Circular Transition Indicators V1.0 – Metrics for business, by business

Published: 21 Jan 2020
Type: Publication

As the circular economy grows in momentum, it is imperative for companies to prepare for their transition based on insights into their circular performance and associated risks and opportunities. To do this, business needs a universal and consistent way to measure its circularity.

According to the Circularity Gap Report, the global economy is only 9% circular today.1 The Circular Transition Indicators (CTI) shaped by 26 WBCSD member companies help answer questions like:

  • How circular is my company?
  • How do we set targets for improvement?
  • And how do we monitor improvements resulting from our circular activities?

The CTI is simple, applicable across industries and value chains, comprehensive yet flexible, complementary to a company’s existing sustainability efforts and agnostic as to material, sector or technology. Central to the CTI stands a self-assessment that determines a company’s circular performance. Although the use of common indicators for circularity performance is essential to accelerating the transition to the circular economy, the value of the CTI for a company goes beyond the calculation in the guidance, analysis and explanation for how circularity drives company performance.

The CTI process helps companies to scope and prepare the assessment and interpret its results, understand its risks and opportunities, prioritize actions and establish SMART targets to monitor progress.

The CTI is inward-facing, objective, quantitative and based on demonstrable data. This data may sit in hidden corners of the company or even outside the company, with its value chain partners. In order to support and guide companies through this process, we have partnered with Circular IQ to develop the CTI online tool available at

Through the tool, the CTI initiates value chain discussions, which are essential to accelerating the transition to the circular economy. The CTI delivers a framework to prepare this response. It does not provide a rating but leaves it to the company to determine whether the results are in accordance with its ambitions, putting the company in the driver’s seat of its own circular transition.

We invite companies of all sizes and industries worldwide to demonstrate their commitment to the circular economy by measuring their circular baseline guided by the CTI and supported by its online tool. 

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