India is making serious efforts to make the circular economy a major tool for urban development. The circular economic system uses resources again and again, multiple times. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this decision in post-budget webinar speech, in 2023. The circular economy presents an economic approach focused on minimizing/eliminating wastage while promoting the optimal use or complete reuse of resources. India ranks seventh globally in Solid Waste Generation (SWG).
The present rate of SWG in India is 0.34 kg per capita per day, which is expected to increase to 0.7 kg per day by 2025. India will generate 165 million tonnes of waste by 2030.
Out of 8 million tonnes of plastic waste in the world’s oceans, the Meghna-Brahmaputra-Ganges River system dumps close to 73 thousand tons, making it the 6th most polluting river system contributing to marine plastic waste in the world. This is very shameful of our attitude.

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, renewing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended.

Vermigold Ecotech is a cleantech waste management technology company. The company designs, develops and market innovative products for organic waste composting. The company was formed to specifically address the need for an innovative and technologically sound provider of Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST). Vermigold is an on-site biological recycling automation solution that blends superior vermicomposting biology with superior technology to allow end-users to collect organic material in a hassle-free and environmentally beneficial way. It is India’s only globally accredited waste treatment technology, indicating its pathbreaking system.

The FMCG leader Unilever has an ambition to create a waste-free world, amongst other targets, the company is committed to ensuring that their packaging is recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.

At ITC, all Businesses Units are directed to ensure recycling of 100% waste generated. This not only conserves precious natural resources and energy but also prevents waste from reaching landfills, with all its attendant problems like health hazards, increase in Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG), soil and ground water contamination, etc. Circular economy also creates significant employment opportunities for the marginalised sections of society. India is well on track to become the third-largest economy in the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has highlighted that AatmanirbharBharat, or ‘Self-Reliant India’, which is a launch pad that will put India on a high economic growth path that is inclusive and sustainable. With Self-Reliant India, the aim is to make the country and its citizens independent, and the vision is firmly rooted in sustainability

Indian fashion industry has also embraced the new sense with the principles of upcycling with a fresh vigour. Upcycling is also known as creative reuse. It is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials products into new materials or products identified to be of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value. For example, ecological fashion brand ‘Doodlage’ is India’s most famous eco-friendly clothes brand which asserts 100 per cent of its collection is upcycled, recycled, and manufactured with zero-waste. Bengaluru-based ethical fashion brand Gujarat-based label ‘RaasLeela’, runs business with all-women’s team. It makes products where every design, material and process are chosen thoughtfully keeping first the environment, process, and the maker in mind. The tagline of the business is “We are not a fashion brand! Fashion is a byproduct.”

Bagasse is the fibre that remains when sugarcane juice has been extracted. This fibre is then moulded into versatile and sturdy trays, cups, spoons, food packaging boxes, and other food packaging products through a high-pressure, high-heat process.

Furthermore, the circular economy is no longer a choice for India, rather it is has become a need of the hour. With a rising population, urbanization, environmental challenges, and international commitments, shifting towards a circular economy has become imperative for India. “Be true to yourself,” has been the guiding principle of the Modi government India development agenda. If India grows without following the principle of sustainability, then the growth would be pretentious for the sake of numbers only. Therefore, India’s economic development must align with the principles of circularity, eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerating nature.

As per recent data, the European Union produces more than 2.2 billion tonnes of waste every year. It is currently updating its legislation on waste management to promote a shift to a more sustainable model known as the circular economy. To reduce waste and its impact on the environment, the EU has adopted ambitious targets on recycling and landfill and is working on packaging waste. The goal is to promote the shift towards a more sustainable model.

 In 2022, EU exports of waste to non-EU countries amounted to 32.1 million tonnes. This was a slight decrease of 3% compared to 2021. Most of the waste exported outside the EU (55%) consists of ferrous metals waste (iron and steel), which mostly goes to Türkiye. EU exported a lot of paper waste as 15% to India.

A circular carbon economy is a framework for managing and reducing emissions. It is a closed loop system involving 4Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, and remove. Saudi Arabia and Aramco have adopted the circular carbon economy framework to reduce their carbon footprints.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) performs a delicate life-sustaining function on Earth, but the dramatic increase in greenhouse gases since industrialization has emitted too much CO2 into our atmosphere. The circular carbon economy is an important concept toward managing the world’s excessive CO2 emissions. Road transport presently accounts for 12% of India’s energy-related CO2 emissions and is a key contributor to urban air pollution. As India seeks to meet the increasing demand for private mobility and the transport of goods, energy use and CO2 emissions from road transport could double by 2050.

In practice, circular economy implies reducing waste to a minimum. When a product reaches the end of its life, its materials are kept within the economy wherever possible thanks to recycling. These can be productively used again and again, thereby creating further value. It is a removal from the traditional, linear economic model, which is based on a take-make-consume-throw away pattern. This model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy.

The best part of this model is planned obsolescence, when a product has been designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage consumers to buy it again. The European Parliament has called for measures to tackle this practice. Many consumer electronics are designed to make it impossible to repair them or replace parts. Sometimes it is physically impossible because the product pieces are welded together to prevent replacement and the remains cannot be opened without breaking it. Some laptops, mobile phones and electric toothbrushes have lithium-ion batteries with a useful life of two or three years. These cannot be replaced by the owner of the device, who has no option but to buy a replacement. Also, some other examples are batteries, inkjet printers.

The circular economy is a system where materials never become waste. In the economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. This process helps to eliminate waste and pollution. Keep products and materials in use to regenerate natural systems.

The business world needs to cope with the rapidly changing sustainability landscape while balancing their financial performance and growing costs of energy and raw materials. The sustainability performance question spans diversely with academic disciplines such as human resource management, marketing, economics, accounting, tourism, operations, law, governance, supply chain and many more. Although handling a fusion of these diverse disciplines is a tough job, yet, being realistic is most important for survival of the planet.

For many of us, the meaning of sustainability remains elusive. Some equate it to environmental wellbeing while others think of sustainability as equivalent to corporate social responsibility. Let us understand this: business sustainability refers to the ability of firms to respond to their short term as well as long term performance needs without compromising on their future growth that requires the natural and human resources available in the external environment. One more fact is that the balancing of economic, social, and ecology is fragile in nature. Therefore, sustainability encompasses voluntary corporate strategies geared towards an integration of environmental, social, and economic objectives into the fabric of the organisational life (Quinn & Dalton, 2009). Let’s look at some brilliant examples of how companies are innovating.

The world’s largest shipping companies such as DHL, UPS & FedEx need to bear tons of maintenance fees for the maintenance of their vehicles, as well as the costs of oil and gasoline to keep them running. As an alternative to that, and also to cut through busy and crowded streets, each of the companies has been innovated various new delivery methods. DHL has set up couriers on bicycles in nine European countries so far, including its most recent entry in a few German cities. The company replaced 33 trucks with 33 cargo bikes in the Netherlands, which DHL estimates saves them $575,000 annually and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 152 metric tons per year. The company knew customers were asking for a “cleaner transport alternative” to the gas-guzzling trucks, and the bikes as part of clean environment solution. The efforts of DHL are highly appreciable for it aims to utilize bicycle couriers in the next few years anywhere in the world to improve their customer service and effectiveness.

Cargo bikes are also taking various forms for FedEx and UPS — each of course with the company’s standard logos and colour schemes. FedEx began piloting electric tricycles in Paris as early as 2010, and UPS expanded its use of electric Cargo Cruisers since 2012 in several European cities. Other businesses like Whole Foods and Ikea are also experimenting with delivery through bicycles.

LanzaTech is a clean-tech company that’s revolutionizing the way the world thinks about carbon waste. The company uses a bacterium for its fermentation, Clostridium autoethanogenum, which eats carbon monoxide and emits ethanol without using water or land resources. The company treats carbon as an opportunity instead of a liability. LanzaTech’s proprietary microbes capture and recycle waste gases before they are emitted as greenhouse gases, reducing harmful nitrous and sulphur oxides by over 85%. Essentially, they’re turning air into something of value. The company estimates it can apply its process to 65% of the world’s steel mills, with the potential to make 30 billion gallons of ethanol, or 19% of today’s current jet fuel demand. Kudos to this company!!!

Google’s Nest: uses a system that turns food waste into compost or that a shipping company is doing what it can to cut down on emissions, there are also companies providing you with direct ways to impact the environment yourself. One of those is Nest, the smart thermostat system that was acquired by Google in 2014. According to Nest, half of your energy bill is affected by your thermostat alone. The company estimates that by using a programmable thermostat that automatically adjusts for sleeping, when you’re awake, and other learned routines, the system can decrease by about 20%.

In India, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd is a diversified entity with turnover in excess of one billion dollars. The company has a global presence with 30 manufacturing bases spread over four continents. Through its 6700 dealers and distributors worldwide, the company has reached over 4.5 million farmers. This is world’s second largest Micro-Irrigation company. Its Micro-Irrigation Division manufactures a full range of precision-irrigation products. Jain irrigation provides services from soil survey, engineering design to agronomic support. It nurtures a sprawling 2000 acre Hi-Tech Agri Institute including a Farm Resource R&D, Demo, and Training & Extension Centre. It also undertakes turnkey projects for agricultural and irrigation development with holistic & integrated approach. Over 1500 agri and irrigation scientists, engineers and technicians are engaged in offering services for complete or partial project planning and implementation e.g Watershed Development through Wasteland Transformation, including crop agronomy, protected cultivation etc.

Their Tissue Culture Division can produce 80 million plantlets of banana at full capacity and has established matching primary and secondary hardening facilities as well as independent R&D and virology labs. Similarly, a modern Bio- tech lab equipped with all modern and state–of–the–art facilities meet the needs of continuous genetic improvement and validation program in cultivators of onion, banana, mango, pomegranate etc. They process tropical fruits like mango, banana, and pomegranates into purees, concentrates, juices and IQF products. The Dehydration Facility dehydrates onions & vegetables. The Spray Drying Unit processes gooseberry and other fruit purees into powders. The best part is that agricultural and fruit processing waste is converted into biogas to generate power of 1.6 MW capacities along with waste heat for refrigeration and soil conditioner.

Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan: Unilever in 2010 launched its blueprint for sustainable business, named the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Sustainable living brands, including Dove, Lifebuoy, Ben & Jerry’s and Comfort are integrated into the contribution they make to the world and into their products’ ingredients and lifecycle. The consumer goods giant says about 50 percent of its growth in 2014 came from sustainable living brands, which also grew at twice the rate of the rest of the business. Not only are Unilever’s sustainable living products more profitable than standard products by 2 gross margin points, these products also drive other top-line benefits, Unilever says. This purposefulness and sustainable living plan attracts and retains young talent. No wonder, Unilever is among top 3 most sought-after employers globally. About 50 percent of graduates cite Unilever sustainability credentials as the main reason for wishing to join the company.

GE Ecomagination: GE’s Ecoimagination line of products and services has generated more than $200 billion in revenues since GE started the program 10 years ago. Revenue from Ecomagination products totalled $34 billion in 2014, representing about 30 percent of total GE sales. A key success factor for Ecomagination is to reduce energy and water waste in manufacturing, Intel Corp works with GE to develop advanced manufacturing and digital optimization techniques to increase resource productivity in manufacturing.

Ikea Sustainable Home Products: This Company contributes to a more sustainable life at home for consumers. Its entire lighting range is now LED. It plans to become resource and energy independent which means helping to replace the industry with key raw materials like cotton and wood, investing in renewable energy and becoming more efficient in operations and supply chain. Ikea wants to make every product more sustainable while keeping the quality, function, form and affordability for their customers.

Conclusion: The environmental aspect of sustainability considers the impact of organisational activities on natural resource depletion, pollution and emission management, waste management, and energy and resource use among others. The social aspect of sustainability reflects on the social obligation of the organisation to the communities by managing issues such as poverty, income inequality, disease, access to health care, clean water, sanitation, education and broader societal problems that organisations are increasingly called upon to solve. Finally, the economic aspect of sustainability concerns the viability of the organisation to financially thrive in a competitive marketplace by balancing both environment and society.