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This conceptual paper explores the possibility to envision circular regenerative processes embracing agrowth and placemaking within tourism; an industry remarkably connected to the Anthropocene and its detrimental impacts on the planet. Drawing on theorisations of circular economy, on the concept of agrowth, and on theories of placemaking, this viewpoint offers a novel conceptual framework to imagine a regenerative future for tourism.

The authors connect the ancient archetype of “circularity”, largely used to make sense of life on Earth, with the Greek concept of oikonomia. The resulting notion of a circular oikonomia is then intersected with theories of placemaking. In doing so, the authors are driven by the idea of de-growth, as an “a-growthism” urging the abandonment of the faith towards growth for an enduring stable regenerative agrowth.

The authors offer a novel conceptual framework to counteract the negative impacts of Anthropocene and envision future scenarios in which tourism can make a difference by enacting enduring regenerative processes for places and human and non-human entities.

The originality of this study lies in the conceptual framework proposed to imagine the future of tourism, hospitality and mobilities in circular regenerative terms. This study envisions stable and enduring regenerative processes of natural assets, materials, products, services and resources as well as a tourism space made up of lively, multiple, transformative relationships and interactions among people and the environments people live in and travel to.

Whilst the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables offers significant environmental benefits, the other transition – from a centralised to a distributed energy system – underpins a disruptive model for planning cities, towns and villages. A local energy micro-grid can power a local water micro-grid, which in turn can irrigate a local food system, offering a community the opportunity to harvest, store and distribute food, water and energy within their immediate catchment. A distributed network of regenerative villages, connected virtually and with shared electric vehicles is offered as an alternative vision for future cities. The paper aims to justify this as a preferred model for human settlements and develop an implementation process.

This paper asks: Is it inevitable that large cities will keep growing, while rural communities will continue to be deprived of resources and opportunities? Is the flow of people into cities inevitable? To answer this question, the adopted methodology is to take a systems approach, observing town planning processes from a range of different disciplines and perspectives.

By contrasting the current centralising city model with a distributed network of villages, this paper offers ten reasons why the distributed network is preferable to centralisation.

It is argued that in this time of dramatic technological upheaval, environmental destruction and social inequality, business-as-usual is unacceptable in any field of human endeavour. This paper presents a sketch outlining a new human settlement theory, a different way of living on the land. It is an invitation to academics and practitioners to participate in a debate.

The information and energy revolutions, both distributed systems, are reshaping cities.

The purpose of this study is to explore circular economy (CE) initiatives and apply the stimulus-organism-response theory to find the socio-political drivers and enablers of CE in the pharmaceutical industry. CE as a concept was relatively not studied much with respect to socio-political interests from operations management perspectives. This was especially so in the pharmaceutical industry.

This research study was anchored in the theoretical conversation of stimulus-organism-response theory to find the socio-political interests and enablers of the regenerative CE principles. These were the functions of remanufacturing, reuse and recycle. For this research study, data was collected in two steps. First, eight industry practitioners were interviewed to understand the CE practices in the pharmaceutical industry. Then 166 chiefs of production and operations functions from 124 pharmaceutical companies were surveyed. The quantitative data was empirically analyzed using SmartPLS3 software.

This research study revealed that pressure from suppliers and other public stakeholders were driving regenerative CE practices in the pharmaceutical industry. The results further stated that CE enablers such as green information technology systems and internal environmental management were critical for making pharmaceutical manufacturing operations circular.

This research study measured the constructs on a formative scale. Studies measuring socio-political interests, CE enablers and sustainability practices constructs on a formative scale were much required for the development of the CE theory. This research study output could be applied across geographies and industries to measure the indicators of CE.

This research study indicated that in the context of the pharmaceutical industry, there was an overemphasis on the remanufacture and reuse principles. However, the focus on recycling principles was mostly subdued. For managers and regulators in the pharmaceutical sector, this research study provided clear insights that for more effective CE implementation. This was based on an effective application of recycling practices in the critical functions in pharmaceutical industry.

Earlier research studies on green and environmental manufacturing were focused on linear production models. To provide clear and robust foundations for CE theory, this research study considered operations management from the perspective of the value chain. This comprised the entire circular production model. Earlier research studies had treated socio-political interests, CE enablers and sustainability practices as reflective constructs. This study was one of the foremost to measure these constructs on a formative scale.

Regionalism implying some form of city-region or metropolitan-level planning and governance has long been promoted for multiple reasons albeit with varied success. Experiencing a resurgence in 1990s, regional coordination and cooperation has proven effective in pursuing economic development and bolstering competitiveness. Unfortunately, other voices, such as those promoting regional scale land use planning and management to cultivate more sustainable urban form and settlement patterns became comparatively crowded out. With climate change-related environmental and ecological pressures mounting, the chapter suggests it is time to frame regions as socio-ecological rather than mere socio-economic spaces, thereby placing greater emphasis on ecosystems and ecological land management and a circular, regenerative economy. Using the city-region of Stuttgart (Germany) as exemplar, our contribution initiates an exploration into whether statutory regional planning in combination with various informal tools and a multi-level governance framework allows actors to begin to embed and implement these emerging ecological sustainability concepts.

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of restorative supply chain practices on sustainability performance in a circular economy (CE). The moderating effect of supply chain managers' perceived professional status on restorative supply chain practices and stakeholder collaboration is also examined.

The theoretical model was developed via the practice-based view, and the model was tested using a sample comprising 142 respondents. WarpPLS 8.0 software was utilized to run the structural equation model.

The analysis shows that restorative supply chain practices result in an intermediate outcome (i.e. stakeholder collaboration), which ultimately improves the sustainability performance of the restorative supply chain. Interestingly, the perceived professional status of supply chain managers acts as a moderate-level mediator in the relationship between restorative supply chain practices in a CE and the sustainability performance of the restorative supply chain in a CE.

Collaboration with stakeholders fosters enhanced communication, cooperation and shared responsibility, thereby creating a socially inclusive and cooperative environment within the restorative supply chain. Improving supply chain sustainability performance supports broader environmental goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste and conserving natural resources. Recognizing the perceived professional status of supply chain managers underscores the need to empower them and acknowledge their strategic role in driving sustainability within the organization. Companies can contribute to a more sustainable business environment by adopting restorative practices in the supply chain and addressing the social impacts.

The unique contribution of the findings of this study lies in the examination of the relationship between restorative supply chain practices, stakeholder collaboration, perceived status of supply chain managers and sustainability performance in the context of the CE. The findings imply that restorative supply chain practices positively impact stakeholder collaboration, which in turn improves supply chain sustainability performance. In addition, the study highlights the moderating role of the perceived status of supply chain managers and underscores their influence on strengthening restorative practices and stakeholder collaboration. This study provides valuable insights into the dynamics and mechanisms driving sustainability performance in the context of restorative supply chains operating within a CE.

The study aims to examine the micro-level implications of implementing a circular economy (CE) business model on firms’ financial performance and the effect of organizational culture in this context.

Using a survey method to obtain 617 usable questionnaires from diverse business sectors in Ghana, a largely unexplored region and relying on institutional and legitimacy theories.

The study shows that the implementation of CE policies, such as the reducing, reusing, recycling, recovery and restoration of resources used in manufacturing, distribution and consumption processes, contributes to improved financial efficiency. Furthermore, organizational culture moderates by way of strengthening the positive relationship between CE and business financial performance.

This study contributes to the literature on circularity and the broader discourse on ecological issues by arguing that institutional and legitimacy theories, which are both from the political economy theory, suggest that firms’ economic activities will be influenced by the political, social and institutional context. Therefore, the firm’s decision to embrace a different business model such as CE should be seen from the political environment involving rules and regulations, social dynamics both within and outside the organization and the institutional structures within which the firm operates. These mechanisms establish a business case for the implementation of CE initiatives and is guided by intent and specific goals. This motivates and encourages employees to be more involved in their duties and interactions leading to high levels of employee satisfaction, which improves productivity and profitability.

Australians consume twice the global average of textiles and are deeply engaged in a linear take/make/waste fashion model. Furthermore the Australian fashion sector has some unique supply chain complications of geographical distances, sparse population and fragmentation in processing and manufacturing. This research aims to examine how Australian fashion small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are overcoming these challenges to run fashion businesses built around core principles of product stewardship (PS) and circularity.

SMEs make up 88% of the Australian apparel manufacturing sector. This qualitative exploratory study included in-depth interviews with three Australian fashion SMEs engaged in circular design practice, and a focus group of 10 Western Australian fashion advocates of sustainability. Analytic coding and analysis of the data developed eight distinct themes.

This study examines the barriers to circular economy (CE) that exist in the Australian fashion sector, and maps the practice of Australian SMEs with circular business models in overcoming these barriers. In CE innovation, Australian SMEs may have an advantage over larger fashion companies with more unwieldy structures. Employing design-thinking strategies, Australian SMEs with a foundation of PS and circular purpose are creating new systems of viable closed-loop business models and design processes.

The themes from this research contribute to the limited literature on circular innovation examples that link CE theory with practice in the fashion sector. The model for circularity maps the practice of three SMEs built around core principles of PS and circularity in overcoming the barriers to CE in an Australian context, and may be used as a visual tool in education and understanding.

This paper examines the role of government procurement as a social policy mechanism within a multilateral open trading system. Government regulations globally are being transformed to foster more responsible business conduct in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Yet, concern that sustainability may present a discriminatory barrier to trade has stalled the progress of sustainable public procurement (SPP) at the international level, raising questions regarding the role and scope of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) to align taxpayer-funded contracts with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.

With a focus on social sustainability, this paper reviews the grey and academic literature to assess the changing landscape of public procurement policy and supply chain legislation in high-income countries.

Frontrunner nations are adopting a mandatory approach to sustainable public procurement and due diligence legislation is elevating supply chain risk from reputational damage to legal liability. While technological innovation and the clean, green production of manufactured goods dominates the sustainable public procurement literature, the social aspects of sustainability poverty, inequality and human rights remain underrepresented.

The scope of this paper is limited to the examination of government procurement covered by the WTO-GPA (2012). Smaller value contracts, under the WTO-GPA thresholds and the category of defence are beyond the scope of the paper.

The paper focusses on the underserved topic of social sustainability in business-to-government (B2G) – business to government – supply chains arguing that for responsible business conduct to become a competitive advantage, it must be more meaningfully rewarded on the demand-side of all taxpayer-funded contracts in organisation for economic co-operation and development countries. The paper introduces the idea of priceless procurement as a mechanism to build system capacity in the evaluation of non-financial sustainability objectives.

To build the capacity to stimulate competition based on social and environmental policy objectives, the paper introduces the concept of priceless procurement in B2G contracts.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the chain of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its waste (WEEE), within the product chain of Recicladora Urbana (Reurbi), and its interaction with the circular economy.

Exploratory research with a qualitative approach, based on the study case method, was conducted. The following stages were carried out: definition of the study object; bibliographic survey; documentary survey; technical visit to Reurbi; contacts with experts; creation of research instruments and research execution.

The main recipients of remanufactured EEE are third sector organizations that run social programs and schools with few financial resources. Recycling firms receive parts and components from the WEEE handled by Reurbi.

The authors only addressed the WEEE reverse remanufacturing chain of Reurbi; therefore, the authors cannot extend the results to an industrial sector.

One practical contribution is disclosing the remanufacturing processes of EEE and the recycling processes of its waste, fostered by the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), under a circular economy policy.

There is a large market potential for reverse logistics of WEEE and end-of-life EEE as a source of raw material, which is yet to be explored in Brazil, for creating new jobs and revenue.

The publication of articles with the main reflections from the results can provide new discussions and provide opportunities for new studies regarding the Brazilian Solid Waste Policy.