The circular use of materials in the EU, i.e. the proportion of total material input that is recovered and fed back into the economy as secondary raw material, is about 12% (Eurostat, 2023). Yet, there is great potential arising from a circular economy: in addition to higher resource efficiency, a functioning circular economy can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Enkvist and Klevnäs (2018) see mitigation potential in the recycling of materials, efficient use of product materials and new circular business models to reduce annual industrial emissions in the EU alone by 56% by 2050. The concept of a circular economy is also becoming increasingly relevant for the alignment and success of corporate strategies. Besides ecological effects, a true circular economy offers economic potential, for example in the form of increased value creation or employment. According to Deloitte and The Federation of German Industries (2021), this could lead to additional gross value added of €12 billion annually until 2030.

The objective of this study is to identify strategies and measures that can transform current business models into circular business models based on the available literature and quantify them through a unique data set using a company survey.

to download
External Publication
How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?
Sarah Lichtenthäler / Adriana Neligan in Intereconomics External Publication 31. March 2023

How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?

to download Quote

Copy the information

The link was added to your clipboard!

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

Share this article:

or copy the following link:

The link was added to your clipboard!

More on the topic

Read the article
How high are the raw material potentials through urban mining?
Sarah Fluchs / Adriana Neligan IW-Report No. 2 16. January 2023

Urban mining for a circular economy: How high are the raw material potentials through urban mining?

Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce, one reason being that significantly more natural raw materials are currently being mined and processed worldwide than Earth can provide over the same period.

IW

Read the article
Sarah Fluchs / Carmen Schleicher IW-Report No. 68 22. December 2022

The material metabolism of North Rhine-Westphalia

The current use of natural resources exceeds planetary limits and thus endangers the resilience of the Earth's ecosystem. The growing consumption of raw materials and the resulting increase in waste and emissions constitute a long-term threat to the ...

IW

More about this topic

Content element with id 8880 Content element with id 9713