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A Circular Economy Handbook

How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business

Catherine Weetman

Learn how the circular economy enables businesses to thrive and make crucial sustainability improvements.

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EAN: 9781398622982

Edition: 3

Published: 03 Nov 2025

Format: 234 x 156

448 pages

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About the book

In a time of unprecedented challenges, where sustainability improvements are critical, how can the circular economy enable businesses to thrive by doing better with less?

A Circular Economy Handbook by Catherine Weetman is the essential guide for sustainability leads, consultants and strategy professionals looking to implement circular practices that deliver environmental impact, business value and long-term resilience.

Now in its third edition, this trusted resource combines practical tools, global examples and cutting-edge research to help leaders embed circular economy thinking across business models, operations and supply chains.

Grounded in the author's Circular Economy Framework 3.0 and Circular Business Model Canvas, this book enables professionals to:

- Design and implement scalable circular strategies across product lifecycles
- Align circular models with business goals, ESG targets and compliance
- Leverage technologies like AI, IoT, blockchain and digital platforms
- Understand behavioral drivers and material impacts including plastics and novel entities

With extensive examples, online resources and frameworks from industries worldwide, this handbook equips sustainability professionals to shift from linear consumption to circular value creation at scale.

Lead circular transformation that delivers resilience, innovation and measurable impact.

Themes: circular economy, sustainable business models, ESG strategy, systems thinking, digital sustainability, circular design

About the authors

Catherine Weetman helps businesses thrive by using fair, regenerative and circular approaches that are better for people, planet and profit. After training as an industrial engineer, a long career with multinational companies gave her an inside track on the complex and interconnected challenges of manufacturing, retail and supply chains. An international speaker and strategic advisor, Weetman also hosts the popular Circular Economy Podcast, with listeners in over 150 countries. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP) and a member of its Circular Economy Steering Group. She is based in Yorkshire, UK.

Catherine Weetman

- Chapter - 00: Introduction
Section - ONE: What is the circular economy?;
- Chapter - 01: The circular economy;
- Chapter - 02: Strategies and business models;
- Chapter - 03: Specifications: designing products for circularity;
- Chapter - 04: Specifications: safe, sustainable materials;
- Chapter - 05: Systems and structures;
- Chapter - 06: Enablers: tools for thinking and design;
- Chapter - 07: Enablers: technology;
- Chapter - 08: Accelerators: collaborations, legislation, finance and other levers;
Section - TWO: Why is it needed?;
- Chapter - 09: Drivers for change;
- Chapter - 10: People's priorities are changing;
Section - THREE: How is it taking shape and creating value?;
- Chapter - 11: Business Model Design;
- Chapter - 12: Strategy #1: Endurance;
- Chapter - 13: Strategy #2: Intensity;
- Chapter - 14: Strategy #3: Revival;
Section - FOUR: Making the transition;
- Chapter - 15: Unlocking change;
- Chapter - 16: Building the business case
- Chapter - 17: Glossary

Reviews

Ken Webster, Visiting Professor, Cranfield University, Fellow of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

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.

Tim Forslund, Senior Lead, EU Circular Economy Resource Centre & Circular Economy International Pro-grammes, Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra

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.

Matthew Fraser, Director, Circularity Gap Solutions, Circle Economy Foundation

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.

Iain McKechnie, Director of Strategic Partnerships, The Advanced Services Group, Aston Business School

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.

Colin Church, CEO, Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining

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.

Patrick Schröder, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House

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.

Peter Desmond, Co-Founder, African Circular Economy Network

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.

Walter R. Stahel, Founder and Director, Product-Life Institute

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.

Loïc Le Fouest, Customer Experience Practice Lead, Clarasys

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.

Bronwen Rees, Community and Programme Manager, Design Council

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.

Manuel Maqueda, CEO, Bionomia Institute

Catherine Weetman's third edition of A Circular Economy Handbook 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.

Fabrice Sorin, Head of Research and Education, Circulab

Clear, actionable 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.

Daniel J. Vukelich, President and CEO, Association of Medical Device Reprocessors

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.

Christoph Hinske (Saxion UAS), Doctoral Researcher (Economics & Management), Lappeenranta-Lahti Uni-versity of Technology; Lead, Research Line Ecosystem-Wide Flourishing, FactorX Book Series

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 real-world cases that help businesses move from aspiration to ecosystem-wide flourishing. A timely and practical guide for anyone serious about systemic change.

Pia Heidenmark Cook, NED, Senior Advisor, Author, Former Group CSO at Ingka/IKEA

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.

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.
Ken Webster, Visiting Professor, Cranfield University, Fellow of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

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