Circular economy audit for companies
Ask us about an audit →A balance of raw materials, waste and energy in your plant, with the points of loss
Circularity indicators under ISO 59020 as a baseline
A list of actions with cost, savings and CO₂e reduction
A report for funding applications and ESG reports
Planning a circular economy investment or a funding application? Talk to us about a circular economy audit.
What is a circular economy audit?
A circular economy audit looks at how your company uses resources. We check how much raw material you buy and how much ends up in the product. We also check how much becomes waste and what happens to the product after use. The result is a list of actions that cut your use of new raw materials and your waste, with costs and savings.
This audit is wider than an energy audit. Energy is one of the flows, next to materials, water, waste and packaging. It also covers the product and the business model, such as repair, remanufacturing or taking back used products from customers.
We build the mass balance from purchases, production data and waste reports (in Poland, the BDO register).
We calculate how much each action cuts your company's carbon footprint in Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
Every recommendation has a cost, a yearly saving and a payback period.
Who is a circular economy audit for?
For manufacturers, small, medium and large, where raw materials, packaging and waste are a clear cost item. Examples of sectors with large material flows:
Construction products
Concrete, ceramics, insulation, steel and gypsum products.
Packaging and plastics
Films, rigid packaging and plastic products.
Metal and wood processing
Process waste, shavings, offcuts and scrap.
Food industry
Organic waste, process water and packaging.
When does a company need a circular economy audit?
Most often for one of four reasons:
The PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) sets recyclability rules for packaging and minimum recycled content in plastic packaging from 2030. The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) sets ecodesign rules and the Digital Product Passport.
Companies reporting under ESRS disclose resource use and the circular economy in standard E5.
A customer asks about recycled content, how recyclable your product is or your plan to cut waste.
EU and national programmes fund environmental audits and studies that help a company move from a linear to a circular model.
What does a circular economy audit cover?
We set the scope for a plant, a line or a product group. A full company audit covers six areas:
Raw materials: purchases, use and losses; the share of recycled and renewable materials.
Waste: types and amounts from your waste records, how it is handled and its place in the waste hierarchy. We also look for waste that could become a by-product.
Energy and water: use in processes, heat recovery and closed water loops.
Product and packaging: durability, repairability, recyclability and recycled content.
Business model: repair, remanufacturing, rental, taking back used products, and links with other firms, where one company's waste is another's raw material.
Circularity indicators: the share of reused or recycled materials coming in and the share of waste going back into use, under ISO 59020.
How does a circular economy audit work?
Scope and data
We set the audit boundaries and collect 12 full months of data on purchases, production, waste and utilities.
Site visit
A walk through the plant with a process engineer. We look for losses that do not show in the figures.
Flow balance
A map of materials, waste and energy for the plant or a selected line.
Actions and payback
A list of technical and organisational actions with cost, savings, payback period and emission cuts.
Report and review
A report with priorities and a roll-out schedule, which we go through with your board.
What do you get after a circular economy audit?
A flow map: raw materials, products, waste and energy in tonnes and MWh, with the losses marked.
Baseline indicators: the share of recycled materials, the waste recovery rate and other indicators that you can compare a year later.
A list of actions: with cost, savings, payback period and CO₂e reduction.
A roll-out plan: the order of actions and which ones may qualify for funding.
Data for applications and reports: material for a funding application and for ESRS E5 disclosures.
Why choose EXERGY for your circular economy audit?
We analyse the prices, quality and carbon footprint of recycled materials.
We also carry out energy audits, so we assess energy in this audit the same way.
EXERGY specialists run the audit. We have worked in this field since 2017.
Meet the team
Experienced EXERGY specialists run every project with our own proven methods. We do not give consulting work to subcontractors. We have worked in this field since 2017.
Meet the team →Let's talk about a circular economy audit for your company
Tell us how many plants you have and what you make. We will come back with the scope and price of the audit.
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See also
Product carbon footprint
The carbon footprint of a product under the GHG Protocol and ISO 14067.
LCA
Life cycle assessment of a product under ISO 14040/14044.
Environmental claims verification (ISO 14021)
A check of recycled content and recyclability claims.
EU Digital Product Passport (DPP)
Product data for the passport required by the ESPR.