As part of a recent waste improvement project for major winery and nationwide beverage bottling facility, Colby Industries (soon to be Colby Phillips Advisory) invented and piloted a new and innovative method for measuring Circular Economy performance of businesses (in addition to traditional diversion and Waste Hierarchy analysis). 

Both these businesses had already embraced a sustainability objective to “contribute to the Circular Economy”.  But neither new how to measure their performance so they could understand how to meet this objective.

The new method enables businesses to measure their Circular Economy in three areas: (1) Material or Resource Efficiency; (2) Circularisation of Material Resources; and (3) Renewable Energy uptake.  An original aspect of these metrics was a 0 to 360-degree measurement scale. For the assessment of these two businesses, the Circularisation of Material Resources performance metric was assessed. 

Both businesses achieved Circularisation Rates of > 95%  with Circularity Ranks of > 230 degrees (i.e. > 63%).

The project was supported by Green Industries SA’s Solid Waste Solid Waste Opportunities Program (www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au/swop).

For more information on our Circular Economy performance measurement tool, contact Dr Chris Colby: chris.colby@colbyphillips.com.au.