A book to guide you through the game-changing opportunities of the circular economy, creating value whilst avoiding cost and complexity…
A Circular Economy Handbook
How to build a more resilient, competitive and sustainable business
NEW EDITION – COMPLETELY REVISED AND RESTRUCTURED
‘The third edition of A Circular Economy Handbook is a powerful contribution to the global circularity agenda. Drawing from a wide range of practical examples and strategic frameworks, it connects the dots between ambition and implementation.’
Matthew Fraser, Director, Circularity Gap Solutions, Circle Economy Foundation
AVAILABLE NOW FROM THE PUBLISHER OR YOUR FAVOURITE BOOKSELLER
How can we find a way through to a future that’s better for people, planet and prosperity? It can be difficult to think about the long-term when the headlines focus on trade-wars, geo-economics and resource pressures, whilst a never-ending stream of supply-chain disruptions creates headaches for businesses in every sector around the world.
Seeing the bigger picture
But when we look around, it’s clear that the business landscape has changed, for ever. We’re no longer a small population on a seemingly limitless planet, with endless new horizons where we can discover more resources, new markets and cheap labour. Now, we’re a massive population on a resource-constrained planet. Business-as-usual is a race to the bottom, undermining the foundations of society, and threatening the liveability of our home planet. We can see things changing rapidly, all around us. What seemed impossible, is already here.
Modern business is locked into a system of self-sabotage: growing revenue by selling more stuff, to more people every year is using up finite resources and causing massive levels of pollution and destruction. It’s now clear that the exponential growth of production and consumption – take, make, use and dispose – is the root cause of our interlinked global crises: climate, biodiversity, pollution and ill-health.
Incremental improvements are not enough
To survive and thrive means rethinking business strategies, to focus on resilience, relationships and resource productivity. Our aim is to do better, with less: providing products and services that create value for everyone, whilst significantly reducing resource consumption, pollution and waste.
Succeeding also means avoiding the missteps that don’t create value and, instead, increase cost and complexity. These are highlighted throughout the book, which calls out false solutions and explores circularity’s challenges, criticisms and complexities.
Circular approaches help businesses create value for everyone
The circular economy is an essential tool for future-fit businesses, enabling them to thrive and make crucial sustainability improvements. The 3rd edition pinpoints how successful companies and disruptive startups are finding ways to do better with less – putting systemic, strategic circularity at the core of their business models to build deeper, longer-term value while staying within planetary boundaries.
How to buy
A Circular Economy Handbook is available worldwide, in paperback (420 pages), e-book or Kindle, from your local bookstore or online booksellers.
Get 25% off when you buy direct from the publisher Kogan Page, using the discount code KOGANPAGE25. Kogan Page ships worldwide (free shipping to UK and US) and offers an e-book/paperback bundle: two for the price of one!
Early praise for A Circular Economy Handbook
‘Catherine Weetman provides multiple and nuanced insights into the business opportunity of the circular economy. Her wide-ranging research and important skills of synthesis and exemplification make this new edition perhaps the most valuable – and certainly most readable – guide to a circular economy available today.’ Dr Ken Webster, Visiting Professor, Cranfield University, Fellow of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
‘In response to an ever-growing set of goals, themes and voices, the circular economy has been undergoing a gradual evolution, and this handbook provides a sharp snapshot of all the things you should know about the circular economy today. It allows circular economy practitioners to explore and engage with circular business models from various entry points on their own terms, drawing both on Catherine Weetman’s vast understanding of the circular economy and her humility and genuine curiosity in learning from and understanding the people that are trying to make the circular economy work out in the world.’ Tim Forslund, Senior Lead, EU Circular Economy Resource Centre & Circular Economy International Programmes, Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra
‘Catherine Weetman’s third edition is an indispensable resource for the next generation of business leaders. It provides a visionary yet practical roadmap for redesigning our economy, making it the perfect companion for the Applied Circular Economy course I teach at Harvard. The significant new content on digital enablers like AI and blockchain, alongside deeper explorations of customer behaviour and a just transition, captures the field’s rapid evolution. Weetman provides a comprehensive, insightful, and highly actionable framework that is perfectly attuned to the complex challenges and opportunities facing businesses today.’ Manuel Maqueda, CEO, Bionomia Institute
‘The third edition of A Circular Economy Handbook is a powerful contribution to the global circularity agenda. Drawing from a wide range of practical examples and strategic frameworks, it connects the dots between ambition and implementation. As someone deeply involved in measuring circularity and identifying system-level levers for change, I find it an essential resource for anyone working to move beyond awareness and accelerate real progress toward a more circular and resilient economy.’ Matthew Fraser, Director, Circularity Gap Solutions, Circle Economy Foundation
‘For new business models centred on outcome-based services, we believe it’s crucial to start with the customer value proposition design, exploring ways to ‘co-create’ new value for the provider, user, customer and the wider circular economy. This new edition draws out the many benefits, and the importance of clarifying those for all involved.’ Iain McKechnie, Director of Strategic Partnerships, The Advanced Services Group, Aston Business School
‘As the discussions on circular economies become more intense, the new edition of Weetman’s A Circular Economy Handbook is a timely contribution to help practitioners work through the different aspects of becoming more circular. In particular, the book’s concise overview of some of the materials-related challenges to greater circularity is welcome, reflecting as it does the growing recognition of the importance of this aspect – there is no transition to an equitable low-carbon, resource-efficient society without materials. The new edition situates materials in their environmental, social, economic and, of extreme importance nowadays, geopolitical context in a thought-provoking and informative manner.’ Dr Colin Church, CEO of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining
‘The third edition of A Circular Economy Handbook provides an indispensable guide for navigating one of the most pressing challenges of our time: how to transition from a linear to a circular economy in the face of global uncertainty. As trade disruptions, tariff threats and intensifying economic competition reshape markets, the strategies outlined in this book are more relevant than ever. The book underscores that no company can succeed in isolation – collaboration across international value networks is essential to enable circularity at scale. Particularly timely is its focus on material choices: with critical minerals now at the centre of geopolitical flashpoints, the role of design and using secondary materials becomes not just an environmental imperative but a strategic necessity for businesses.’ Dr Patrick Schröder, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House
‘Working on circularity in Africa in the last decade has highlighted the importance of a just and fair transition to a global circular economy; Catherine Weetman shows why a new paradigm of circularity and systemic change is essential to solve the climate and biodiversity crisis and move towards more sustainable models of production and consumption. Developing further original frameworks for understanding circular concepts as well as highlighting the new thinking of others, Weetman delves deeper into how to move from theory to practice, with chapters on circular business model and strategy design and an extensive collection of real-world examples from both the Global South and the Global North. Essential reading for all who care about our collective future.’ Peter Desmond, Co-Founder, African Circular Economy Network
‘A more sustainable future depends on circularity at many levels, from communities to the economy as a whole. In this new edition, Catherine Weetman helps business navigate critical risks and sets out the compelling benefits of a circular industrial economy, which opens the door to a performance economy.’ Dr. h.c Walter R. Stahel, founder and director of the Product-Life Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
‘Let’s be honest, the circular economy only works if customers and citizens are on board. That’s what’s so great about Catherine Weetman’s third edition of A Circular Economy Handbook – it completely gets this. It’s packed with practical advice on how to create circular experiences that people will actually want to use, making it much easier to encourage new habits. For business leaders serious about making the circular economy a commercial reality, this book is required reading.’ Loïc Le Fouest, Customer Experience Practice Lead, Clarasys
‘This book excellently outlines both the macro context and key influencers affecting our planet and business models, with the practical solutions and actions we can use to solve them. The additional focus on behavioural interventions, key principles and systemic levers to accelerate change found in this edition is a relevant and timely build on what is already a fundamental playbook on circularity.’ Bronwen Rees, Community and Programme Manager, Design Council
‘Clear, and inspiring — Catherine Weetman demonstrates (again and in great detail) how circular economy strategies can unlock value, reduce systemic risks, and future-proof any business. This is the go-to guide for leaders who want to move beyond sustainability talk and embrace real transformation.’ Fabrice Sorin, Head of Research and Education, Circulab
‘Catherine Weetman’s book shows how circular strategies turn sustainability into real-world wins—safer, more resilient, lower-cost economies. In healthcare alone, circular strategies are already delivering; regulated device reprocessing is cutting costs, waste, and emissions while bolstering supply chains. Practical solutions like these are exactly what executives need to accelerate progress across sectors, and Weetman is bringing them all together in one practical playbook.’ Daniel J. Vukelich, President and CEO, Association of Medical Device Reprocessors
‘This third edition of Catherine Weetman’s A Circular Economy Handbook offers SMEs and their partners a much-needed compass through the complexity of circular transitions. It combines clear frameworks with re-al-world cases that help businesses move from aspiration to ecosystem-wide flourishing. A timely and practical guide for anyone serious about systemic change.’ Christoph Hinske (Saxion UAS), Doctoral Researcher (Economics & Management), Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology; Lead, Research Line Ecosystem-Wide Flourishing, FactorX Book Series (Routledge)
‘Catherine Weetman’s A Circular Economy Handbook not only provides hands-on tools and compelling real-world examples on how to develop and implement successful circular solutions but provides hope and inspiration on how we can reimagine the current economic system into one that is more fair, just and sustainable. It is well worth a read for practitioners and policy makers alike.’ Pia Heidenmark Cook, NED, Senior Advisor, Author, Former Group CSO at Ingka/IKEA
Chapters include:
Introduction: three myths hold us back, rethinking strategies to succeed with circular
PART ONE – WHAT IS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY?
Circular economy: an overview – the concept, context, key schools of thought
Strategies and business models – how to do better, with less
Specifications: designing products for circularity – guiding principles
Specifications: safe, sustainable materials – better, healthier choices
Systems and structures – customers, value chains, software and platforms
Enablers: tools for thinking and design – evolving approaches, priorities and mindsets
Enablers: technologies – AI, blockchain, the internet of things and more
Accelerators: campaigns, collaborations, policies and legislation
PART TWO – WHY IS IT NEEDED?
Drivers for change – interconnected and complex challenges
People’s priorities are changing – mindsets, values, drivers and demographics
PART THREE – HOW IS IT TAKING SHAPE AND CREATING VALUE?
Business models and value propositions – the Circular Business Model Canvas
Strategy #1: Endurance – repair, resell, refill, as-a-service and subscriptions
Strategy #2: Intensity – extract more value from every molecule
Strategy #3: Revival – recover and restore value from end-of-life products
PART FOUR – MAKING THE TRANSITION
Unlocking change – customers, communication, creating the right conditions
Making the business case – creating a compelling case for change
About the author
Catherine Weetman spent several decades working on efficiency, risk management and strategy at big corporates, creating solutions to complex problems – which often meant challenging the status quo.
Increasingly, Catherine became concerned about environmental issues, realising that by helping companies get better at selling yet more stuff people didn’t really need, she was also part of the problem. Feelings of deep discomfort and guilt sparked her quest to get to grips with all the underlying issues, root causes and potential solutions.
In 2015, when Catherine was helping businesses find the ‘sweet spot’ between sustainability and business success, publisher Kogan Page approached her with an invitation to write the first edition of A Circular Economy Handbook.
Catherine says, ‘A lot of the discourse around the circular economy focuses on ‘circular materials’ – for example, using recycled materials, replacing plastics with bio-based materials, or expanding waste management and recycling. I saw a need to help students and people in business cut through this, and see why circularity must go bigger and bolder, tackling both the systemic challenges we face and avoiding false solutions that risk creating more problems than they solve.’
‘My aim was to unpack the concept, bring it to life with a wide range of concrete examples from different sectors, and provide frameworks to guide people through the practicalities of embedding circularity into the heart of business strategies. I want to show how circular business models, products and services can create deeper long-term value for a wider range of parties, whilst helping to reduce negative impacts – in short, unlocking ways to do much better with much less.’