News

Bureau Veritas Certification

launches Circular+,

a new approach to corporate sustainability

May. 30 2019

Paris, France, May 30th 2019 – Bureau Veritas Certification has launched Circular+, a new approach to sustainability, built on a comprehensive suite of services to help companies transition to a circular business model.


Sustainability is at a turning point, as governments and businesses seek ways to meet commitments to preserve scarce resources, combat climate change, and reduce pollution.

For years, businesses have focused on managing environmental impacts: today, they are looking to go beyond that to meet future regulatory requirements and exceed customer expectations. For many, this means evolving towards a circular economy model - a regenerative business model in which resources are continuously reused and recycled.

 “Public awareness of the threats posed by climate change has grown dramatically in recent years, and governments and companies are increasingly focusing on reducing energy use, resource consumption and waste generation along the product or service life-cycle”, said Sébastien Fox, Vice-President Certification at Bureau Veritas.

Many are turning towards a more circular business model to understand and optimize their use of energy, as well as natural resources such as wood, metals and minerals. However, the circular economy is disruptive: it requires businesses to rethink their existing linear business models which generate waste at each stage of production and consumption, and demands new skills for product and process design. It can be challenging to adopt, particularly for large companies in traditional industries.

As a global leader in environmental and sustainability certification, Bureau Veritas is now supporting organizations of all sizes with its suite of sustainability training, auditing and certification services. Ours is a powerful, customizable, standards-based approach that works for all businesses and achieves buy-in from employees and clients alike.

Bureau Veritas’ Circular+ services provide organizations worldwide with a practical framework to rethink their processes step-by-step.

“Circular+ is a holistic approach that offers process audit and management system services to help organizations manage both their environmental and social impacts,” explained Sébastien Fox.                                                 

A range of training, independent verification and certification products enable businesses to tackle both individual processes and entire business models at a customized speed, revealing supply chain issues and improving transparency. Audits provide a way to identify issues, report on the effectiveness of controls, and track the achievement of objectives over time.

The ISO 14001:2015 standard for environmental management systems is central to the Circular+ approach; it encourages a lifecycle view of products and services, and provides a framework for addressing impacts. Bureau Veritas is also supporting clients on energy management via training, audits and certification to ISO 50001. Risks relating to raw materials are addressed through dedicated schemes, for example FSC and PEFC for wood-based products, or ASI for aluminum.

Companies today also face a number of social concerns: two of the most important being health and safety and ensuring the use of ethical labor practices throughout the supply chain. To accompany clients in these areas, Bureau Veritas offers accredited certification the new ISO 45001:2018 standard for health and safety management, can conduct ethical trade audits (SMETA), and delivers social accountability (SA8000®) certification.