The circular economy conversation has taken off in the last few years. With its recent proliferation came the adoption of unique definitions, frameworks and ways of measuring it around the world. Measuring progress in the circular economy is challenging and what and how adopters of circular economy practices decide to measure it depends a lot on their objective, scope and audiences. 74% of interviewees indicated that their company use their own framework for measuring circularity. Therefore, the cacophony of circular metrics popping up across sectors and geographies has created an environment of competing and often conflicting indications of actual circularity progress achieved.

This report aims at understanding the current landscape of circular metrics globally. It constitutes the first phase of WBCSD’s Metrics and Measurement workstream which final aim is to achieve harmony in how individual companies measure their progress in the circular economy. This workstream is part of WBCSD’s Factor10 program on the circular economy.