Integration of methods for sustainability assessment of potentially circular processes – an innovative matrix framework for businesses and policymakers

In recent years, Circular Economy (CE) has become a popular topic on policy agendas as a promising, innovative avenue to enhance resource efficiency and economic prosperity. Thanks to a determined encouragement by the European Union, the measurement and assessment of circularity performances are starting to catch up at various levels. However, there is not yet any suitable method or assessment tool that allows to properly address the sustainability of circularity for decision-making at an organisation and government/regional levels. To find a solution to this problem, the idea of integration of methods, indicators, and assessments became popular to abate the shortcomings of single-method applications. In such a rapidly changing research environment where new attempts are being made to better assess the sustainability of circular processes, the misplaced use of assessment methods and tools has become quite an issue amongst practitioners. To address such a risk, this paper attempts to detect, through a critical literature review, which are the existing CE-based sustainability assessment method combinations proposed in the literature. Through a rigorous analysis based on the key findings from the review, we devise a set of matrices that could serve as a positioning framework to help practitioners (stakeholders, policymakers, businesses) in their selection of the right tools and methods for measuring their sustainable transition towards a CE pattern.