Scaling circular business models will help the EU achieve its objectives of competitiveness, circularity, resource security and resilience. However, these models have yet to be taken up widely across Europe.

Circular business models can be scaled in three main ways: scaling out (expanding customer numbers); scaling up (influencing structural conditions to support broader adoption); and scaling deep (inducing cultural and behavioural shifts).

Critical thresholds to scaling can be identified: a minimal viable scale; a niche scale; and a transformation point.

There are five key enablers for scaling: regulation and other policies; technological innovation; finance and insurance; social innovation and behavioural change; and supply-chain and ecosystem collaboration.