Corporate climate action is critical in supporting the transition towards a low-carbon economy. This paper explores what design practices have been adopted by manufacturing companies that have committed to science-based emission reduction targets and are making progress towards those targets. We contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of circular economy (CE) actions related to product design supporting firms in reaching their emission reduction targets, contributing to the calls for more research showing evidence between CE adoption and emissions reduction.

Finding the ways that work to deliver the innovation needed should be given parity of esteem with getting the prices right as a focus of the economics profession and policy systems. Learn from experience as regards carbon pricing and carbon-reducing innovation; insights from the latter coming mainly from the US, China and Europe; demographically relatively small countries – Denmark (wind) and Australia (solar PV) – can make outsize contributions. A carbon price ceiling is too low to drive innovation; generating carbon-reducing innovation requires that it be explicitly recognized as a priority, and nurtured accordingly: identify the priority area(s) where innovation at scale will be necessary to make progress; baseline the elements of the innovation ecosystem which are already in place, and the gaps that need to be filled. Key elements include institutions and incentives that promote innovation, a research and enterprise community that make it happen, and a supportive public.