The Circular Supply Chains Accelerator

Description

The current economic model used across the world is largely linear, where resources are extracted and made into products that are discarded at their end of use. This continual demand for primary materials often creates supply chain insecurity, as many critical resources are not available domestically. In addition, the standard linear economy model results in significant energy use and carbon emissions, generates large volumes of waste, and removes materials from the economy that still have significant value. Instead, a circular economy model promotes retaining products and materials in the economy as long as possible, using pathways such as reuse, repair, remanufacture, and recycling. This contributes to secure, domestic supply chains of important materials, minimizes the environmental impacts of the products and materials we use, and maximizes economic benefits by keeping products and materials in the economy as long as possible. Advancing a circular economy is critical to achieving¿the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE's) mission. Recently, EERE published Circularity for Secure and Sustainable Products and Materials: A Draft Strategic Framework, along with a Request for Information (RFI).1 This Strategic Framework describes EERE’s goals and efforts in circularity across the products and materials that are most important to clean energy technologies. It also identifies challenges and opportunities to leverage circularity for securing supply chains, advancing decarbonization, benefiting communities, and creating jobs. The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) led the development of this document; taking a wholistic approach to advancing a more circular economy is a key focus of AMMTO’s secure and sustainable materials program. Unlike most approaches to increasing supply chain security and decarbonization, circularity has the potential to have a significant impact in the near term. We are in a unique moment where awareness of and investment in circularity is growing, and technologies are being developed to advance these goals. This is an important opportunity to capitalize on this momentum and take ambitious actions that will drive national-level impacts in advancing the circular economy. One major conclusion from the Strategic Framework is that major advancements in circularity cannot be done through technology development alone, they require the alignment of technology, policy, business models, and other factors. Analysis is needed to identify future work across these areas, and a vast array of stakeholders must be connected to carry it out. AMMTO and EERE have invested in innovations for circularity that have the potential for even greater impact if this technology development is incorporated into a broader, more wholistic approach to circularity by incorporating stakeholders with expertise in factors like policy and business models.

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