Measuring circular economy and sustainability in African companies

Companies active in the circular economy (CE) need to assess the sustainability impacts of their circular strategies. In order to support this need, the Strategic Circular Economy Impact Assessment (SCEIA) framework was developed. This paper reports preliminary results related to the implementation of the SCEIA framework with a cohort of five companies operating in different African countries, over a three-month period, with a twofold aim: (1) to provide the companies with insights into their baseline impacts and improvement options, and (2) to document lessons learnt from the process of applying the framework and assessing CE in different African contexts. Focusing on the latter, while the project is still ongoing, the initial results show that the companies’ assessment aims were highly diverse. Additionally, the data collection procedure was tailored to the specific company context, particularly in the case of less-formal companies. We found that the social dimension was considered relevant for most companies, but too time-intensive to be included in a first assessment phase.