A Transition Management Methodology Framework towards a Circular Economy in Industrial Contexts: Reflections on the Humber Region scenario

Industrial activities are responsible for most of the use of natural resources and the generation of waste. 50% of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the production of materials and products. The circular economy (CE) has been established as a model that can change the way we produce products by cycling back materials as a route toward the recovery of waste. Implementing projects efficiently using resources in a system can be helped through governance tools that evaluate and facilitate a transition. The Transition Management (TM) framework can be used as an analytical approach that contributes to governing such transition. This framework aims to influence, facilitate, stimulate, and organise processes that contribute to the transition towards a circular model. The objective of this study is to analyse how the transition to a CE is developing since the emergence of industrial symbiosis (IS) in the Humber region. The study seeks to describe the main features that allow the region to make progress towards a CE, whether there are some stakeholders essential to this process, and to analyse whether the activities initially implemented are still relevant to transition towards a CE. The region was examined through a qualitative case study. The case was constructed and analysed through two types of data: documents and interviews. The document review included desk research of the Humber region to establish an understanding of CE strategies. The semi-structured interviews were carried out with stakeholders providing insight into how this region approaches CE as well as the activities that are currently taking place. The data was analysed under the TM theory approach. This was done through the MAXQDA software for qualitative and mixed methods research. The data collected gave an overview of how the industrial strategies used to operationalize IS in the Humber Region are transforming towards a CE system. The results would serve to refine the TM methodology framework by understanding the dynamics of this context that might help to frame the process conditions needed to transition towards a CE system through IS.