Sustainability in Action

By 2030 10.5% of the World Will Have Achieved Circularity

The circular economy is a key sustainability strategy to fight against climate change

LONDON, Oct. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The circular economy is a key sustainability strategy being adopted by world and industry leaders in their fight against climate change. While the circular economy is still in its infancy in terms of data and metrics, there are indicators that it is a growing phenomenon and tech industries, such as IoT for asset tracking, are set to grow rapidly in the next five years. Global technology intelligence firm ABI Research forecasts that the world will achieve over 10.5% circularity by 2030, as sustainability efforts and incoming legislation start to take effect.

"The circular economy is an often-misunderstood concept that goes much further than waste management and can become a blueprint for cities. It is a movement away from our take-make-waste economy to one which designs out waste, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates natural systems. Circularity concepts such as remanufacturing, reuse, and the sharing economy will be critically enabled by smart cities technologies such as IoT, AI and digital twins," explains Lindsey Vest, Smart Cities & Smart Spaces Research Analyst at ABI Research.

There are many different current and upcoming governmental actions that are expected to increase circularity across the world. In particular, the EU has released the Circular Economy Action Plan as a part of the Green Deal and China recently released their 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for Circular Economy Development, which will accelerate its adoption.

This is in addition of organizations such as the globally recognized Ellen MacArthur Foundation, dedicated to educating and connecting companies and governments around the world on the circular economy and C40 cities, whose members make up 25% of global GDP and are continuing to champion the circular economy and encouraging its growth. Furthermore, many different tech companies are engaging in circular concepts such a Vodafone's NB-IoT platform for monitoring water systems to prevent waste and Cityzenith's Digital Twins platform which helps companies design out waste in their projects