As more and more companies present themselves and their products as sustainable and circular, systemic problems such as poor working conditions, unfair distribution of profits and wasteful consumption patterns can undermine the EU’s quest for a fair and truly circular economy, according to a new report published on 1 December.
Written by Circle Economy, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, the report aims to launch the debate on what truly sustainable business and trade models are, focusing on gaps in the textile and electronics sectors. It makes the following recommendations:
– ensure that circular business models replace existing linear ones, rather than just creating new forms of consumption, by using macro level resource targets and indicators to demonstrate performance;
– prioritise wellbeing and fairness rather than growth as the primary objective in new and existing business offerings;
– increase supply chain transparency on both environmental performance and supply chain ethics, e.g. through the introduction of product passports;
– integrate due diligence into Europe’s circular economy agenda, including the Sustainable Products and Empowering the Consumer for the Green Transition initiatives;
– guarantee design for repair and reuse and regulating obsolescence and strengthening the market for reuse and repair services;
– ensure equal access to circular products and services by using economic incentives and pricing mechanism to avoid circular products being labelled as luxuries;
– enable circular and socially responsible procurement – public and corporate procurers should simultaneously pursue environmental and social impact criteria in purchasing contracts.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/2KNy4jW (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)