A new survey, titled The Tipping Point: Building Trust in the Circular Economy, identifies clear key drivers for a change to circularity.
”The linear economy is embedded in all walks of life. Truly going circular will require significant disruption and a fundamental rethinking of economic models,” the survey says. The focus on quality, transparency and validation will be fundamental for this. Otherwise, consumers and people in general won’t be part of a potential shift. Nor will they contribute if there are no financial and economic incentives – the probable key to public adoption of circular behaviors.
A critical hurdle is a global collaboration: ”Transforming the economy is necessarily a global project. Individual companies or even countries can build a certain degree of trust, but scaling the circular economy requires industry-wide collaboration, both on platforms and technologies, and on creating a common language and agreed rules of engagement.”
These are the key findings of the global study, published by the British Standards Institution in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. The research includes a literature review, one-to-one in-depth B2B interviews and a multi-market, multi-sector opinion poll.
For a long time, the prevailing economic model has been ”use and discard.” The researchers are convinced that it doesn’t have to be this way: ”While the economic and environmental logic of the circular economy is compelling, its widespread adoption hinges on a critical factor: trust.”
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This Insight is based mainly on a multi-market opinion poll of 8,225 consumers aged 18 and over. They expressed significant concerns around adopting circular products, the top areas that are prompting hesitation being quality (56%), safety (51%) and reliability (49%). Furthermore, 32 percent cited a lack of trust in environmental claims as a barrier, with 59 percent believing a recognized label would build their trust.
Cost savings was for 68 percent a strong driver, followed by the creation of “positive environmental impacts.” Evidence can build trust in circular products. When making purchasing decisions, consumers will consider evidence of quality and reliability (56%), safety and hygiene (40%) and sustainability (34%). The researchers suggest companies build trust on five pillars:
- Assured performance and quality
- Transparency and traceability
- Verification and certification
- Harmonization through standardization
- Secure and ethical data management
The whole study is available for download: Tipping Point: Building trust in the circular economy
