Traditional business models based on a linear (‘take-make-use-waste’) system assume the ongoing availability of unlimited and cheap natural resources. This is increasingly risky – with non-renewable resources like fossil fuels, minerals and metals increasingly under pressure, while potentially renewable resources (e.g. water, forests and fisheries) are declining in their extent and regenerative capacity.

Closed-loop systems keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value – reducing the need for extracting and processing new resources and, in the process, cutting the related impacts on the environment. Well-designed and managed closed-loop systems can help businesses capture untapped value – where collaboration across the value chain, and the wider ecosystem, is a critical success factor