Circular economy projects are systematically undervalued and it’s preventing economic transformation
A new framework from Quantis and WWF Germany, supported by the BDI and Bertelsmann Stiftung, gives finance and sustainability teams the tools to make the real economic case for circular projects.
Many companies are already running successful circular business model pilots, take-back programmes, remanufacturing lines, product-as-a-service models. Yet a consistent pattern emerges: these initiatives prove technically feasible and strategically relevant, but rarely scale beyond the pilot stage.
Why Circular Economy Projects Are Often Undervalued
Companies rely on investment frameworks focused on short-term financial metrics, overlooking key value drivers of circular business models:
- Multiple revenue streams across the lifecycle
- Material and residual value
- Resilience to volatility
- Strategic advantage
- Cost of inaction
As a result, circular investments often look less attractive than they really are.
The new report by WWF and Quantis aims to provide finance and sustainability teams with a practical framework to build stronger economic cases for circular projects and quantify the value of the circular economy.
Closing the Valuation Gap: A Business Case Valuation Framework for Circular Economy Investment
The framework, developed in the study by Quantis and WWF, sets out 10 quantifiable Circular Value Drivers, grouped into Risk & Resilience, Strategy & Competitiveness, and Organization & Ecosystem, covering effects like supply chain resilience, customer lifetime value, and operational learnings. Each driver comes with a formula, supporting evidence from expert interviews, known limitations, and a worked example, so finance and sustainability teams can plug the missing inputs directly into the metrics their organisation already uses.
To apply the framework, the report outlines a practical three-step process: diagnose the investment’s specifics, identify and prioritise which drivers apply, and integrate them into the existing appraisal. A case study then puts it into practice, applying the framework to a fictional take-back and remanufacturing programme for industrial compressors.
Want to know how to apply the framework in practice?
Join our live webinar October 22, 2026 from 11AM to 12 AM, CET.
The partners welcome feedback, challenge, and engagement from companies who want to apply the framework, test its assumptions, and help develop it further.
