32 2 Theoretical Foundations
enforced by policies and laws. In other countries is a voluntary engagement
and mainly driven by the organizations themselves. Further in China there is
a special focus on circular economy as a socioeconomic principle in contrast
to circular economy as an environmental measure (Naustdalslid 2014). The
following three principles reflect this societal organization of circular economy
(Geng and Doberstein 2008):• Circular economy on a micro level includes every measure on a corporate level.
Mostly, those measures are initiatives for a cleaner production which cannot
actually be called circular economy measure if they are not somehow related
to the other two levels.• Circular economy on a macro level means the approach on an inter-firm level
or in industrial parks. Organizations build a network in an integrated manner
to increase resource efficiency, e.g. by using by-products from each other. In
China it is apparent that these networks are usually integrated industrial and
residential sites which include not only the production factories but also areas
for scientific activities and service areas to serve the community.Circular economy on a meso level presents a challenge for local authorities to link
activities from the other two levels and to systems on a wider territorial level.
Processes are required to link individuals, households and social infrastructures,
such as transport, reuse of consumer items and energy-savings arrangements. It
is within this context that eco-cities or eco-provinces are developed (Naustdalslid
2014; Geng and Doberstein 2008).
• To support the implementation of the circular economy the NDRC initiated
a number of pilot projects nationally in which 109 enterprises, 33 industrial
parks, seven provinces and 19 cities participated (Xue et al. 2010). One of these
initiatives introduced a system of indicators to provide objectives and credible
information on the current status of circular economy implementation. To de-
velop this system of indicators, the NDRC invited representatives from politics
and academia to share their experiences of circular economy implementation
at national and supranational level. The indicator set consists of the following
four categories:• Resource output: Amount of GDP produced from resource consumption
• Resource consumption: Used amount of resources per produced unit
• Integrated utilization: Level of material recycling
And waste disposal/pollutant emission indicators: Amount of disposed material
and emissions (Geng et al. 2012).