One of the major obstacles to the adoption of the circular economy is the lack of consumer interest and awareness. Despite this, the unique role of consumers in the circular economy is an understudied topic, as the literature tends to focus rather on the application of circular practices in the organizational and industrial sectors. This paper aims to examine the individual-level factors that have an influence over circular purchasing behavior. Specifically, this paper elaborates an explicative path model of purchasing circular products that takes into account environmental concern, climate skepticism, and the attitudinal factor towards circular products. The final sample consisted of 566 respondents from Romania. Our findings showed that environmental concern has a positive significant impact on circular purchase behaviour and this relationship is mediated by the attitude towards circular products. Moreover, those with high levels of climate skepticism showed an increased level of perceived greenwashing among organizations.

Currently, there are many different interpretations in the literature of what a circular economy is and how it functions. As cities are still facing challenges to become fully sustainable, the need for a comprehensive analysis of how the circular economy can be implemented in urban areas is increasing. This article aims at outlining circular cities by their key characteristics and to further explore and provide a framework for fostering circularity at the city level. In order to achieve this goal, we performed a systematic review and analyzed key papers published in the field of circular economy to determine how circular economy practices form circular cities. We discovered that cities play a focal role in facilitating the transition towards circularity through the closing of the loops, recirculation, technical innovation, policy elaboration and citizens’ support. However, city policymakers are still uncertain about how a circular city looks like and what its purpose is, as views are ranging from a strategic ambition to a niche concept of a smart city. Such uncertainty brings challenges, especially in the transition phase that many cities are in at the moment. This further implies that circular economy applied at the urban level still needs effort and innovation to successfully pass the transition phase from the linear economy. Therefore, lastly, we developed a framework model that can be adapted in other cities to facilitate their transition to circular cities.

As the world continues to urbanize, it is necessary to identify and implement new urban development models and strategies in order to meet the challenges of sustainable development. As cities continue to face challenges in becoming fully circular, the need to establish a framework to measure the circular economy in urban areas grows. Many definitions for circular cities have been developed and addressed in recent years, as have numerous indicators. To make the transition to a circular city, we must integrate the findings and develop a general definition and measurement framework. This article aims at outlining a framework for circular cities indicators based on their key characteristics, as well providing directions for fostering circularity at the city level. To accomplish this goal, we conducted a systematic review and analyzed key papers published in the field of circular economy to determine how circular cities are measured. Choosing the right indicators to use for developing, monitoring, and evaluating circular cities is a difficult task for urban policymakers, managers, and planners. This highlights the significance of standardized frameworks for urban indicators. As a result, the authors propose a framework and highlight some key points about circular cities and smart urban metabolism.

Literature so far illustrates different approaches to achieving circular economy (CE). It is increasingly important that every industry explores opportunities to transitioning towards CE doing it through process streamlining or via uses of technology to transform/exchange the resources. We recognize the difficulties faced by researchers in consolidating key aspects to CE, due to still fragmented knowledge base. To clearly identify these aspects is somewhat difficult due to the fragmented knowledge over applications of circular economy. However, any holistic approach is possible by considering the performance of the growth (in our temporal visible world) and that of innovation and creation as a result of the introspection of the temporal invisible world (thought and inspiration), in terms of three fundamental scalars in nature, mass, energy, and time transformed by natural action and human action, in order to define the circularity for any group, category, and type of product. We consider that the effect of any action should be evaluated by determining the most probable results and the dynamic of any process (using statistics), by considering the transformation of the three fundamental scalars. This article presents a consonant approach of the economy, aiming to optimize the intervention of humans in the natural environment and its performance and having the scope of the integration of the human actions in the natural cycles, to secure sustainability.

The notion of Corporate Environmental Responsibility has been extensively researched in the literature so far, but less is known about how this concept fits into the circular economy paradigm. We performed a moderated mediation analysis in order to identify the mechanism that links corporate environmental responsibility with readiness for change towards a circular economy business model. The findings from 311 respondents show that there is a positive association between corporate environmental responsibility and the readiness for change to a circular model, mediated by perceived circular economy drivers. In addition, perceived circular economy barriers hinder this positive relationship, acting as a buffer. These findings can further contribute to the elaboration of a conceptual framework for embedding circular economy in the corporate social responsibility strategies of organizations.