Companies are increasingly setting climate-related science-based reduction targets to face the planetary crisis and achieve net-zero emissions. To continue growing their business while achieving their absolute environmental targets, reaching Absolute Environmental Sustainability Decoupling (AESD) becomes key. This paper defines a set of indicators to assess AESD in companies, on the basis of the literature on macroeconomic decoupling and corporate carbon performance. Each indicator is designed to be used in combination with an AESD threshold, that is, the minimum level of decoupling required based on a company's specific decarbonisation and business growth targets. The AESD indicators were identified and systematically compared using conceptual and empirical scenarios, according to a list of requirements. The results highlight that no existing indicator fully satisfies all the defined AESD requirements. In particular, results reveal large differences in how tangible the indicators appear for a company context and how accurately indicators convey the gap between decoupling performance and the AESD threshold. These findings underscore that single indicators are not enough, pointing towards the need for a set of indicators and decoupling charts to assess AESD in companies. The study contributes with new indicators to strengthen companies' strategic planning in achieving their science-based targets and better incorporate their growth objectives in their decarbonisation plans and vice versa.

As companies are increasingly committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the Circular Economy (CE) has been identified as a prominent approach for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there is currently no standardised methodology for companies to quantify the GHG reductions from specific CE strategies. This is particularly challenging for Scope 3 emissions, which often constitute the largest portion of a manufacturing company's carbon footprint, hindering effective decarbonisation efforts and investment in circular models.To address this challenge, this research presents a significant innovation: the development and validation of the Circular Scope 3 (CS3) Tool. The CS3 is a novel, operational instrument specifically designed for non-energy intensive manufacturing companies to measure and report Scope 3 emissions from CE strategies in direct alignment with SBTi requirements. The tool's design was informed by a systematic literature review consisting of 70 articles and an evaluation of 38 existing tools. After its development, the tool was tested using a washing machine case study and refined via several workshops conducted with industry experts and corporate partners. The primary contribution of this work is the provision of a replicable and robust framework that bridges the gap between CE theory and corporate climate action, enabling companies to make evidence-based decisions and prioritise circular strategies that can contribute to achieving their science-based Scope 3 targets.

The transition to a Circular Economy (CE) is promoted as a strategy for resource efficiency and sustainability, yet it can also trigger unintended rebound effects (RE) that erode expected resource and climate benefits. Existing RE assessments have typically focused on simplified efficiency calculations, giving limited attention to consumer behaviour, systemic feedback, and interactions between biological and technological cycles. This study applies and evaluates AIMRE, a System Dynamics (SD) based framework for the ex-ante identification and mitigation of potential RE, through a case study in the Danish housing sector. The case investigates the introduction of bio-based building blocks designed under dual circularity principles, combining renewable materials with modular design to enable material recirculation. AIMRE integrates structured stakeholder input with various tools such as the Rebound Effect Conceptual Framework (RECF), causal loop diagrams (CLDs), and stock and flow diagrams (SFDs) to capture adoption dynamics and motivational mechanisms. Simulation results demonstrate that while adoption of sustainable housing increases potential material efficiency, perceived environmental benefit (e.g., lower carbon footprint) and efficiency gains (e.g., faster construction) may legitimise the construction of larger homes, offsetting expected savings. Findings highlight AIMRE’s value as a co-development tool for business and policymakers alike, offering predictive insights for refining CE initiatives, advancing sufficiency strategies, and designing policies that safeguard sustainability outcomes.

The majority of sustainability efforts tend to emphasise incremental improvements rather than ensuring that society and industry operate within the safe limits defined by planetary boundaries. In contrast, the concept of Absolute Sustainability addresses the non-negotiable thresholds of our Earth's systems and explores how human activities can remain within these limits. This study presents a systematic literature review specifically focused on research that explicitly adopts the terminology of ‘Absolute Sustainability’ as a guiding philosophy, structured around three key pillars: (1) Systemic Modelling (quantifying the safe operating space and allocating shares across sectors and stakeholders); (2) Systematic Engineering (embedding sustainability principles into industrial and technological systems to tackle critical environmental challenges); and (3) Strategic Implementation (establishing the framework conditions necessary for large-scale societal transformation). Rather than reviewing the broader field of biophysical limits generally, this work synthesises 83 peer-reviewed articles from the initial decade of research specifically self-identified under the ‘Absolute Sustainability’ label. The review synthesises existing knowledge from modelling and engineering domains, identifies barriers to implementing Absolute Sustainability, and outlines directions for future research. By bridging theory and practice, this work aims to advance the discourse on how to achieve sustainability within the planet's finite limits.

ABSTRACT: Remanufacturing can be facilitated by design activities considering value creation, preservation, and recovery. Design-related decisions for remanufacturing can affect the performance of business models, but there is a lack of literature to identify these barriers or enablers. Through an analysis of selected remanufacturing cases, an initial step to bridge this gap is provided. Findings highlight the potential of design for remanufacturing for enhanced value creation processes and new service offerings, and present recurrent barriers and enablers to remanufacturing in the cases.

In the early stages of R&D projects, such as product or technology development, decision making often entails trade-offs. In the context of design for sustainability, trade-offs also include environmental, social, and circularity aspects, which must be balanced on top of more traditional requirements (such as cost, risk, and quality). Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tools can support these decisions, but it is challenging to operationalise MCDA in practice due to the uncertainty of innovation, the subjectivity of decision makers, and the complexity of sustainability and group decision-making. This study proposes a decision support tool tailored to sustainability and circularity trade-offs, which applies an ELECTRE III model and leverages the use of narratives for navigating deep uncertainties and subjectivity in group decision making. The tool, called Multiple Narrative Decision Analysis, provides a structured approach on how to set criteria, elicit weights, handle non-negotiable criteria, facilitate group decision making, and perform sensitivity analysis. It was extensively tested in manufacturing companies, following a participatory mixed-methods approach with quasi-experiments, observations, workshops, and interviews. By demonstrating the potential of combining MCDA methods and narratives, this study provides a novel contribution to theory (by advancing our understanding of the role of narratives in decision-making) and to practice (by strengthening trade-off decision making in manufacturing companies towards circular and sustainable manufacturing).

In response to growing environmental pressures, companies are increasingly required to develop comprehensive climate transition plans aligned with their science-based targets. However, a harmonized definition for these transition plans is lacking across existing frameworks, and effective corporate disclosure is still limited. This study examines 14 prominent frameworks for corporate climate transition, identifying key components that define transition plans and analysing how disclosure requirements shape expectations for corporate decarbonization. Despite variations in emphasis, granularity, and audience, the analysis finds strong convergence on core elements of transition planning. By translating over 1400 individual disclosure requests into 13 components and 38 sub-components, the study shows how frameworks increasingly demand that companies link decarbonization strategies to business planning, financial alignment, and governance structures. These findings clarify what companies are asked to disclose, offer insights to help them navigate diverse frameworks, and highlight areas where further guidance and capacity building can be found. The study contributes to academic and policy debates on implementing credible, actionable transition plans, offering insights for framework developers and regulators aiming to balance ambition with practical implementation. It also calls for further research to support companies in developing robust transition plans, ultimately advancing their contribution to global climate goals.

In response to the increasing demand for products with enhanced sustainability performance by consumers and regulatory authorities, manufacturing companies have been adopting various practices to integrate sustainability into product development. However, the effectiveness of these practices in enhancing the sustainability performance of products remains uncertain. This exploratory study investigates the relationship between the application of Sustainable Product Development (SPD) practices in manufacturing companies and the resulting sustainability performance of the developed products. Semi-structured interviews were employed as the main research methodology for exploring this link with the participation of seven manufacturing companies across divers sectors, followed by a thematic analysis. This research identifies six key critical factors that influence the products' sustainability performance: (1) customer requirements; (2) market acceptance; (3) product characteristics; (4) decision-making processes; (5) data-driven sustainability; and (6) innovation. While companies recognise the potential of SPD to enhance sustainability performance with a medium contribution, the study highlights gaps in data utilisation and the systematic application of SPD practices, which hinder the full realisation of the expected sustainability goals. Furthermore, while the cross-case analyses indicate an evidence of the positive link between the application of the SPD practices and the resulting product sustainability performance, generalisations are not possible due to limited data. For guiding companies in bridging the gap between current capabilities and desired sustainability outcomes, a conceptual model for SPD implementation is proposed.

Technological innovation plays a key role in the transition to a more sustainable and circular manufacturing industry. However, companies currently struggle to integrate circular economy principles in their strategic technology management and design practices. Assessing the potential of new technologies to contribute to the circular economy transition is challenging, due to the complex nature of circular systems and the uncertainty at the front end of innovation. In addition, there is a severe lack of technology assessment tools that encompass circularity concepts. Through action research in collaboration with a large manufacturing company, a technology assessment tool was developed, focused on environmental sustainability and circular economy. The tool leverages the simplicity of 2 × 2 project portfolio matrices in a workshop setting, while providing a structured application of future scenarios for a forward-looking technology assessment. The tool was piloted in R D projects in two manufacturing companies and a research institution. Feedback indicates the proposed tool can aid decision-making by evaluating trade-offs between environmental impacts and strategies for circular value retention.

The development of new technologies by manufacturing companies can enable more environmentally sustainable and circular solutions. However, there is a lack of tools to assess the sustainability potential of these technologies during research and development. This paper proposes a novel framework to structure and make sense of sustainability and circularity in technology development projects, relating to both value and environmental impacts. The framework was developed into a tool following the Design Research Methodology, in collaboration with a manufacturing company. The tool was tested in three case studies in manufacturing companies, indicating its broad usefulness. The technology assessment tool enables (1) a quick screening of technical solutions or concepts, (2) the definition of decision-making criteria, and (3) the detection of potential negative environmental consequences of innovative technology, especially trade-offs related to circular economy. It was shown to help technology developers to make informed decisions about the environmental sustainability potential of their innovation projects, and to identify areas for improvement.

AbstractTrade-offs involving multiple criteria that cannot be satisfied at the same time are ubiquitous in engineering design activities. Navigating trade-off decisions can be challenging, especially when it comes to sustainability-related decisions in early-stage projects. Through a systematic literature review, we unravel the challenges related to sustainability trade-offs in technology development, concept design, and other front-end of innovation activities. The challenges, which were evaluated by experts from industry and academia, range from technical and organisational to psychological aspects.

In recent decades, the pressure from regulations and consumers for products with enhanced sustainability performance has escalated the implementation of sustainability actions by companies. For manufacturing companies specifically, Sustainable Product Development (SPD) is a key approach for reducing the sustainability impacts of the developed products, across their entire life cycle. Despite the availability of wide range of management practices for SPD to support embedding sustainability into the product development process, the extent of their application by companies remains underexplored. To fulfil this gap, an industry survey was conducted to investigate the capability of manufacturing companies to apply a consolidated set of 61 SPD management practices. The overall results which comprised 20 companies across 14 sectors revealed that most of the practices are still applied at a low capability level by most companies. This result indicates a large theory-practice gap particularly in understanding the influence of the type of business, variation in capability levels across different business processes and stages of the product development that influence the successful implementation of sustainability actions in companies. Hence, stronger collaboration between the academia and industry sectors are essential to transform new knowledge into actionable strategies.

Recent decades have seen substantial increase in efforts to appease environmental challenges and to foster sustainability in business and society. As a direct result, numerous philosophies for sustainability have emerged, including Circular Economy, Sustainable Development Goals, Natural Capitalism, amongst many others. All of these are movements set to inspire, set goals, and guide towards improved sustainability performance, and as such, they can be described as a sustainability philosophy. Whilst each has its own origins and reason for emergence, plus its own target group(s), it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the philosophies apart and, therefore understand their nuanced differences. The chosen philosophies influence strategies, tools, and initiatives chosen by organisations. Particularly when these are seen from a corporate perspective, it is often difficult to know which one(s) to adopt and how to relate a company’s efforts to a particular sustainability philosophy. This study sets out to identify and review the current sustainability philosophies in an attempt to understand their origins, the similarities, and synergies between and across them and to identify gaps. By performing a systematic literature review divided into three phases, this study systematises fifteen sustainability philosophies based upon their key characteristics, such as the dominance and prevalence of sustainability dimensions, fulfilment of societal needs and integration of philosophy elements into company business processes. Additionally, it identifies patterns of geography, industry sector, and general application area to provide an overview and question the extent to which the philosophies can guide the transition to sustainability.

Although product-service systems (PSS) have been in focus in literature and industry for some years, no generically agreed or applied PSS design process exists thus far, in contrast to the neighbouring fields of product development or service design, respectively. This paper presents the evaluation and instantiation of a recently proposed generic process model (GPM) for early-stage sustainable PSS design in capital goods manufacturing companies. The model was applied in three case studies with an aim to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the GPM concerning eight criteria, and study its instantiation process actions to a company-specific model while simultaneously identifying and proposing solutions for challenges to instantiation. Based on observation and feedback received from the companies, the GPM shows promise for widespread applicability, aided by proposed guidelines for instantiating the GPM to company-specific contexts, as also described in this paper. These guidelines aim to facilitate the translation of the GPM into pragmatic models for practitioners in the field of PSS design, thus increasing its chances of successful implementation as well as impact.

Following the Paris Agreement, renewed carbon mitigation efforts have been advanced by engaging the global corporate sector towards active leadership to stabilize global atmospheric temperatures. The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is now recognized as a central vector to promote absolute or Science-Based (SB) Paris-aligned emission targets for the corporate sector. By establishing specific SB targets for each individual company or sector, SBTi allows the private sector to voluntarily engage and commit to carbon reduction efforts. Following the SBTi procedure, companies shall account for their carbon emissions according to a base year and set up ambitious SB targets to reduce their emission over time. Until now, SBTi has attracted nearly 8600 companies in more than 50 sectors accounting for a volume of 53 million tons of CO2e reduction commitments and is further attracting many more companies. However, there is now an urgent research need to understand how and in which modalities companies can realistically and credibly achieve their SBTi targets. Implementing circular economy (CE) strategies, such as recirculation of products/parts (e.g., reuse, repair, remanufacture) via long-life products or new business models, or recycling measures are highly promising to achieve the SBTi targets. Nevertheless, current approaches for calculating CE carbon reduction potentials and accounting for their performance along companies’ SBTi journey are not comprehensively represented. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the approaches for calculating carbon reduction performance for CE strategies to investigate how manufacturing companies (in particular non-energy-intensive) can account for their CE strategies’ performance to achieve SBTi targets. Our results show that while the GHG Protocol (GHGP) provides several methodologies, a few CE strategies remain uncovered, which, highlights the present need to better incorporate CE into the methodological layout for manufacturing companies engaged in SBTi.

AbstractSustainable Product Development (SPD) enables the systematic incorporation of sustainability into product development and can be achieved by implementing a number of management practices. An industry survey was conducted to investigate the capability of manufacturing companies to apply a consolidated set of 61 SPD management practices. The results indicate that despite the high interest for SPD, the uptake of SPD practices in industry is still behind the state-of-the-art literature. Hence, a greater improvement opportunity exists in the industrial uptake in SPD.

AbstractManufacturing firms are facing the critical need to manage their business growth while staying within the biophysical limits of the planet. Absolute environmental sustainability decoupling (AESD) combines these goals and is one of the keys for manufacturing firms to achieve their sustainable transition. This study offers an initial contribution to categorise decoupling at the firm level while incorporating absolute environmental sustainability goals. It also explores the role of design in achieving AESD and opens doors for further research on manufacturing firms' sustainability transition.

AbstractThroughout time, the definition of sustainability has been interpreted differently and different philosophies have consequently emerged, each with its own vision of a sustainable society. At the same time, manufacturing firms have focused on environmental improvements, but social aspects have often been neglected. This study identifies 11 philosophies and 51 product design strategies contributing to sustainability awareness, cohesion, and equity, set to ensure social sustainability integration at a manufacturing firm level.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) as a policy principle has been in practice in different product-country settings for a few decades now, and yet its implementation, as well as the outcomes, have varied. Amid the sustainability crises posed by the take-make-dispose-based linear economy and the transgression of the various planetary boundaries, governments worldwide are increasingly embracing CE-related policies, more so in the EU, with the Green Deal ushering in a wave of legislative transformations. Given this background, there is an urgent need for both policymakers and manufacturers to transition EPR from a mere waste management strategy to what can be termed as an “interface policy”, covering the interdisciplinary areas of circular economy, chemicals and waste law.Drawing upon insights from academic and grey literature, this paper contributes to characterising the system architecture underpinning EPR. It develops a conceptual framework using a life cycle thinking process through which EPR can be analysed, agreed upon, and operationalised. Such a conceptual framework can be helpful in governmental bodies tasked with framing effective EPR policies and for industry stakeholders responsible for take-back system design and implementation.