A quantitative and holistic circular economy assessment framework at the micro level

highlights•Quantitative framework to assess circularity at the micro level.•GRI-based approach that incorporates all goals of circular economy holistically.•Flexible, robust framework that is applicable to all industries and economic sectors.•Detailed circularity assessment of 11 companies from 3 different section. [Display omitted] Circular Economy (CE) aims to solve resource, waste, and emission challenges by creating a production-to-consumption supply chain that is restorative and environmentally benign. A variety of metrics has been developed with the focus mainly on the macro and meso levels. This work introduces a micro level CE assessment framework that provides i) a set of indicators and metrics with sector-specific dimensions, ii) quantitative and holistic CE overall and category-based metrics, iii) media for data visualization and analysis of CE indicators, and iv) an analytical tool to assess multi-national businesses and the multi-scale and interconnected CE supply chains. Using this quantitative tool, companies are able to track their transition towards CE, conduct temporal analysis, and benchmark their performance against their peers and industry’s standards. The applicability and the capabilities of the developed CE assessment framework is demonstrated through three case studies, with the results demonstrating a clear trend towards circularity.