Term	Definition
Circular economy	An economic model that designs out waste, keeps materials in use, and regenerates natural systems.
Regenerative business	A business that restores and improves the environment and society as it operates, not just minimizing harm but creating net positive impact.
Designing for circularity	Creating products or systems that can be reused, repaired, or recycled instead of discarded.
Planetary boundaries	The limits within which humanity can safely operate without causing irreversible environmental damage.
Planetary accountability	Taking responsibility for a business's impact on Earth's natural systems and resources.
Decoupling growth from resource use	Growing economically without increasing the consumption of finite materials or energy.
Sustainability vs. circularity	Sustainability is the broader goal; circularity is a specific approach to achieve it through design, reuse, and regeneration.
Upstream impacts	Environmental or social effects that occur early in the supply chain, such as raw material extraction or processing.
Closed loop sourcing	Using materials that are continually reused in the production cycle instead of being discarded after one use.
Reverse logistics	The process of moving goods back from customers to reuse, recycle, or dispose of them responsibly.
Modular design	Designing products in parts so they can be easily repaired, upgraded, or replaced.
Design for disassembly	Creating products that can be taken apart easily to enable reuse or recycling of components.
Take-back model	A system where companies take back used products for recycling, refurbishing, or safe disposal.
Reuse vs. recycling vs. upcycling	Reuse keeps a product as-is, recycling breaks it down to make something new, upcycling improves or repurposes it creatively.
Lifecycle impact	The total environmental effect of a product from raw material extraction to disposal.
True cost accounting	Including environmental and social costs (like pollution or worker harm) in the financial cost of a product or service.
Carbon pricing	Putting a cost on emitting carbon dioxide to encourage businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Circular KPI	A metric that tracks progress in circular practices, like reuse rate, waste avoided, or product lifespan.
Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions	Direct (Scope 1), energy-related (Scope 2), and value-chain-wide (Scope 3) greenhouse gas emissions from a company.
Stranded asset	An investment that loses value because it's no longer viable in a low-carbon or circular future.
Emotional durability	Designing products people love and want to keep, reducing throwaway culture.
Access-over-ownership	Business models where users rent or share products instead of owning them outright.
Product-as-a-service	Selling the service a product provides (like clean clothes or mobility), not the product itself.
Resale / rental / subscription commerce	Models that extend product use through secondhand selling, renting, or recurring access.
Low-impact user journey	Designing the customer experience to minimize waste, emissions, and unnecessary consumption.
Behavior nudging	Designing systems that subtly encourage more sustainable choices by users or customers.
Environmental externalities	Environmental costs (like pollution) that businesses often don’t pay for directly but that affect society.
Greenwashing	Making exaggerated or false sustainability claims to appear more environmentally friendly than reality.
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance)	A framework to evaluate a company’s ethical impact in environmental, social, and corporate governance areas.
Climate-related financial disclosures	Reporting on how climate change impacts a business’s financial risks and opportunities.
Systemic risk	A risk that affects entire systems - like the global economy or ecosystems - often with cascading effects.
Sustainability narrative	The story a company tells about its commitment to environmental and social responsibility.
Normalize reuse / repair in content	Using media or messaging to make circular behaviors like mending or reusing feel mainstream and aspirational.
Visual culture in circularity	How design, imagery, and media shape perceptions of sustainability and influence behavior.
Values-based marketing	Promoting a brand based on its core beliefs and social or environmental commitments, not just its products.