10 The transformational power of Circular Innovation

The strategic economic and societal impact of innovation across our global economies is indisputable. In considering Circular Economy (CE) transitions, the role that innovation can play should not be underestimated; the critical question is how, if today’s economy is still linear? High numbers of new business opportunities, created to meet user, market and societies ever-novel demands, have increased the emphasis placed on responsible and sustainable products and services, but will extended responsibility and sustainable goals create a timely enough transition? This chapter considers innovation from inside and outside the organisation’s boundaries and explores circular innovation - where refocused, regenerative and balanced outcomes are created by realising new opportunities, generating novel ideas and developing radical solutions. We discuss the use of state-of-the-art approaches for strategic and innovation management, guided by the CE principles, to uncover how companies can navigate the innovation ecosystem to couple firm-level CE transformation with CE transitions. Our rich examples of different types of circular products, services and processes aim to demystify the complexity of circular innovation and show that it is possible to achieve significant results, even when starting in a linear regime. Our reflections on the power of creating a circular innovation journey and a culture that is genuinely committed to experimentation pave the way for the circular transformation of the company.