Circular Economy

The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) has launched the Sustainability and the Internet Research Group (SUSTAIN RG) to advance the Internet as a foundation for sustainable and resilient societies.

SUSTAIN explores how to design and operate networks that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable, taking a holistic perspective that includes lifecycle and supply chain considerations. This directly connects to circular economy principles, which aim to keep materials and resources in use longer, reduce waste, and minimize environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle of digital infrastructure.

By studying topics like the environmental footprint of networks, strategies to reuse and refurbish equipment, and policy measures to encourage sustainable practices, SUSTAIN helps the Internet community understand and reduce its impact while supporting global sustainability goals.

IRTF RG Link: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/sustain/about/

The Standardization Roadmap Circular Economy was published in 2023 and provides and overview of circular economy standardization. It highlights gaps for potential further work, based on the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.

The following key topics are covered:

• Electronics & ICT
• Batteries
• Packaging
• Plastics
• Textiles
• Construction & municipalities
• Digitalization/Business Models/Management

The roadmap was developed by the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the German Commission for Electrotechnical, Electronic, and Information Technologies (DKE) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

More information and download link: https://www.din.de/en/innovation-and-research/circular-economy/standardization-roadmap-circular-economy

A set of three new standards, developed by ISO/TC 323, was published in May 2024. They include:

1. ISO 59004:2024 "Circular economy — Vocabulary, principles and guidance for implementation" (Link: https://www.iso.org/standard/80648.html)

2. ISO 59010:2024 "Circular economy — Guidance on the transition of business models and value networks" (Link: https://www.iso.org/standard/80649.html)

3. ISO 59020:2024 "Circular economy — Measuring and assessing circularity performance" (Link: https://www.iso.org/standard/80650.html)

These standards create the basis for further work which was picked up by CEN/TC 473 to identify potentials for deepening technical guidance and aligning with European regulatory requirements.

As part of the CircThread project we carried out a mapping of relevant standards related to Circular Economy from a product life cycle perspective, finding 193 relevant standards in this context. These can be navigated through a dashboard here - https://circthread.com/standardization-toolkit/. A listing of these standards can be found in the associated Deliverable: https://circthread.com/download/deliverable-9-1-standardisation-toolkit-v1-online-interactive-tool-report/

There are two work item groups joint ITU-T and ETSI EE EEPS

ETSI DTS/EE-EEPS55 joint with ITU-T L.GDSPP

ETSI DTS/EE-EEPS64 joint with ITU-T L.D4PI

working on the Digital Product passport for ICT products with a focus on environmental sustainability and considering the circular economy. Any related standard?

I recently spent a lot of time trying to understand where to find and publish the 'best' CE research and as you know, individual metrics are often not indicative of the quality of a journal so I put together a few indicators and came up with this list. Feel free to add more relevant CE journals in the comments!

Explanation of the metrics:

• No. of CE papers: Search for "circular economy" performed in each journal on 12 July 2022
• Impact factor (IF): Annual mean no. of citations of articles published in the last 2 years
• VHB ranking: Qualitative ranking of scientific journals from A+ (highest) to D (lowest) by the German Association for Business Research (direct link: https://vhbonline.org/vhb4you/vhb-jourqual/vhb-jourqual-3/gesamtliste)

This discussion is meant to provide an overview of circular economy (CE) standards currently under development as well as those that have already been published.

This list does not claim to be exhaustive but rather a starting point for anybody looking for orientation among CE standards. The list will be updated throughout the next weeks.

International standards

ISO: TC 323 (under development)

• ISO 59004 "Terminology, principles, frameworks and management system standard"
• ISO 59010 "Practical approaches to develop and implement Circular Economy"
• ISO 59020 "Measuring and assessing circularity"
• ISO 59031 "Circular Economy in practice: experience feedback"
• ISO 59040 "Product circularity data sheet"

CEN: various guidance documents on the CE (2019-2020)

National standards

UK: BS 8001 (2017)

DE: Standardization Roadmap Circular Economy (2023)