A New Source of

Competitiveness

CEO’s Guide on Circular Economy

& Competitiveness
Authors: Sachin Joshi, Nandini Kumar and Ramanuj Mitra

Copyright © (2018) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). All rights reserved.

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Published by CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Delhi & Mumbai, India.
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Contents
04
Circularity =
Competitiveness

06 08
Circular Economy Basics of CE
in An Emerging
Market

12 16
Getting Started Business Model
with CE Strategies
and CE

22 24
Digital Policy Changes
Technologies Driving CE
Accelerating CE

26 27
CII’s Work Notes and
on CE References
 Foreword
We did not move from stones to metals because
we were running out of stones. Electric vehicles
were first invented in mid-nineteenth century and
held speed record until early 1900. Then they
gave way to ICE vehicles because of competitive
pricing of fossil fuels, high cost, and low-charging
range. Sun and wind as energy sources have
been around before the existence of life on Earth.

The ecological case for circularity has been most

compelling. The concept of the circular economy
was first raised by David Pearce and Kerry Turner,
two British environmental economists. They
pointed out in their book, Economics of Natural
Resources and the Environment, that the
open-ended economy had no built-in tendency
to recycle and effectively treated the
environment as a waste “reservoir”. Human
lifestyle based on a linear model is unsustainable
due to high rates of consumption and disposal,
far exceeding the regenerative capacity of
natural ecosystems to sustain human lifestyles.
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Central to this lifestyle has been the economics

of partially accounting resource consumption
and value-added at various stages, without
putting a price on impacts of lifestyle on the
larger ecosystem.

02
Advocates of a circular economy recommend rethinking
the way products are designed to “endlessly” operate in
a closed-loop supply chain, one that eliminates waste.

But for a circular economy, there has to be an economic

case that strengthens the case for environmental
sustainability. To mainstream circular economy,
companies need a solid business case, favourable
legislation, rewarding financial and consumer markets,
and new business model strategies.

The economic case for circularity is gradually developing.

With alarm bells ringing to arrest rapidly degrading
ecological resources that threaten survival of human
species, economics of resources is also undergoing
gradual change. The economic viability of naturally
available or man-made resources determine what goes
into upgrading human lifestyles.

More sun and wind are being harnessed than ever before
because they are now made economically competitive as

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

compared to fossil fuels. This is despite having failed at
most efforts to make fossil fuels economically
uncompetitive by factoring the true-cost of fossil fuels.

The future is that of a circular economy. But for it to

replace centuries old linear thinking CEOs must realise
that it is in the interest of their own competitiveness.

03
1 Circularity =
Competitiveness mainly
rests on economics of
resources or capital, and

Competitiveness it could be enhanced in

four areas.

The strongest business case for

circular economy (CE) is
Costs,
competitiveness, benefits of which
including
are realized in one’s lifetime.
true costs

Material
security
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Innovation
and design

Reduced
externalities

04
Areas of competitiveness Types
Costs Materials
Regulatory compliance
Material security Foreseen shortages
Unforeseen shortages
Innovation and design Materials
Products – part or full
Business models
Reduced externalities True cost of products

Circular Economy (CE) helps in competitiveness by

making a difference to materials use – type, quantity,
procurement, logistics, processing, and post-use. As
regulatory regimes upgrade to include Extended

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Producer Responsibility, the costs in post-use phases of
products can be managed by moving up-stream in
appropriately designing products in parts or in full. When
true-cost accounting begins to seep into calculating
price of products or costs of procurement, more
ecologically compatible alternates will become
economically compelling.

05
2 Circular
Economy in an
Emerging Market
Indian businesses are
considered to have high
CE has a strong case for
inputs costs relative to other
businesses from emerging
emerging markets, which
markets especially India. affects their cost
competitiveness, not just in
international markets but also
domestic markets. They lose
out on domestic consumers
because importing and selling
foreign-made products is a
profitable alternative. Causes
of high costs are well-known,
which include high costs of
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

capital acquisition,
inefficiencies in procurement
and logistics – upstream and
downstream, high as well as
non-renewable energy costs.
All this when more than 80
percent of the market is
trapped in a low-mid-income
segment, also mainly
attributed to artificially
constrained labour wages.

06
1.3 billion people in India are moving
from sustenance to sustainability
This is reflected in increasing costs related to regulatory and
social license to operate. Regulations in India are rapidly
changing to include environmental and social externalities of
doing business into the cost of business. Examples of such
regulations are Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) across
different sectors, including the automotive and building
sectors, carbon taxes, rehabilitation and relocation costs of
project-affected people. Growing awareness among people of
the adverse impacts on their lives is also keeping law-makers,
law-keepers, and businesspeople on guard.

The other reason for Indian companies to start practicing

circularity, is material security. Though India is the fifth largest
economy in PPP terms and expected to be the third largest by
2050, after China and the US, it is still far behind in being the
largest consumer of many materials. Also, being a late entrant
in the global trade, India does not wield control over many
sources of materials. For those that are being let off, financing
is becoming increasingly difficult on grounds of environmental
or commercial viability.

Finally, CE can help India avoid being

locked into non-performing and
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness
stressed assets
Most of Indian infrastructure and consumption pattern is yet to
be built and developed. Most Indians are out of the high resource
consumption trap. But as their affordability and affluence
increases, the cost for Indian companies to retrofit their lifestyles
in a resource-constrained era will be far greater than the cost
of developing solutions that are already circular in nature.

CE helps Indian CEOs manage costs of doing business in the

short- to medium-term, as well as
prepare for a 1.5 billion consumers that
graduate from sustenance to sustainability

07
3
CE is a way of thinking where
the main idea is to utilise raw

Basics of material and resources in

circular systems, also known as

CE
circular models. It can be
about expanding the life of a
product, by repairing or
refurbishing.

CE also means to find business

Main idea is to utilise raw material opportunities for existing and
and resources in circular systems, new companies to work with
also known as circular models. circularity, for example, by
taking back, renovating and
selling the product or parts of
the product again. It can also
be about taking materials and/
or components, and using them
again, or about recycling material.

CE is also a new economic

paradigm in which growth and
development are decoupled
from environmental impacts.
The key steps in this paradigm
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

are, "enhancing energy

efficiency, increasing the
percentage of renewable
energy in the energy mix, and,
organizing manufacturing
along the lines of a materially-
efficient, circular or
performance-based economy.
This is brought about by
extending the value, minimizing
waste, and maximizing the
reuse and recycling of
materials and resources." i

08
Features of CE
• products are designed for ease of recycling, reuse,
disassembly and remanufacturing.
• a circularity in flow of materials, both technical and
biological, is promoted within and beyond the
product's value chains and after its useful life.
• emphasizes continuous innovation to extract
maximum value from all resources being used: ideally,
nothing is called a waste.
• products, services, and every instance of material
usage are designed to remain in the value chain for
the longest period possible.
• ideally, the total energy requirement in a circular
economy would be met by renewable sources such
as solar and wind.
• jobs created in the repair and maintenance sector,
rather than new resource extraction since repair and
refurbishment are dependent more on manpower
than automation.

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Systems thinking and application of Life Cycle Assessment

as a tool are both, useful to take account of the complex
pathways and connections, and consider environmental
impacts at each step of the value chain.

09
 PRINCIPLE Figure 1: Outline of a Circular Economy

1
Preserve and enhance
natural capital by controlling
finite stocks and balancing
renewable resource flows Regenerate

Renewables flow management

BIOLOGICAL CYCLES

Farming/
collection 1

PRINCIPLE Biochemical

2
feedstock
Regeneration Biosphere

Optimise resource yields

by circulating products,
components and materials
in use at the highest utility
at all times in both technical
and biological cycles

Biogas
Cascades
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Anaerobic
digestion

Extraction of
biochemical
feedstock2

PRINCIPLE

3
by revealing and designing 1. Hunting and fishing
2. Can take both post-harvest and post-consumer waste as an input
out negative externalities
Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey Center for
Business and Environment; Adapted from Braungart & McDonough,
Cradle to Cradle (C2C).

10
 Renewables

Finite materials

Substitute materials Virtualise Restore

Stock management

TECHNICAL CYCLES

Parts manufacturer

Product manufacturer
Recycle

Service provider
Refurbish/
Share remanufacture

Reuse/redistribute

Maintain/prolong

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

6 2803 0006 9

Consumer User

Collection Collection

Minimise systematic
leakage and negative
externalities

11
4 Getting Started
with CE
The potential for advantages
to business are aplenty in CE.
Begin with a single-biggest driver
To avoid going around in
for competitiveness. Avoid going circles, begin with a
around in circles. single-biggest driver for
competitiveness. Is it material
security, is it bringing
compliance costs related to
EPR to zero? Having
determined the driver, the
journey for circularity will
begin with the following
specific action areas.
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

12
Put together an
action plan and
set goals
Create a cross-functional team
to come up with a road map,
composed of engineers,
managers looking after
finance, production,
procurement, operations,
design, research and
development, manufacturing.
Implementing the principles of
circular economy will involve
skills and contributions from
across the factory or facility. Communicate and
build capacities
Provide a working
acquaintance via training
programmes, of the principles
and rationale for circular
economy; also communicate
how these are integral to the
core activities of the
organisation.ii

Analyse Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

operations
Focus on the stream of input
and output materials/resources
(including wastes) relevant to
the product being
manufactured, and evaluate
opportunities for disassembly,
reuse (even by other
businesses); consult R&D
experts, innovate and
optimize.iii

13
 Evaluate options &
shop for alternates
and technologies
Circularity is a lot about working
with alternate materials which
might require different
technology deployment.
Depending on the need, one
might have to deal with varying
maturity of available options.
Evaluate which one works in your
context, and shop for alternates
and technologies. For instance,
one of the largest Indian metal
manufacturers evaluated
European and Chinese
technologies of scrap recycling.
They had assumed that Chinese
option suited the Indian context.
However, a visit to China for
technology evaluation disproved
their assumption, and they settled
for European technology.iv
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Move outside the

factory gates
Engage suppliers, clients and business partners all
along the value chain. Collect and record data
continuously, quantifying inputs and outputs
(including waste), and explore opportunities for
reduction of waste, reuse, refurbishment,
remanufacture, redesign. Consider possibility of
material flows and collaborations across sectors.v

14
Broadly,

Social, technological and commercial research and innovation

would be needed at all levels. Economists, and environmental
and materials scientists would assess the ecological impacts,
and costs and benefits of products.

Product design should be based on the potential for reuse:

modular systems and standardized components would help to
this end.vi

Communication and information strategies are needed to

raise awareness of manufacturers and the public about their
responsibility for products throughout their service lives.

Companies would search for collaborative ventures even

across the boundaries of their industry. Cross-organisational
and inter-connected supply chains would help close the loop
and could be facilitated by Industry 4.0 tools involving
intelligent technical systems for mass production.vii viii

Companies would invest in material science research and

chemistry: whether feedstock is bio-based or synthetic in
origin, there is huge potential for change and innovation. For
a circular economy to succeed, excellence in metallurgical and
chemical sciences is essential.

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

15
5 Business Model
Strategies
and CE
Operating in a circular
economy often requires
CE is being practiced, redesigning new business
at least in parts. models. Various typologies
exist for classifying types of
business models. After careful
review, CII chose one put
together by Dr Nancy Bocken
at International Institute for
Industrial Environmental
Economics, Lund University,
and Dr Conny Bakker, at TU
Delft.ix Bocken et al. (2016)
classify six business model
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

strategies into two broad

categories, viz, slowing
resource loops and closing
resource loops.

CII uses Indian examples to

populate the six business
strategies to demonstrate that
CE is being practiced in India,
at least in parts.

16
1. Business model strategies for
slowing loops
a. Access and performance model: Providing the capability
or services to satisfy user needs without needing to own
physical products.

BlaBlaCar is a trusted community marketplace that

connects drivers with empty seats to co-travellers looking
for a ride. Over 12 million people use BlaBlaCar every
quarter creating an entirely new, people-powered network.
With a dedicated customer service, a state-of-the-art web
and mobile platform, and a fast-growing community of
users, BlaBlaCar is making travel social, money-saving and
more efficient for millions of members.

Airbnb is an online hosting site for accommodation in

cities across the world. People with extra rooms or living
space can rent them out to travelers, tourists and earn

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

money. It encourages efficient use of space and resources
in a cost-effective manner.

Zoomcar is a car rental service based on a digital platform.

Customers can rent cars by uploading license and making
online rental payments. This provides the flexibility of
enjoying the convenience of a car, without owning it.
Ownership remains with the company, while customers
use the service on a pay-per-use basis.x

Michelin, a leading tire manufacturer, offers a tyre leasing

service for fleet trucks. Truck fleet owners do not have to
own tyres, and hence are freed of the responsibility of
repair and maintenance.xi

17
 b. Extending product value: Exploiting residual value of
products – from manufacture, to consumers, and then
back to manufacturing – or collection of products
between distinct business entities.

Green by Goonj is an initiative by Goonj, an NGO

working on using urban surplus materials to bridge gaps
in demand and supply of infrastructure and amenities in
rural India. Green by Goonj reuses and upcycles clothes
and other materials to create lifestyle and rural products.
It provides sustainable waste management solutions and
livelihoods to numerous people.xii

H&M Group recycles clothes and discarded textiles

through various initiatives and tie-ups. Used clothes of
any brand and in any condition can be donated, which
are then recycled and blended into new fabric. This
prevents textile from ending up in landfills and creates
business opportunities.xiii

Reboot Systems is a reverse engineering start-up based

in Hyderabad. The company focusses on refurbishing
used IT products such as desktops, laptops, mobility
devices and peripherals.xiv
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

18
c. Classic long-life model: Business models focused on
delivering long-product life, supported by design for
durability and repair for instance

This is the most useful business model strategy in a

value-conscious and low-income market such as India.
Nokia India once made mobile phones which were
designed for durability and repeated repair. Nokia
significantly penetrated the low- to mid-value segments of
mobile phones market in India. Pre-1991 era of controlled
economy in India is dotted with many similar examples.
Though one may argue that consumers didn’t have the
money to throw away durables, the entire repair economy
for virtually everything from textiles to two-wheelers to
transistors, ensured durability of products.

d. Encourage sufficiency: Solutions that actively seek to

reduce end-user consumption through principles such as
durability, upgradability, service, warrantees and
reparability as well as a non-consumerist approach to
marketing and sales (e.g. no sales commissions)

Godrej Interio, the furniture business of Godrej and Boyce

is beginning to see the market potential by leveraging this

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

business model strategy. Not only have they started
various “green” certified product options, they also offer
modular furniture designs that deliver more utility in
different use-situations. Godrej also has built a brand value
of product durability derived by making and selling
furniture that lasts a couple of generations in a family.

19
 2. Business model strategies for
closing loops
a. Extending resource value: exploiting the residual value of
resources: collection and sourcing of otherwise “wasted”
materials or resources to turn these into new forms of
value.

Mahindra Accelo and MSTC Ltd. have jointly launched

CERO, India’s maiden organised auto shredding venture
and vehicle recycling unit. It will recycle specialized steels
and other non-ferrous metals that are present in
automobiles: the first Cero plant will be based in Delhi
NCR.

In Dalmia Cement Ltd, wastes such as blast furnace slag

from the steel industry and fly ash from thermal power
plants are used to make cement. The company also uses
incinerable waste as an alternative fuel. These initiatives
have a positive impact on the bottom line and have
helped reduce its carbon footprint from business
operations by 36% from 1990 levels.
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Novelis, an Aditya Birla Group company, is the world

leader in aluminium recycling. With a minimum of 90
percent recycled aluminum, the Novelis evercan™
aluminum beverage can body sheet allows beverage
companies to deliver soft drinks, beer and other popular
beverages in a low-carbon footprint consumer package.

Banyan Nation based in Hyderabad, India, recycles plastic

and produces high-grade plastic for usage in automobiles.
Its proprietary plastic cleaning technology removes ink
and other impurities. Banyan is one of the first companies
in the country to use mobile, cloud and IoT to integrate
thousands of informal sector last mile collectors into its
supply chain to recover post-consumer as well as
post-industrial plastic waste.

20
 Multilayered plastic packaging is widely used for consumer
products. Being difficult to recycle, most of these end up in
landfills. To solve this issue, the packaging team of Tata
Chemicals has worked with Dow Chemicals to develop a
polyethylene (PE) based film that can be used to replace
PET packaging, which is made of two different substrates.
The single polymer structure of the developed PE film
makes it easier to recycle, thus providing incentive for
higher collection and segregation rates.

Dell offers a host of asset resale, recycling and takeback

services for used electronics. It promotes recovery of
valuables metals from used laptops, and prevents pollution
due to disposal of e-waste.

b. Industrial symbiosis: A process-orientated solution,

concerned with using residual outputs from one process
and feedstock for another process, which benefits from
geographical proximity of businesses.

In April 2017, the National Thermal Power Corporation

(NTPC), invited expressions of interest for supplying

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

850-1000 tonnes of briquettes/pellets from paddy straw.
NTPC would use these briquettes/pellets as secondary fuel
in limited quantities in its coal-fired power plants to replace
5-10% of its daily coal consumption.xv

Indian oil companies are investing in biofuel refineries to

boost ethanol production from non-molasses sources.
A $200 million joint venture between Numaligarh Refinery
Ltd. and Finnish technology firm Chempolis Oy will open in
2020 and crush bamboo to produce 60 million liters of
ethanol and other products every year in northeastern
state of Assam.xvi

21
 Technology Specific
cluster technology

6 Digital
Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID)

DATA COLLECTION
Technologies
Accelerating CE Internet of Things (IoT)

Drawing on experience of working

with businesses on elements of CE
and through research in allied fields DATA INTEGRATION Relational Database
Management Systems
such as PaaS, industrial ecology and (RDBMS) and database
green supply chain, CII has grouped handling systems
key technologies into three clusters:
Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM)
systems

Machine learning (MI)

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

& Artificial
Intelligence (AI)
DATA ANALYSIS

Data analytics

22
Technology
application
RFID helps track material flows to enable value recovery through the
implementation of Re-strategies such as Reuse, Repair and
Remanufacture.

In Closed Supply Chains, RFID facilitates the transition to closed-loop

systems.

Connected or networked RFID systems help connect products tagged

with an RFID chip to an information network, providing complete
information about the product’s life cycle to all connected partners.

IoT can collect information generated by sensors to connect partners

across the value chain.

IoT also enhances management and analysis of data coming from

various sources is routed through data-to-service process

RDBMS and data handling systems integrate huge volumes of

information produced by heterogeneous data collection systems such
as IoT, ERP and CRM systems.

PLM systems help integrate information across multiple life cycles and
across various stakeholders in the value chain.

They enable monitoring of products and parts in multiple lifecycles,

through product passport, i.e. a set of information about the
components and materials that a product contains, and how they can
be disassembled and recycled at the end of the product's useful life.

Potential of MI / AI for CE is at this stage under-explored. It is

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

guesswork that for any economy to be circular will need to be serviced
by MI/ AI.

Data analytics is seen as a viable approach to make use of information

from various systems of record such as sensors and IoT, to enable
better decision making.

In the context of the manufacturing industry, real time data analytics

can enable decision making for adaptive calibration.

Data analytics could monitor processes of production and

consumption, that eventually allow material flows to be closed easily.

Digital technologies play an important role in the transition

towards a Circular Economy by optimizing forward material
flows and enabling reverse material flows.

23
7 Policy Changes
Driving CE
Policies and legislation in
CEOs need to note that India’s India, at present, are aligned
policy regime is warming up to to the prevalent linear model
circularity. of production and
consumption in which raw
materials enter a factory and
after use, by the consumer, are
thrown away.

A conducive regulatory
framework, including financial,
tax-based incentives, can clear
the path for CE. In India while
no such overarching policy
exists, there are indications of
movement already, in the
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

direction of circularity.

24
• The inclusion of a Rule on Extended Producer
Responsibility as part of the Plastic Waste Management
Rules, notified in March 2016, by the Ministry of
Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has stirred
action against single-use plastic in some Indian states. New
uses for plastics could be generated, reducing the
quantities landfilled. The Indian Prime Minister’s
commitment to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022, is
likely to add momentum to the regulatory follow-through.

• A notification issued in August 2018, by the Ministry of

Road Transport and Highways seeks to amend the Motor
Vehicles Act, 1989 and allow retro-fitment of a hybrid or an
electric system on an existing vehicle. According to the
notification, the retro-fitment will be divided into three
categories and conform to the requirements of the
Automotive Industry Standard 123. Moves such as these
provide room for experimentation, stimulate innovation
and create new knowledge.

• A discussion paper on the New Industrial Policy, 2017, refers

to, “establishment of a circular economy” in a section titled,
“Ensuring Sustainable and Responsible Industrialization”
indicating a vision for the implementation of CE principles
in industry.xvii

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

• NITI Aayog’s Strategy Paper on Resource Efficiency has
many elements of CE and has paved way for various parts
of the Central and State governments to develop their
pathways to resource efficiency with underlying principles
of CE.

These illustrations are indicative of the potential of appropriate

policy to nudge circular Indian economy. These are likely to
have a far-reaching impact on the way companies will act and
shape their products and may compel a return to the design
table.

25
8 CII’s Work
on CE
• Business call to action; collective
Three verticals
based on the cluster of
of business & its stakeholders
work / themes
• Policy advocacy: message to
lawmakers to make material Vertical 1
changes / reforms Structural reforms – taxation
• International policy advocacy in for CE, skills & jobs, other
processes such as G20/B20 policy transformations
• Business commitment to
6Rs -> monitoring & disclosures Vertical 2
Sector deep dive –
transformational roadmaps,
life-cycle thinking, tools &
frameworks, counting &
accounting
Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

Vertical 3
Knowledge production –
automated knowledge
resource web & app platform;
business case; CEO
guidebook; lawmaker
guidebook

Handholding &
technical assistance
Life cycle thinking and analysis;
CE innovation; CE design thinking

26
Notes and References
i Wijkman, A. and K. Skanberg (2015). “The circular economy and benefits for society.
Club of Rome.” Available at:
https://www.clubofrome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/
The-Circular-Economy-and-Benefits-for-Society.pdf (accessed on 21 August, 2018)
ii Confederation of Finnish Industries (Undated). “Take a Leap into Circular Economy!
– Together Towards New Growth.” Available at:
https://ek.fi/wp-content/uploads/Take_a_Leap_into_Circular_Economy.pdf
(accessed on 21 August, 2018)
iii Ibid
iv As mentioned to CII bilaterally in a discussion
v Jordens, J. W. (2016). “Building a collaborative advantage within a circular
economy: Inter-organisational resources and capabilities of a circular value chain”,
Master's thesis, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
vi Stahel, W.R. (2016). The circular economy. Nature News, 531 (7595), p. 435.
vii ibid
viii Tseng, M. L., R.R. Tan; A.S. Chiu, C.F. Chien and C.T. Kuo (2018). “Circular economy
meets industry 4.0: Can big data drive industrial symbiosis? Resources, Conservation
and Recycling”, 131, pp. 146-147.
ix Nancy M. P. Bocken, Ingrid de Pauw, Conny Bakker & Bram van der Grinten (2016)
“Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy, Journal of
Industrial and Production Engineering”, 33:5, 308-320
(accessed on 27 August, 2018)
x Zoomcar (Undated). Available at: https://www.zoomcar.com/howitwork
(accessed on 21 August, 2018)
xi Michelin (Undated). Available at:
https://www.michelintruck.com/services-and-programs/michelin-fleet-
solutions/ (accessed on 21 August, 2018)

Circular Economy: A New Source of Competitiveness

xii Green by Goonj (Undated). Available at: https://goonj.org/green-by-goonj
(accessed on 21 August, 2018)
xiii H&M (Undated). Available at:
https://about.hm.com/en/sustainability/get-involved/recycle-your-clothes.html
(accessed on 21 August, 2018)
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27
CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development is a
not-for-profit, industry-led institution that helps business become
sustainable organisations. It is on a mission to catalyse innovative
ideas and solutions, in India, and globally, to enable business, and its
stakeholders, in sustainable value creation. Its knowledge, action and
recognition activities enable companies to be future ready, improve
footprints profiles, and advocate policymakers and legislators to
improve standards of sustainable business through domestic and
global policy interventions.

CESD leverages its role of all-inclusive ecosystem player, partnering

industry, government, and civil society. It has been a pioneer of
environment management systems, biodiversity mapping,
sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, and social & natural
capital valuation in India, thus upgrading business in India to
sustainable competitiveness.

With three locations in India, CESD operates across the country and
has also been active in parts of South and South East Asia, Middle
East, and Africa. It has held institutional partnerships and
memberships of the United Nations Global Compact, Global
Reporting Initiative, International Integrated Reporting Council,
Carbon Disclosure Project, development agencies of Canada, the
USA, the UK, and Germany.

CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development

Delhi | Mumbai
T: +91 11 41502301 • W: www.sustainabledevelopment.in

/ciicesd /company/1526422 /ciicesd /ciicesd

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an
environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry,
Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative
processes.

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed

organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process.
Founded in 1895, India's premier business association has around 9000
members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and
MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from
around 265 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.

CII charts change by working closely with Government on policy issues,

interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency,
competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range
of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a
platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues.

Extending its agenda beyond business, CII assists industry to identify and
execute corporate citizenship programmes. Partnerships with civil
society organizations carry forward corporate initiatives for integrated
and inclusive development across diverse domains including affirmative
action, healthcare, education, livelihood, diversity management, skill
development, empowerment of women, and water, to name a few.

As a developmental institution working towards India’s overall growth

with a special focus on India@75 in 2022, the CII theme for 2018-19, India
RISE : Responsible. Inclusive. Sustainable. Entrepreneurial emphasizes
Industry's role in partnering Government to accelerate India's growth and
development. The focus will be on key enablers such as job creation; skill
development; financing growth; promoting next gen manufacturing;
sustainability; corporate social responsibility and governance and
transparency.

With 65 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 10

overseas offices in Australia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Singapore,
South Africa, UAE, UK, and USA, as well as institutional partnerships with
355 counterpart organizations in 126 countries, CII serves as a reference
point for Indian industry and the international business community.
 Confederation of Indian Industry
The Mantosh Sondhi Centre
23, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 (India)
T: 91 11 45771000 / 24629994-7 • F: 91 11 24626149 • E: [email protected] • W: www.cii.in

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