Go Beyond Checking the Box
Embed Circularity
with Circular IQ
Move from surface-level compliance to embedded circularity and drive real business value
Summary
Many companies treat circularity as a compliance exercise rather than a strategic opportunity, limiting its potential impact. True circularity goes beyond reporting—it requires integrating sustainability into core business operations, from procurement and product design to supply chain management; we call this embedding.
By using data-driven insights and collaboration across departments, businesses can reduce waste, improve efficiency, and enhance competitiveness. Access to accurate material composition data plays a key role in this transition, helping organizations make informed decisions that align with both regulatory requirements and long-term value creation. A structured approach that connects circularity with financial and operational metrics allows companies to turn sustainability efforts into meaningful business improvements.
Move beyond compliance — embed circularity & sustainability into your core
Too many companies treat sustainability as a separate compliance exercise—checking the box rather than integrating it into their core operations. True sustainability isn’t achieved by just “doing sustainability in a silo” but by embedding it into business strategy and daily operations.
As recent research by IBM and PwC demonstrates, the most successful companies embed sustainability into their business models, setting themselves apart from those merely meeting regulatory requirements. The same principle applies to the circular economy: reporting on circularity isn’t enough. To unlock real value, businesses must weave circular practices into their operations, supply chains, and decision-making processes.
Embedding circular principles into the core of the organization enables companies to transform the way they do business and the way they interact with their stakeholders. Living circularity principles starts by approaching suppliers to obtain the relevant data and making circular sourcing decisions. Operationally, embedding circularity means removing waste from all your processes and finding ways to recover discarded materials. R&D and product design teams benefit from a culture of circularity where they have the capabilities to create new processes and products that take the entire value chain into account and enable end-of-life strategies.
By taking this approach, companies not only ensure compliance but also unlock growth, enhance competitiveness, and mitigate risks—turning circularity into a strategic advantage.
Embedding Circularity: Value creation opportunity
Compliance-first approach
- Separate sustainability budget
- Isolated “green” initiatives
- Data used primarily for reporting
- Sustainability is cost-center
Value-creation through Embedding
- KPI's translated in role specific actions
- More data driven decisions throughout business
- Focus on value creation
- Connecting previously siloed data-systems
The Problem with "Checking the Box"
For many organizations, sustainability—and by extension, circularity—is treated as a reporting exercise with a compliance-first approach rather than a transformative business practice. This mindset leads to missed opportunities and exposes companies to increasing risks, from regulatory pressures to resource scarcity and shifting market demands.
At the heart of the challenge is our reliance on a linear “take-make-dispose” model, which is not only inefficient but fundamentally unsustainable. Businesses operating this way face growing market, operational, and legal risks as global regulations tighten and stakeholders demand greater accountability. Meanwhile, the global economy remains only 7.2% circular, highlighting how far we still have to go.
A key enabler of circularity is access to material composition data—understanding what goes into your products and supply chains. However, if this data is only used for reporting, businesses are missing a massive opportunity. The real value lies in analyzing this data, identifying areas for improvement, and activating key roles across the organization—from procurement to product design—to drive measurable change. By leveraging material insights strategically, companies can enhance resource efficiency, improve circularity scores, and ultimately generate new value.
To unlock the full benefits of circularity, sustainability cannot remain siloed within a dedicated department. It must become an integrated part of how the company operates. This requires creating or appointing roles outside the sustainability department, ensuring ownership and responsibility across key functions such as supply chain, product development, finance, and operations. When sustainability becomes a shared priority, businesses are better positioned to embed circularity into decision-making, drive systemic change, and create long-term competitive advantages.
Shifting away from this wasteful, extractive model is urgent—not just for regulatory compliance, but to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement targets. Companies that rethink how they use, reuse, and optimize resources don’t just mitigate risks; they unlock new growth opportunities, enhance competitiveness, and future-proof their business. The time to move beyond “checking the box” is now.
Circular IQ’s platform empowers companies to move beyond surface-level action, leveraging data-driven insights and a structured approach to embed circularity. Built on leading globally accepted standards and frameworks like the CTI framework and ISO 59020 and aligned with mandatory disclosure requirements on circularity as imposed by EU law (CSRD/ ESRS E5), Circular IQ helps businesses transition systematically towards a circular economy.
Our solution suite provides circularity metrics tailored to your needs, transforming circularity from a compliance challenge into a core part of your company’s identity. With the support of a dedicated key account manager, sustainability experts, and IT integration specialists, we help embed circularity into your company’s DNA.
How our software drives measurable impact
Data-collection & processing
- Automated material composition tracking
- Supplier data integration
- Real-time circularity calculations
93,7 %
tracked automatically
Analytics & insights
- Clarity on biggest risks& opportunities & key drivers
- Demonstrate link sustainability & business results
- Ability to inform mgt. & stakeholders about performance
80 %
Decision support
- Translate KPI-goals in role specific actions
- Decisions backed by data, reporting and dashboards
- Clarity on how sustainability actions & KPI’s drive bottom line
26 %
3 ways to approach sustainability
Only one approach that drives value creation
Compliance focus
- Focus on reporting and avoiding reputational risks
- Capacity and competence bottlenecks inhibit real action
- Sustainability = Cost center
Sustainability as a project
- Corporate Sustainability department reports to the C-Level, with a task force including members from business units and central functions
- Partial integration into company
- Sustainability = Cost center
Embedded sustainability
- Permanent integration of sustainability into the existing corporate governance framework
- Central management, standard setting and group-wide coordination, ensuring that group-wide perspectives are covered in the business units
- Sustainability = Value driver
Circular IQ: Your Partner in
Embedding Circularity
Circular IQ automates data collection across the value chain, reducing reliance on manual input and streamlining sustainability reporting. Our platform is configured in line with your KPI’s. Leveraging definitions and metrics from key standards like the CTI Framework, GRI, ESRS E5, ISO and others. Making compliance more efficient while significantly reducing reporting costs.
Automated Data Collection and Reporting
Combining voluntary KPI-reporting with mandatory Compliance
With Circular IQ, circularity becomes more than a checkbox—it becomes a competitive advantage. Our platform and dedicated expert support simplifies the transition, enabling businesses to embed circularity, drive impact, and unlock new value opportunities across their operations and supply chains.
Leverage the insights that Circular IQ’s software platform is providing in several areas of your organization. Cross-departmental learnings and trade-offs are a key feature of utilizing a thorough approach towards circularity. Every circularity project you complete further embeds circularity values into your business strategy. Your stakeholders (customers, suppliers, and employees) will recognize this as the genuine approach to sustainability and the circular economy.
Material Composition Insights & data accuracy
However, data gaps are inevitable, and incomplete datasets can slow progress. That’s why Circular IQ provides a dedicated Customer Success Manager who helps businesses fill in missing data points using proxy data that includes chain of custody information. This enables companies to start meaningful conversations with suppliers, collaboratively deciding which proxy values to embrace while working together to improve the accuracy and reliability of the data over time.
This approach ensures that a lack of data doesn’t stop a company from pursuing their goals. While businesses continuously refine and enhance data to drive real impact, CIrcular IQ supports them to get the most out of the proxy values, achieving a baseline assessment in no time.
Driving business value with Circular IQ
Circularity isn’t just about compliance—it’s a business opportunity. Circular IQ helps companies monitor circularity metrics, identify areas for improvement, and transition to a more circular business model that drives both sustainability and profitability.
Our platform goes beyond tracking environmental impact by connecting material flow indicators with financial metrics. This enables businesses to see how circular strategies—such as material reuse, waste reduction, and resource efficiency—translate into cost savings, revenue opportunities, and competitive advantages. By demonstrating how to create more value with fewer resources, Circular IQ helps companies future-proof their operations.
At the core of this transformation is Circular IQ’s software, which provides a structured approach to interpreting results, understanding risks and opportunities, prioritizing actions, and setting clear targets. With Circular IQ, businesses gain the insights they need to make informed decisions, optimize resource use, and unlock new growth opportunities through circularity.
How you can generate value through embedding circularity
How you can generate value through embedding circularity Sustainability leaders—known as “Embedders”—set themselves apart by integrating sustainability into their core business strategy, rather than treating it as a compliance exercise. Research shows that companies that embed sustainability into their operations experience a 16% higher rate of revenue growth and are 52% more likely to outperform their peers in profitability. Circular IQ enables companies to adopt this same approach by providing data-driven insights, fostering collaboration, and embedding circularity into daily operations.
Data-Driven Decision Making
"Embedders" use high-quality data to target sustainability efforts where they create the most impact.
Circular IQ empowers companies to do the same by transforming raw data into actionable insights, helping businesses identify opportunities, optimize material flows, and make strategic, data-backed decisions that drive circularity and long-term value.
Data as a Catalyst for Change
Circular IQ acts as a data catalyst, moving beyond reporting to activate insights, drive action, and unlock the full potential of circularity. By connecting material composition data with financial and operational metrics, companies gain multidimensional insights into their operations. As an example, a company embedding circularity would see their waste streams equally as revenue streams, they would see their old products as assets that can be marketed or they would see their suppliers as partners in an effort to decrease the use of virgin raw materials.
Collaboration & Shared Sustainability Efforts
True circularity requires engagement across the value chain—just as "Embedders" enhance business value by fostering collaborative sustainability efforts. Circular IQ facilitates data sharing between stakeholders, enabling companies to work closely with suppliers, customers, and partners to improve data accuracy, enhance traceability, and accelerate circular transitions.
Integrating Circularity into Business Operations
For companies to fully realize the benefits of circularity, sustainability must be embedded into daily operations—not siloed in a single department. Circular IQ provides the tools and insights needed to integrate sustainability across teams, supply chains, and decision-making processes. By doing so, businesses unlock the financial, operational, and sustainability advantages of an embedded circular approach.
The same principle applies to the circular economy: simply reporting on circularity isn’t enough. To truly benefit, businesses must deeply integrate circular practices into their operations, aligning with the proven success of “Embedders.” If you’re tracking the data for reporting purposes only, circularity is a cost center. If the data is used throughout the organization to make well informed decisions, it drives your profits and business success.
With Circular IQ, circularity becomes a strategic driver of business success—not just a reporting requirement.
Three things about Circularity Embedders have in common:
1
Companies that embed circular economy principles don’t necessarily spend more on sustainability initiatives. Instead, they integrate circular thinking into existing cost-saving and efficiency efforts—such as reducing material waste, optimizing supply chains, and extending product lifecycles. This approach often leads to cost reductions rather than additional expenses.
2
Rather than running standalone circular economy projects, Embedders align circularity with core business operations—rethinking product design, supplier collaboration, and maintenance strategies to reduce waste and enhance efficiency. They are more likely to see circularity as a way to drive profitability, resilience, and innovation rather than just a compliance requirement.
3
Circularity Embedders leverage data to make informed choices, measuring material flows, product durability, and supply chain impacts. By embedding circular economy metrics into standard business analytics, they make sustainability-driven decisions without treating them as separate from financial and operational goals.
embedding
circularity together
