Experts from 102 countries have joint forces to develop a first set of five Circular Economy ISO standards: the ISO 59000-family. This is extremely important because we need apply the same principles and terminology to move towards a zero waste economy! The number of liaisons is impressive with for example EllenMacArthurFoundation, World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), GRI, ECOS and World Resource Institute.
ISO is facilitating this important international process, after positive voting on a French (AFNOR) proposal in 2018.
France is facilitating the leadership with Catherine Chevauché (Chair, Veolia) and the secretariat of AFNOR.
This ISO Technical Committee is called ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy.
Photo: ISO/TC 323 meeting in Brazil, Sao Paulo in October 2023.
The ISO Circular Economy 59000-family standards that have been published are:
In addition two Technical Reports have been published:
Very important is that the overall scope of the ISO/TC 323 program includes to ‘maximize the contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals’!
This means that the new Circular Economy standards will take into consideration the environmental, social and economic impacts of circular activities.
Circular Economy is strongly related to SDG 12 ‘Responsible consumption and production’ as part of the UN Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Circularity can also have its roots in other SDGs like circularity of buildings and infrastructure in SDG 9 ‘Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’.
Circular Economy activities can have a positive impact on many SDGs.
The European Committee for Standardization CEN has also established a Technical Committee TC 473 to develop Circular Economy guidance that supports the implementation of EU Directives related to the Circular Economy.
Also new European CE standards can be developed. At the moment proposals are being developed for possible voting on Remanufacturing and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
A complex challenge is to build strong connections between Life Cycle Thinking and Circular Economy.
Both circular solutions and Life Cycle Thinking require systemic thinking, a principle inherent to circular economy.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides insights in the impacts along the entire life cycle and is very well suited to assess the sustainability impacts of circular solutions. By combining LCA for environmental impact, Social LCA for social impact and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) for economic impact an holistic view of the sustainability impact of circular solutions can be achieved.
The first international ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy meeting was held 20-22 May 2019 in Paris. Exactly five years later ISO published the first 3 standards: ISO 59004, ISO 59010 and ISO 59020. In October 2024 ISO 59014 was published, followed by ISO 59040 in February 2025.