The integration of circular economy with sustainable consumption and production tools: Systematic review and future research agenda

Circular economy (CE) has become worldwide an effective pathway for sustainable development against the linear model. Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) tools have been identified either as booster of circularity and as supporter for the achievement of sustainable development goals. Environmental Management System (EMS), Green Public Procurement (GPP), Ecodesign Directive, Ecolabel, Energy Label and Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) have been considered either by academic and practitioners as tools useful to promote CE. Although the attention on SCP tools and CE has growth, no studies have investigated the linkages between these two topics. To bridge this gap, the aim of this study is to provide a literature review on the integration between CE and SCP tools. The revisited material consisted of 455 studies and was evaluated using a systematic approach. By critically analysing 35 papers, the study identified EMS and Ecodesign as the tools with the highest level of integration with CE, while the other tools seem to be characterized by a "stand-alone" approach. However, the in-depth analysis of the results highlighted that there is still room for improvement of scholars' contribution on the integration between SCP tools and CE. We identified three main areas for future research agenda in order to spur further academic and technical debate. The first major area concerns the role of EMS in increasing organisations' circularity; The second main area includes Ecodesign Directive and ETV in the design and manufacturing processes of the products; the third main area focuses on GPP, Ecolabel and Energy Label in driving greener consumption by setting products' circular criteria. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.