Public policy has a critical role to play in supporting business actors towards their transition to more sustainable and less resource-intensive practices within the context of a Circular Economy (CE). The European Union (EU) CE Action Plan sets a special focus on the role of business in adopting and promoting circular economic principles in their operations, and thus leading the transition towards CE. Companies need to design and adopt innovative business models that enable the capture of residual value in products. Product life extension strategies, such as re-use, hold the highest potential to retain the materials and energy embedded in products. However, companies that adopt such business practices face multiple barriers deriving from the present socio-economic conditions and find themselves in need of direct policy interventions to be able to compete with incumbent firms. This contribution identifies supporting interventions that could enable companies engaging in product life extension to scale up and lead the transition to a CE. Empirical evidence was gathered from such companies in five economic sectors in Sweden through questionnaires. Based on the results, an overarching policy framework is proposed, including wide cross-sectoral policy measures, such as (1) public procurement, (2) increased provision and access to information and (3) government leadership, setting mandatory re-use targets.

中文翻译：

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循环经济中延长产品寿命的总体政策框架——自下而上的商业视角

在循环经济 (CE) 背景下，公共政策在支持商业参与者向更可持续、资源密集度更低的实践过渡方面可以发挥关键作用。欧盟 (EU) CE 行动计划特别关注企业在其运营中采用和促进循环经济原则的作用，从而引领向 CE 过渡。公司需要设计和采用创新的商业模式，以获取产品的剩余价值。产品寿命延长策略（例如重复使用）在保留产品中嵌入的材料和能量方面具有最大潜力。然而，采用这种商业做法的公司面临来自当前社会经济条件的多重障碍，并发现自己需要直接的政策干预才能与现有公司竞争。该贡献确定了支持干预措施，这些干预措施可以使从事产品寿命延长的公司扩大规模并引领向 CE 的过渡。通过问卷调查从瑞典五个经济部门的此类公司中收集了实证证据。根据结果​​，提出了一个总体政策框架，包括广泛的跨部门政策措施，例如 (1) 公共采购，(2) 增加信息的提供和获取，以及 (3) 政府领导，设定强制性再利用目标. 该贡献确定了支持干预措施，这些干预措施可以使从事产品寿命延长的公司扩大规模并引领向 CE 的过渡。通过问卷调查从瑞典五个经济部门的此类公司中收集了实证证据。根据结果​​，提出了一个总体政策框架，包括广泛的跨部门政策措施，例如 (1) 公共采购，(2) 增加信息的提供和获取，以及 (3) 政府领导，设定强制性再利用目标. 该贡献确定了支持干预措施，这些干预措施可以使从事产品寿命延长的公司扩大规模并引领向 CE 的过渡。通过问卷调查从瑞典五个经济部门的此类公司中收集了实证证据。根据结果​​，提出了一个总体政策框架，包括广泛的跨部门政策措施，例如 (1) 公共采购，(2) 增加信息的提供和获取，以及 (3) 政府领导，设定强制性再利用目标.