Creative Commons

The following literature-based dissertation was written as part of the M.Sc. in Bioeconomy: Biotechnology and Law at the International Hellenic University. Addressing the climate crisis is one of the hottest topics nowadays, this is especially due to the increased costs of fuel, heating, electricity, inflation and war (access to energy sources), but also for achieving the sustainability goals that have been set, with the world needing to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption by 2030. Looking to achieve these goals, companies have started to move from traditional linear production systems towards more circular systems that promote re-use, re-make, recycle as well as closed loop principles to achieve further waste reduction and minimize environmental impact. It seems more necessary than ever before to find new ways of thinking to address these challenges and as well as “out of the box” solutions to help us mitigate climate crisis, using all applicable existing, but also new tools, technologies and available methodologies in the future that could help the recent discipline of circular economy to advance. Lean methodology can play a key role in developing sustainable solutions, optimizing production chains and eliminating “waste” and therefore, lead to reduction of energy use, better resource planning, improved material consumption and increased green supplier selection to name a few. Lean methodology, since its essence is optimization and reduction of waste, will aid in how to tackle these grand challenges that are global and that impact ecosystems and societies, such as climate change, pollution, waste, biodiversity loss, energy and material consumption and help us to build a better world. At the same time, a new strategy for sustainable growth called circular economy (CE) has emerged and places a strong emphasis on resource efficiency. The objective in circular economy is to guarantee that businesses are sustainable by encouraging recycling and minimizing waste. It places a clear focus on the value of recycling and reusing resources as opposed to using them in a straight (linear) "take-use-dispose" model, to which we have become so accustomed. The circular economy strategy helps firms increase value, not only for their stakeholders and clients, but also while also saving resources and reducing environmental impact. The aim of this literature review is to investigate current terms of Circular economy and Lean manufacturing, as well as to focus on how Lean methodology and Lean tools could be combined with Circular economy principles and tools to enhance sustainability and circularity in a production environment. The study is based on peerreviewed, empirical data in the form of published papers, articles, internet sources and books seeking to provide an analysis of Circular economy and Lean manufacturing tools applicable for suggesting production optimizations and elimination of waste in Lean terms, that can lead to a transformation from Lean to Green. Further, it will be discussed how and which of these Lean-based tools could be used for sustainability propagation and for living the Circular economy paradigm for a better, Lean-er and Green-er future. This review will present examples of classic lean tools applications such as 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Spaghetti diagrams and JIT manufacturing to be used effectively to increase circularity in a production set up, but also discusses the challenges and limitations that these concepts currently face within the manufacturing industry. Once an overview has been derived based on previous studies and cases, the goal of this study is subsequently to analyse, synthesize, evaluate and finally, present the key findings on the topics and precipitate further on future perspectives that could be derived from the combination of Circular Economy & Lean Manufacturing.