Redesigning industrial systems supporting a systemic shift towards a sustainable circular economy for achieving Net-Zero

This special issue provides a systemic and multi-layered perspective on how circularity is designed, enabled, assessed, and governed across industrial systems and supply chains. The contributions collected are organized into three main topics: (i) circular ecosystems, including the role of circular supply chain design, industrial symbiosis, and circular business models in closing material loops and reshaping value creation; (ii) the main enablers of circular ecosystems, in particular digital technologies, organizational capabilities, and stakeholder engagement; (iii) the assessment, governance, and decision-support frameworks, which support the alignment of circular strategies with decarbonization targets and sustainability objectives. Beyond synthesizing existing knowledge in the field, this editorial identifies promising future directions. They include the development of consistent accounting frameworks that integrate circular economy actions with decarbonization and Net-Zero goals, the assessment of the environmental impacts and trade-offs of digital enablers, the examination of governance and power asymmetries in industrial symbiosis ecosystems, the integration of behavioral dynamics in reverse systems modeling, the operationalization of circular business models, and the transferability of circular solutions across industrial sectors. Addressing these research directions has the potential to advance circular economy research from isolated solutions towards coherent, scalable, and credible ecosystem-level transitions.