The article explores the current state of circular economy adoption in Romanian small and medium-sized companies and their conceptualization regarding organizational excellence through the lens of environmental concerns. A survey of 52 companies from diverse sectors is conducted by means of a questionnaire and the results obtained are analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (correlation analysis, ANOVA, and variance testing). The results obtained indicate a growing body of knowledge and best practices that at company level are starting to evolve past the material and pro-cess efficiency preoccupations and towards an incipient understanding of environ-mental excellence, with positive interest ranging between 40% and 86%. Also, re-spondents recognize strong complementarities between circularity, sustainability, and organizational excellence. The need for an advanced systemic strategy, support policies, resource management, and stakeholder engagement is highlighted as the path towards achieving sustainability goals in conjunction with market success and not in spite of it.