Does circular economy performance lead to sustainable development? – A systematic literature review

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 293; p. 112811
• Main Authors: Panchal, Rohit, Singh, Anju, Diwan, Hema
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Circular economy; Evaluation; Indicator; Industry; Metrics; Sustainable Development; Evaluation; Metrics; Circular economy; Performance; Sustainable development; Indicator
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112811

The paper provides a systematic literature review to investigate whether circular economy (CE) performance in the technical cycle will contribute to the sustainable development. Two academic databases, namely Scopus and Web of Science were used to retrieve research papers which span over the period 2000–2019. The research articles were classified according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) addressed, industries involved, key areas of CE, pillars of sustainability, CE principles (R-Imperatives and Systems perspective), type of cycle in CE, and transversality (generic, product-specific and sector-specific). The review highlights various research gaps concerning the proposed classification. The research gaps will provide new emerging areas to the CE and will help to align the CE performance with the SDGs. •Indicators can evaluate the Circular Economy (CE) performance of studies.•CE performance can lead to sustainable development.•Major contribution of CE performance is to SDG12, SDG7, SDG9, SDG6, SDG8 and SDG11.