The transition to circular economy models is a big challenge for enterprises, since it forces them not only to change established supply chains, pay extra attention to the quality and durability of manufactured products, develop schemes for the collection and subsequent disposal of products that have worked out their life, but also actively develop eco-innovation activities and participate in R&D more actively. The aim of this work is to study examples of the implementation of circular business models from the leading EU-based companies. The focus of the research on European companies is due to the fact that the European Union has been implementing a plan for the transition to a circular economy since 2015. In order to track the nature of applied eco-innovation in the field of CE the case-studies from the leading EU-based companies have been analysed. The choice of the companies is determined by their commitment to the CE principles and availability of the obtained results in their annual reports. The case-studies have shown all reviewed companies demonstrated beyond average commitment to the principles of CE in all aspects (sayings, doings and materiality). Their strong adherence is determined by their intense environmental impact and leading positions at regional and global markets.

Contrary to the advanced countries, heat energy sector in Russia hardly embraces radical innovations. Moscow heat supply system, the most innovative comparing to that of other Russian cities, is no exception. It focuses on incremental innovations while lagging in radical innovations in cogeneration, trigeneration etc. The paper considers the reasons for such a situation, compares Russian and European heating markets and corporate strategies, provides recommendations for supporting the innovative development of Russian heating companies. vol. 8, no 3, heat generation; heat supply; power generation; open innovation; labor productivity; knowledge managementThe paper was prepared within the framework of the project «Establishing the system of tools for the embedding outputs of industry S&T forecasts into the preparation and revision of the Russian Long-term S&T Foresight», supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (a unique identifier of research work RFMEFIC CC14X0002).*

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