Building a Circular Future

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The book Building a Circular Future offers insight into the similarities and differences in global governance of the circular economy. For this transition, all partners involved (companies, governments, non-governmental organisations) must be willing to cooperate, otherwise this change cannot be implemented.

Urgency

Our existing consumption and production patterns are not sustainable. Every year we consume more than the earth can supply. In 1970 the population needed the equivalent of one Earth; today we need about 1.75 Earths.

To solve these problems, we need to move away from this linear economy and transit to a circular economy. And while the number of circular initiatives has recently been increasing worldwide, their implementation is still in the early stages. For this transition, all partners involved (companies, governments, non-governmental organisations) must be willing to cooperate, otherwise this change cannot be implemented.

International interviews

While writing the book, Cramer absorbed a lot of information from twenty lively interviews, where interviewees spoke freely about the problems they encounter in managing circular economies and how these problems can be explained.

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The book was developed in collaboration with Holland Circular Hotspot and is the sequel to the book How Network Governance Powers the Circular Economy. This book – based on Dutch experiences – was published by Amsterdam Economic Board in 2020. In this, Cramer shows how network management can accelerate the circular economy. There will also be an undiminished need for this in 2022, for example in chain transitions.

Publication

Read Jacqueline Cramer’s publication “Effective governance of circular economies: An international comparison” in Journal of Cleaner Production, April 1, 2022 here.