Circularity and sustainability towards zero waste

Leveraging on JCU Singapore campus’ strategic location within the ASEAN business hub, CITBA’s Circular Economy and Sustainability (CES) flagship bring multidisciplinary expertise from across the three JCU campuses to uniquely weave social and environmental sciences into evaluations of real business models in line with the framework of sustainable development. Our flagship collaborates with private and public sector partners to embed circularity into real-world business models and communicate its relevance on sustainable development in tropical Australia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and China.

Circular economy theorizes a closed-loop system where finite resources are reused and kept in a loop of continuous usage. This cradle-to-cradle approach interrupts a linear consumption model and its built-in obsolescence that we are experiencing today. The circular economy model has thus far dealt with materials and resources with the advancement in technological innovation, however, the next leap in understanding and implementation requires the evaluation and incorporation of intangible factors. Such an interdisciplinary approach requires the decoupling of economic growth from a reliance on resource extraction and negative human impacts. The team builds intangible social and environmental analyses into CES evaluations including digital analytics. Digital aspects of the program will be supported by Accenture, while Ogilvy & Mather will collaborate with CES on public education campaigns, thus extending the reach and impact of the flagship.

This flagship aligns with JCU’s Strategic Intent by engaging peoples and societies of the tropics in industries and economies that sustain communities and ecosystems. The research that we do is directly aligned with SDG 12, SDG 9 and SDG8 and supports SDG 1 and SDG 2.