Despite the growing recognition of the benefits of circular economy, there is still a gap regarding the comprehensive assessment of the antecedent factors of circular economy adoption in the equipment manufacturing sector. This sector holds an important position in the industrial sustainability due to its crucial role in producing equipment for other industries, which makes this sector resource intensive and characterized by long product life cycles and a complex supply chain. There is very limited research that has focused on exploring the role of environmental management systems, innovation, and policy support in advancing circular economy adoption. We believe exploring these factors as antecedent factors of the circular economy can uncover critical insights in the broader industrial ecosystem's transition toward sustainability. Similarly, this study aims to investigate the role of environmental management systems, green process innovation, policy support and organizational commitment to sustainability in driving the circular economy forward in the equipment manufacturing sector. The study used primary data, collected through a survey method from managerial level employees working in the equipment manufacturing sector of China. We employed structural equation modelling in AMOS with bootstrap methodology. We used 6000 resamples with 90 percent confidence interval in the bootstrap method. The findings revealed that environmental management system is crucial for driving the circular economy forward. It directly influences the adoption of circular economy, and it indirectly influences via organizational commitment to sustainability and green process innovation. The direct role of policy support in driving the circular economy was not significant. However, the indirect role via green process innovation has been found positive, indicating that a policy support that motivates organizations for green process innovation will bring fruitful results for circular economy adoption. Additionally, the role of policy support for promoting organizational commitment to sustainability was also not significant. We believe that our study is novel as it explored the complex interplay of internal and external organizational factors influencing the circular economy which provides key insights for policy making.