Circular Trailblazers: Scale-Ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy

The report defines circular trailblazers as impact scale-ups that go beyond their own commercial growth to transform entire industries. It identifies five key tactics these companies use to achieve systemic impact: storytelling, setting higher standards, sharing insights, initiating collaboration, and influencing public policy. The document also outlines four critical ecosystem supports: storytelling platforms, patient capital from knowledgeable investors, consultative policy-makers, and strong market connectivity. Research indicates that trailblazers are rare, representing only 1% to 2% of organizations in the scale-up phase globally.

• Circular trailblazers are a rare subset of impact scale-ups, with research indicating that only 1% to 2% of organizations in the scale-up phase globally enact a trailblazing strategy, totaling approximately 3,500 companies.
• Impact-oriented ventures have a 43% higher chance of successfully scaling up compared to purely commercial companies, suggesting that dual goals of commercial growth and societal impact improve success odds.
• Trailblazers employ five specific tactics to achieve systemic impact beyond their own market share: storytelling for impact, setting a higher standard for products, sharing technological insights and intellectual property, initiating collaborations with peers and multinationals, and influencing public policy through consortiums and advocacy.
• The transition to a circular economy is urgent as global material use is projected to almost double from 89 Gt in 2017 to 169 Gt by 2060 if no new policies are implemented.
• Effective ecosystem support for circular trailblazers consists of four elements: platforms for storytelling to build credibility, knowledgeable investors providing patient capital, consultative policy-makers, and high market connectivity across value chains.
• Founders and CEOs of trailblazing companies typically possess significantly more professional and entrepreneurial experience than those of non-trailblazing impact scale-ups, averaging 20.6 years and 5.5 years of experience respectively.

APA

World Economic Forum (2021). Circular Trailblazers: Scale-Ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Circular_Trailblazers_report_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Circular Trailblazers: Scale-Ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy. 2021. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Circular_Trailblazers_report_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Circular Trailblazers: Scale-Ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy |date=January 2021 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Circular_Trailblazers_report_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2021circular, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Circular Trailblazers: Scale-Ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Circular_Trailblazers_report_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }