The circular economy (CE) represents a fundamental shift in how organizations design, operate and renew their built environment. Moving away from the traditional “take-make-waste” linear model, the circular approach seeks to eliminate waste, extend the life cycle of materials and assets and regenerate value across operations. For the facility management (FM) profession, this shift offers both a strategic opportunity and a practical challenge: how can FM inspire cross-functional collaboration to embed circular thinking across the organization?
This question formed the foundation of IFMA’s 2025 Executive Roundtable: European Edition, which brought together senior European FM leaders and cross-sector experts to explore the role of FM in enabling whole-organization circularity.
Building on IFMA’s 2024 research report “Circular FM: The Role of the Circular Economy in Facility Management,” the Roundtable moved the conversation from theory to action, examining not only what circularity means in FM, but how it can be operationalized in collaboration with key departments across the business.
METHODOLOGY
To surface rich, practical insights, the Executive Roundtable used a Knowledge Café format, based on the World Café[1] methodology. Participants rotated between discussion stations themed around core organizational functions:
C-suite
Finance & Procurement
Information Technology
Marketing
Real Estate (CRE)
Other Functions (HR, Legal, Government, Production, etc.)
C-suite
Finance & Procurement
Information Technology
Marketing
Real Estate (CRE)
Other Functions (HR, Legal, Government, Production, etc.)
At each station, participants responded to five key prompts:
- What role does this department play in supporting a circular economy transition?
- How can FM teams inspire collaboration with this department?
- What specific tools, training or capabilities are needed?
- What metrics or KPIs should be used to track progress?
- What challenges could this department face?
Each group built on the ideas left by the previous participants, generating cumulative, diverse and collaborative input that reflected both strategic vision and operational insight.
OVERVIEW OF KEY FINDINGS
TThe Executive Roundtable: Europe highlighted that while circular economy goals are becoming embedded in strategy and ESG commitments, the transition remains uneven across functions.
Some departments, such as Real Estate and IT, are already engaging with circular principles through data, design, and procurement practices. Others, such as HR, Legal, and Compliance, recognize the importance of CE but are still exploring how it fits within their current mandates.
Five themes emerged consistently across all discussions:
- Circularity must be integrated into core business logic, not added on top. Functions emphasized the importance of embedding CE into existing processes, from procurement and capital planning to policy, operations, and internal communications. There was a strong call for CE to be positioned as a strategic imperative, not a sustainability initiative.
- Facility Management plays a vital connective role as a ‘circular translator’. FM was consistently seen as the function capable of bridging strategic ambition with operational reality, coordinating action across departments. FM’s systems view and cross-functional reach place it in a unique position to turn intent into implementation.
- Shared understanding and language are essential to avoid fragmentation. Many participants noted that CE concepts remain abstract or misunderstood within their teams. A shared, organization-wide vocabulary was seen as essential to move beyond awareness and toward aligned action.
- New tools, capabilities, and data systems are urgently needed. Across functions, there were repeated calls for access to clear, decision-ready data, whether through dashboards, BIM models, digital twins, or performance metrics. These tools are seen as foundational for tracking circular outcomes and enabling confident, evidence-based decisions.
- The barriers are not just technical, they are cultural and structural. Participants identified resistance to change, lack of accountability, and siloed decision-making as major challenges. Overcoming these will require new governance structures, better internal storytelling, and a shift in performance measurement that values long-term, cross-functional outcomes.
Together, these findings reinforce that a circular economy transition is as much about people and culture as it is about materials and systems.
The following pages detail the specific roles, insights, and needs identified by each organizational function during the Roundtable conversations.
- Circularity must be integrated into core business logic, not added on top. Functions emphasized the importance of embedding CE into existing processes, from procurement and capital planning to policy, operations, and internal communications. There was a strong call for CE to be positioned as a strategic imperative, not a sustainability initiative.
- Facility Management plays a vital connective role as a ‘circular translator’. FM was consistently seen as the function capable of bridging strategic ambition with operational reality, coordinating action across departments. FM’s systems view and cross-functional reach place it in a unique position to turn intent into implementation.
- Shared understanding and language are essential to avoid fragmentation. Many participants noted that CE concepts remain abstract or misunderstood within their teams. A shared, organization-wide vocabulary was seen as essential to move beyond awareness and toward aligned action.
- New tools, capabilities, and data systems are urgently needed. Across functions, there were repeated calls for access to clear, decision-ready data, whether through dashboards, BIM models, digital twins, or performance metrics. These tools are seen as foundational for tracking circular outcomes and enabling confident, evidence-based decisions.
- The barriers are not just technical, they are cultural and structural. Participants identified resistance to change, lack of accountability, and siloed decision-making as major challenges. Overcoming these will require new governance structures, better internal storytelling, and a shift in performance measurement that values long-term, cross-functional outcomes.
Together, these findings reinforce that a circular economy transition is as much about people and culture as it is about materials and systems.
The following pages detail the specific roles, insights, and needs identified by each organizational function during the Roundtable conversations.
International Facility Management Association (IFMA) supports over 25,000 members in 140 countries. Since 1980, IFMA has worked to advance the FM profession through education, events, credentialing, research, networking and knowledge-sharing.