The concept of effective sustainable ESG development of industrial ecosystems in the closed-loop economy

Abstract

The relevance of research is due to the low-level penetration of the closed-loop economy in the world tending to decline: From 9.1% in 2018 to 8.6% in 2020. In order to keep our world liveable and prosperous for current and future generations, global circularity must be doubled to 17%. The industrial ecosystems of the Russian Federation place the great importance on the global sustainability agenda and ESG transformation. However, this fact does not yet allow to overcome the main problems on the way of development of industrial ecosystems in the closed-loop economy of the RF - the galloping growth of production and consumption waste, as well as the trend of anti-decoupling, characteristic of the linear, highly material-intensive commodity-heavy economic model, one of the most inert and unstable. The aim of the study is to substantiate the theoretical concept of effective sustainable ESG development of industrial ecosystems in the closed-loop economy. The dialectical approach is fundamental in the research process, in addition to which we used the systemic, complex, interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, project, value, holistic approaches and the whole complex of methods (comparative analysis, semantic analysis, historical method, method of differentiation of taxonomic features, etc.). The analysis of the narrative of closed-loop economy development on the basis of the historical method and the comparative analysis of the closed-loop economy concepts made it possible to present the closed-loop economy as an umbrella term for a multitude of co-evolving concepts. Identification of the semantic core of the existing definitions of closed-loop economy based on broad and narrow specialized approaches has allowed to represent the author’s vision of the essence of the closed-loop economy. The identification of the primary causes of the need for a closed-loop economy, principles, approaches, factors, strategies at three levels, circular business models, effects on the stages of the chain of circular value creation based on cross-sectoral and holistic approaches, taxon differentiation method based on taxonomic features allowed to identify the essential features of the closed-loop economy in industry and develop the concept of effective sustainable development of industrial ecosystems in the closed-loop economy. The direction of further research is to form a methodology of strategic management of effective sustainable ESG development of industrial ecosystems in a closed-loop economy.