Corporate communication on circular economy activities

Currently there are no EU wide data available to monitor communication of companies regarding their circular economy activities. In 2019, the Dutch Environmental Protection Agency (PBL) collected data on companies’ circular activities by reviewing existing Dutch statistics, holding a survey and examining company’s websites. In addition, using a web-scraping method, PBL provided an overview of how many companies claim to work with circular economy and how far up the “circularity ladder” Dutch companies claim to reach. The resulting dataset indicates the number of Dutch companies that attain each of the rungs on the circularity ladder.

From the Dutch statistics, 65 000 companies were identified as circular. From the web-scraping, 46 000 companies were identified as circular. In total (removing overlaps) approximately 100 000 Dutch companies were identified as circular, corresponding to 5% of the current number of Dutch firms and 4% of the jobs within the Dutch economy.

In order to measure the transition towards a circular economy, it is important to monitor circular activities in the economy. Data and information on companies’ communication about circular economy activities can be used as a proxy of the penetration of circular businesses in the economy. However, communication activities do not always translate into eventual action. The transition to a circular economy is one of the environmental objectives set in the Taxonomy Regulation (Article 9). As of 1 January 2023, many companies will be obliged to disclose, for the previous financial year, the following information: 1) Share of revenue from Taxonomy-aligned activities and 2) Proportion of capital/operational expenditure related to Taxonomy-aligned activities (Taxonomy Regulation article 8). In order to measure the transition towards a circular economy, it is important to monitor circular activities in the economy. Data and information on companies’ communication about circular economy activities can be used as a proxy of the penetration of circular businesses in the economy. However, communication activities do not always translate into eventual action.

The transition to a circular economy is one of the environmental objectives set in the Taxonomy Regulation1 (Article 9). As of 1 January 2023, many companies will be obliged to disclose, for the previous financial year, the following information: (1) share of revenue from Taxonomy-aligned activities and (2) proportion of capital/operational expenditure related to Taxonomy-aligned activities (Taxonomy Regulation article 8). However, it is unknown yet whether organisation-level data will be aggregated and published by the European Commission.