Transforming the system
The transition towards a circular economy is often approached through products, materials, technologies and business models. We design products for longer lifetimes, improve repairability, develop new recycling technologies, use secondary raw materials and search for business models that keep resources in circulation. All of this is necessary. But it also reveals one of the fundamental challenges of circular transformation: no single organisation can become circular on its own.
Circularity is a property of systems. Materials, products, information, knowledge and resources move between organisations, sectors and territories. Companies depend on suppliers, customers, infrastructure, regulation and markets. Municipalities and public institutions shape the conditions under which circular solutions become possible. Science and research generate knowledge and innovation. Civil society organisations and citizens contribute experience, practices and perspectives that may not be represented by economic actors. Politics creates rules, incentives and long-term direction. Circular transformation emerges from the interaction of all these actors.
This is where Circular Ecosystem Thinking begins.
A Circular Ecosystem brings together actors that can contribute to a shared Circular Objective. They do not need to have the same interests, resources or responsibilities. They may cooperate in one area and compete in another. What connects them is their potential contribution to circularity. The ecosystem therefore does not simply reproduce an existing supply chain or stakeholder network. Its boundaries are defined by the circular transformation we want to achieve.
This changes the perspective. Instead of asking only what an individual organisation can improve, we can ask what the system needs in order to become more circular. Which actors are already contributing? Which actors or capabilities are missing? Where are materials or resources being lost? Where does knowledge fail to travel between actors? Which regulations support circularity and which ones unintentionally prevent it? Where can new technologies create possibilities, and where is the challenge not technological at all, but organisational, political or social?
Circular Ecosystems make these relationships visible.
They also make it possible to work with transformation without pretending that complexity can simply be eliminated. The ecological and economic transformation ahead of us is complex because our systems are interconnected. Climate, resources, biodiversity, production, consumption, social conditions, competitiveness and political institutions cannot be transformed independently from one another. The task is therefore not to reduce transformation to one perfect solution. It is to develop structures through which different actors can contribute to shared objectives while retaining their different roles, interests and capacities.
This is the field of Circular Ecosystem Management.
Circular Ecosystem Management is concerned with identifying, developing and managing the conditions that allow circular ecosystems to emerge and function. It starts with a clear Circular Objective and explores the system around it: actors, relationships, resources, knowledge, incentives, conflicts, dependencies and existing circular activities. It looks for what is already there, for the doorways through which transformation can begin, and for the missing connections that prevent circular potential from becoming systemic change.
The quality of relationships is therefore as important as the individual actors themselves. Circular ecosystems depend on the ability to exchange knowledge, negotiate interests, create trust, distribute responsibilities and develop shared capacities. Governance becomes central. So does transparency. And so does the question of power: who defines the objectives, who participates in decisions, whose knowledge counts and who benefits from the transformation?
Circular Ecosystem Management consequently connects circular economy with questions that reach beyond resource management. It connects innovation with governance, economic development with ecological limits, competitiveness with cooperation and technological change with social and political transformation. It also asks how policy can create the framework within which circular ecosystems can develop, rather than expecting individual companies or consumers to carry the responsibility for systemic transformation alone.
This perspective does not reject competition or economic growth. It asks more precisely what kind of innovation, competitiveness and economic development can contribute to circularity within ecological and social boundaries. Circular ecosystems can create new forms of value creation, new partnerships and new markets. At the same time, they can help identify areas in which cooperation is more effective than isolated optimisation. The challenge is to understand where competition drives circular innovation and where shared infrastructures, standards, knowledge or political frameworks are necessary to make circularity possible at all.
Circularity also requires Circular Literacy: the capacity to understand cycles, interdependencies, consequences and one’s own position within a larger system. This applies to companies and political institutions just as much as to citizens. A circular society cannot emerge only through better waste management or more efficient products. It also requires the ability to understand how our decisions are connected and how different actors can contribute to maintaining ecological, material, economic and social value.
Circular Ecosystems can therefore become a practical bridge between Circular Economy and Circular Society. They provide a level at which large transformation goals can be translated into concrete relationships, projects, experiments and decisions. They connect top-down frameworks with bottom-up innovation. They connect policy with practice. And they create spaces in which actors can learn how to transform systems together.
This website is a growing space for exploring and developing this approach.
Over time, it will bring together short videos, podcasts, courses, practical tools, cases, insights, literature and recommendations around Circular Ecosystem Thinking and Circular Ecosystem Management. Some contributions will introduce fundamental concepts. Others will explore concrete questions of ecosystem design, actor mapping, governance, Circular Objectives, Circular Literacy, innovation, policy and transformation. Practical cases will show where circular ecosystems already exist, where they are beginning to emerge and where important connections are still missing.
The aim is not to present another finished management model for a transformation that is, by definition, still unfolding. It is to develop a way of seeing, analysing and working with circular transformation that is systemic enough to acknowledge complexity and practical enough to act within it.
Because the central challenge is no longer simply whether we know that transformation is necessary.
The challenge is how we organise our capacity to make it happen.
