Michael Brunn

Digital twins are considered a key technology of Industry 4.0. But their potential extends far beyond efficiency gains in production. As a data-based mapping of products and processes, they can create the transparency required for closed material cycles. In the article "Digital twins as enablers for circular economy development in the context of Industry 4.0", scientists from the University of Cologne show how digital twins and digital product passports can change recycling and what economic opportunities arise from this. The article was published in the "Journal of Applied Organizational Psychology".

Digital technologies are considered the key to the circular economy. But new data shows that digitization alone does not bring about sustainable transformation. Only when digital participation strengthens social security, political stability and intergenerational justice will the willingness to implement circular business models increase. The study "Digital Equity as a Catalyst for Circular Economy Transition" by researchers from Dubai shows why the circular economy needs more social infrastructure than technical innovation.

The construction industry needs to drastically reduce its environmental footprint through the transition to a circular economy. The central tool here is material passports, which provide digital information on the origin and recycling potential of building materials. Despite technical advances, however, research remains fragmented, as the link between data quality and practical circularity strategies such as reuse is often missing. This unsettles decision-makers and hinders nationwide deployment. The study "Evaluating material pass-ports for circularity in the construction industry" by Chinese academics closes this gap through a systematic analysis of literature and case studies. The aim is to develop a stand-ardised data structure that defines the necessary depth of information for a sustainable circular system.

The circular economy is considered a central concept for sustainably coping with the increasing consumption of resources and the growing amounts of waste. More than two billion tons of waste are already generated worldwide per year, and this number is projected to grow to 3.4 billion tons by 2050. This development is a burden on the environment, the economy and society in equal measure. Digital technologies open up new perspectives for this. They can modernize traditional waste management systems and effectively support central principles of the circular economy. At the same time, there are considerable challenges. Against this background, the study "Artificial Intelligence and IoT for Smart Waste Management: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Directions" by Indonesian scientists examines the role of AI and IoT in the circular economy, presents key applications and discusses obstacles as well as opportunities for a sus-tainable transformation. The study was published in the "Journal of Future Artificial Intelligence and Technologies".

Food waste is a global sustainability problem: around a third of the food produced is lost or dis-posed of every year. This leads to massive economic losses, inefficient use of resources such as water and energy, and high greenhouse gas emissions from the landfilling of organic waste. Since private households are responsible for around 60 percent of this waste worldwide, it is increasingly becoming the focus of the circular economy. In the hospitality sector, AI-supported systems have established themselves in recent years as an effective tool for measuring, analys-ing and reducing waste through targeted feedback. Against this background, the study "Explor-ing the potential of AI-driven food waste management strategies used in the hospitality industry for application in household settings", published by American scientists in "Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence", examines how such technologies can be adapted to households and what role they can play in the implementation of circular economy principles.

The transition to a circular textile economy requires new forms of collaboration and, above all, reliable data along complex global value chains. Digital product passports are considered a central political instrument to improve transparency, traceability and recyclability of textiles. Based on empirical insights from European textile recycling, the strategy paper "Digital product passports: The golden thread through textile recycling?" by Pesco-Up ex-amines the potential that digital product and material passports can actually unleash, where their limits lie and what prerequisites must be met for them to become an effective enabler of data-based circularity.

It is widely accepted that digitization offers enormous potential in all areas of society. However, it is largely unclear what exactly this can look like. This also applies to sustainability. The Wuppertal Institute has examined the possibilities in the impulse paper "Digital Germany: Political, Economic and Social Impulses for Sustainable Digitization in Germany on Eight Levels".

The circular economy pursues the goal of keeping resources in circulation for as long as possi-ble and avoiding waste. With advancing digitalization, new opportunities are emerging to im-plement these principles. The report "Opportunities and Challenges in Implementing Circular Economy within Digital Platforms" by academics from Colombia, Indonesia and Singapore ex-amines the opportunities and challenges arising from the implementation of circular economy principles in digital platforms. The aim is to demonstrate the potential of digital technologies for resource efficiency and sustainable business models and at the same time to identify the obsta-cles that make broader implementation difficult. The report was published in "International Transactions on Education Technology".

Industry is considered a key player in the circular economy. It consumes significant amounts of energy and raw materials, generates large waste streams and at the same time has enormous potential to decouple value creation from resource consumption. Digital technologies play a central role in this. But despite these high expectations, the digital circular economy is making slow progress in many industrial companies. The study "Barriers to the Adoption of Digital Technologies for a Circular Economy: Insights from the Manufacturing Industry" by German scientists identifies a total of 36 concrete barriers that are slowing down companies on their way to a digitally supported circular economy. The study was published in the "Journal of Circu-lar Economy".

The Circularity Gap Report Brazil by Circle Economy shows that the Brazilian economy is strongly linear. Only 1.3 percent of the materials used are secondary raw materials, well below the global average of 6.9 percent. The report identifies great potential for transformation through regenerative agriculture, industrial symbioses and circular building material flows. The national circular economy strategy launched in 2024 provides a framework, but requires con-crete targets and cross-sectoral action.