Leasing a car or an apartment is part of everyday life. But what if you could also lease daily household products like a washing machine or a lightbulb?

The circular economy aims to do just that. It's a system designed to keep materials and resources in use for as long as possible.

And it's become an attractive business strategy for companies looking to extend the life of their products and achieve sustainability targets.

"The circular economy is in essence the way of moving forward from 200 years of linear value chains," said Peter Lacy, senior managing director at Accenture Strategy and author of "Waste to Wealth – the Circular Economy Advantage."

Most organizations operate in a linear model, which is based on the notion of "take, make, and dispose." So, for example, a lightbulb company would take resources, like metal and glass, to manufacture its products. It makes lightbulbs and sells them to customers, who eventually dispose of them.

But the linear model can leave companies vulnerable to big swings in the prices and scarcity of materials.

"What the circular economy does is it changes that relationship in the shape of those value chains to be about take, make, take, make," Lacy said.