Paradigm challenges to adopt the circular economy

Although the circular economy (CE) concept is not new, there is growing awareness of it due to increasingly prevalent environmental issues, such as more frequent flooding around the world and increasing water and resource scarcity. Despite this, the implementation of CE concepts in organisations has been low. Research indicates that there are several barriers to CE implementation, not least at the organisational level: addressing the scale of change that the CE may require calls for substantial organisational change. This chapter seeks to discuss the paradigm shift from the current linear organisational thinking to the CE, by addressing the key determinants of organisational change. It proposes a framework for organisational change which will help to support the paradigm shift to the CE.