Compliance Readiness

At this level, circularity is on the agenda — but the agenda was set externally. CSRD, ESRS, ESG frameworks, extended producer responsibility, or customer procurement requirements have forced a response.

The organisation is doing something. But what it's doing is shaped by obligation rather than strategic intent. Ownership typically sits with the sustainability team, procurement, or risk — not across the business. Compliance exists, but it hasn't changed how the organisation actually operates.

This is a real and necessary stage. Compliance matters. But on its own, it does not create organisational readiness.

Reporting happens but nobody owns the outcomes. The ESG team is isolated. Circularity is treated as a tick-box exercise. No internal demand for change exists beyond what regulation requires.

The deeper problem: compliance activity creates the appearance of progress while the underlying organisation hasn't changed. That makes CRL3 — where people actually need to adopt new behaviours — extremely difficult.

Compliance is a necessary floor, not a strategy. It satisfies external obligations but doesn't change how decisions get made, how products are designed, or how value flows through the business.

Without the shift to CRL3 — where people actually start to behave differently — compliance activity stays cosmetic and the organisation stays linear underneath.