Sustainable circularity performance indicators to optimize waste management at company level

The circular economy is one of the new challenges for companies that want to achieve sustainability objectives. Although many recommendations in the scientific debate confirm the importance of sustainable circularity performance evaluation and underline the difficulty within companies to simultaneously evaluate social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability. To solve this gap, experimental research has been conducted in an Italian company, in which new performance quantification model has been design and tested with the aim of supporting companies in optimizing waste management and maximizing sustainable circularity of internal processes through multicriteria assessment tool. The study attempts to create a set of indicators named the Sustainable Circularity Performance (SCP) model to concretely measure sustainability of operations. The SCP model, which was tested in an Italian manufacturing company, shows how reducing industrial waste can lead to process improvement through cost savings, reduction of hazards to health and safety, and mitigation of environmental effects. In the experimental case study, the overall vision obtained by the SCP model allowed the company to understand the sustainability results of its operational choices. From the research results, integrated assessment of environmental, economic and social aspects is more important than ever to guide practitioners and managers to choose sustainability. In the manufacturing sector, the path of reducing waste and optimizing processes is very advantageous both to improve environmental performance and the economic and social ones.