The sustainable development and the circular economy have become two important issues for the future and competitiveness of enterprises following the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The sustainable development integration programmes with industrial operations include the changes in production processes to reduce their impact on the natural environment, development of new ecological products, and redesigning of the business model.
Circular Economy
Current trends indicate the need to transform the current economy from a linear approach into a circular economy (CE).
Products, materials and raw materials should remain in the economy for as long as possible. Solid waste generation should be minimised to the most possible extent. Solid waste – if it is generated – should be treated as secondary raw materials.
The major stakeholders, i.e. the government, economic operators as well as the entire society face the key challenge to build a new economic system. Furthermore, the actions to be taken should cover all the stages of the product life cycle and should focus on priority areas.
Research problem:
As a consequence of the above explanations, the main research problem concerns the change of management methods in conformity with the goal of the circular economy. In particular, that would include the issue of changes resulting from the 4.0 revolution in production and consumption, such as for example in relation to the first area personalisation of production, and e-commerce that affects product decisions. The study addresses the general assumption that factors that determine the transformation of the model of the current linear economy into a circular economy at the level of consumers and enterprises. This leads to the following research question: what systemic and institutional solutions support the change of doing business in accordance with the principles of circular economy?
As part of the presented nodal problem, four issues (research tasks) are identified regarding the transformation of social and economic life into a circular economy, which are partial answers to the research questions posed.
Those tasks are:
- Designing the Circular Economy Process Management System.
- Designing a certification system for solid waste treatment in the circular economy.
- Optimisation of packaging in the context of circular economy.
- Systematising visual communication for the purpose of packaging environmental labelling.
