Accenture research shows that leading organizations are now adopting circular economy models—decoupling growth from scarce resources and, thus, gaining a competitive edge (what we call a circular advantage).
We are rapidly approaching a point where the linear growth model is no longer viable for companies. This is due to the rising global affluence, the inability of many nonrenewable resources to keep up with demand, the strained regenerative capacity of renewable resources, and the threatened planetary boundaries.
For businesses and its top executives, responsible for setting the direction of their firms, this leads to one inescapable situation: continued dependence on scarce natural resources for growth exposes a company’s tangible and intangible value to serious risks.
We believe that the answer lies in a circular economy—where growth is decoupled from the use of scarce resources through disruptive technology and business models based on longevity, renewability, reuse, repair, upgrade, refurbishment, capacity sharing and dematerialization. This will lead to companies gaining a circular advantage—driving both resource efficiency and customer value, and delivering at the heart of a company’s strategy, technology and operations.
In this detailed report, Accenture identifies five new business models, 10 disruptive technologies and five enabling capabilities critical to capture the circular advantage.