For a sustainable future we will need to adopt and develop circularity across every industry and sector. It relieves many of the wicked problems tied to waste, and it reduces our use of precious non-renewable resources. But the cracks in the systems of our society run deeper than material flows.
Short-term fixes, or working only on subdomains such as energy or material circularity, are becoming irrelevant in the face of the underlying challenges. There is a need for more systemic, long-term, and holistic approaches. Circularity is only a part of that approach, and not necessarily the most important one.
Circularity does not create social harmony by itself, and it can conflict with systemic resilience.
Symbiosis in Development is a practical framework for integrated sustainable development based on holistic systems and design thinking. It creates a shared language in which words such as Circularity and Sustainability receive definitions that allow them to be related to each other.