Circular supply chain and the circular economy: key criteria for green value creation

The future of sustainable business practices lies in the transition towards integrating circular supply chains (CSC) and circular economy (CE). While this shift promises significant benefits, it also requires organizational transformation and a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation. To ensure a successful transition, it is crucial to understand the key factors that drive green value creation. This research intends to identify and prioritize the most important metrics for developing a green value chain that supports the CE and CSC. To address this challenge, the study introduces an innovative approach of the integration between hierarchical structure and fuzzy logic into the Best-Worst Method. A hierarchy fuzzy best-worst method (HFBWM) is proposed to more accurately capture expert judgements and rank most important criteria in developing green value creation. The applicability and validity of the proposed approach are demonstrated to five different circulars: supplier, product, packaging, logistics, and consumer. The findings reveal that in our model, packaging and supplier as part of early stage of the value chain are substantially crucial for establishing the foundation of green value chain. This study supports the integration of CE and CSC driven by important factors of the green value chain creation through reuse-oriented design, environmentally raw materials, and circular technologies.