The circular economy as a tool for achieving environmental sustainability

Abstract

Human well-being is closely related to the health and sustainability of the environment. People need clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, and places to live free of toxic substances and hazards. There are many problems that hinder environmental sustainability, including environmental pollution from industrial production, carbon emissions and waste; inappropriate waste management; economic interests and disclaimers by companies and governments and individual behaviour and consumer habits. All these problems require systemic solutions and global coordination between governments, businesses and the public to ensure environmental sustainability and the preservation of natural resources for future generations. Thе publication analyses the concept of environmental sustainability and the circular economy as an approach to achieving it, as well as the relationship between increasing carbon dioxide emissions and the number of world populations.

Circular Economy in Mountain Value Chains: The Case of Three PDO Cheeses

“…It is a "multi-level system" [6] that functions in a closed loop of energy and material flow. However, connecting CE to existing business is challenging, as it requires collaboration between all the actors, drastic changes in practices and perspectives at the production and consumption levels [2].…”

“…Thus, this extends the time taken to adopt innovative practices and achieve the transition towards sustainability and CE. This is explained in [2], where such a transition is challenging to achieve without the necessary infrastructures and technologies.…”

“…The linear system of production used in business models places high pressure on the environment in terms of continuously extracting new resources for production and exacerbating externalities like biodiversity and ecosystems losses, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and climate change in the process [1]. The associated negative environmental impacts, especially climate change and the rapid growth of the world's population, are pushing policy makers and organizations to adopt a sustainable production model [2]. With the creation of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, emphasis was placed on circular economy, specifically in political decision-making [1].…”

“…This could provide more op-portunities for the workers to find better jobs connected with the value chains (VC) [5]. CE promotes innovation as well, through the development of new technologies aimed at reducing the environmental impact [2].…”