To prevent consumers from buying items they use only a few times a year, Usitoo enables customers to rent these instead. The cooperative has a catalogue of hundreds of items that its customers can rent with credit, thus making the possession span of these items much longer.
ISATIÓ is a Brussels SME that recovers samples from the textiles industry to create unique designer clothing, with manufacturing all done locally and the supply chain covered entirely by bicycle couriers.
Suckõrs is an Estonian company that uses reed growing naturally on the shores of Estonia to make reusable, biodegradable drinking straws and a new raw material for producing goods. Their products can be cleaned and reused multiple times and, once they have reached the end of their lifecycle, they will decompose naturally.
The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. The Next Closet’s mission is change this and inspire people to invest in quality and reuse what they already have, so second hand can become the number one choice.
To show how zero waste can become reality and provide inspiration for consumers to change their lifestyle, two Brussels entrepreneurs have set up the first waste-free and circular coffee house.
RePack is the easiest way to implement circular economy in eCommerce. Using reusable and returnable RePack packaging service means sustainability in every package.
The reusable RePack bags are and made of durable and recycled materials and come in three adjustable sizes. They replace single-use packaging as the customer chooses RePack as the mean of package for delivery.
Sulapac has developed a fully biodegradable and microplastic-free material innovation to replace plastic. The wood-based material is both recyclable and mass-producible.
Wolkat is an family owned group of innovative, international textile recycling companies. It is offering a circular solution for textiles. Collected textile is transformed in-house to new products through sorting, recycling, spinning and weaving. All collected textile is transformed into a final product with hardly any water or any dye, leaving only 4-5 % waste from all textiles.
The central theme of this report is how to greatly enhance resource efficiency. The proposition is that a circular economy, where products are designed for ease of recycling, reuse, disassembly and remanufacturing should replace the traditional, linear ’take, make & dispose’ model that has dominated the economy so far. Most studies so far on the circular economy focus primarily on the business case for enhanced resource efficiency. This report rather focuses on the social benefits that a transformation from a linear to a circular economy would entail. In this report the focus is on Poland and the Czech Republic.
The central theme of this report is how to greatly enhance resource efficiency. The proposition is that a circular economy, where products are designed for ease of recycling, reuse, disassembly and remanufacturing should replace the traditional, linear ’take, make & dispose’ model that has dominated the economy so far. This, no doubt, is a major prerequisite to stay within the Planetary Boundaries.
The report identifies ten attractive circular innovation and investment priorities for Europe until 2025, totalling €320 billion. Despite the favourable financial context, investment in circular economy opportunities is still generally too low. The Foundation's previous research Growth Within outlined a long-term circular economy vision for Europe; this new report identifies the most important investment opportunities along with the policy reforms and business actions needed to unlock them. The report focuses on the mobility, food and built environment value chains, which together represent 60% of consumer expenditure and 80% of resource use.
In a circular economy, growth comes from ‘within’, by increasing the value derived from existing economic structures, products and materials. This major report quantifies the benefits for Europe – in terms of growth, household income, and environmental outcomes – of adopting a circular development path compared with our current linear one. Incorporating in-depth analysis of three of Europe’s largest basic needs, mobility, food and the built environment, the report provides a vision of how the circular economy could look, and highlights wide-ranging implications for government and business leaders.
The report describes the concept of the circular economy and outlines its key characteristics. It draws attention to both the benefits and challenges in transitioning to such an economy and highlights possible ways to measure progress.
The report explores the circular economy from a product perspective, applying a systemic approach and transition theory. Drivers of product design and usage are discussed in the context of emerging consumption trends and business models. For governance to be effective, it has to address the product life-cycle and the societal context determining it. Indicators and assessment tools are proposed that can help fill the current data and knowledge gaps.
The Circular Phone report provides practical answers to common financing pitfalls for circular businesses, using Fairphone as the real-life example.
So far, businesses striving to implement “Product-as-a-Service” models have had the challenge of reconciling the need to find financing parties with the complexities of their own business model.
To achieve a financeable model for the Circular Fairphone Service, the Community of Practice created a blueprint for Fairphone’s business model. Through the creation of a legal template – a 1st Circular Service Contract - and a financial cash flow tool, the group has proven that the gap between the businesses and financiers can be bridged.
On 11 May at 3 p.m. CEST, join Rijkswaterstaat, Madaster, Restado/Concular and Institut National de l’Economie Circulaire for online interactive workshops showcasing success stories and identifying challenges and opportunities in fields such as public procurement, digital logbooks and circular design for infrastructure work. Registrations are open!
On 15-16 April, the Netherlands and Sitra will be organising a high-level digital conference, the World Circular Economy Forum + Climate, to meet up and discuss the crucial role of a circular economy in achieving climate neutrality.
In the run-up to the WCEF+Climate event in April 2021, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is organising a WCEF+Climate pre-event: the Circular Climate Booster, hosted by Holland Circular Hotspot and Springtide International.
RREUSE is organising its second online study tour designed to help public authorities implement re-use activities. The tour is tailored for representatives of local, regional and national authorities, municipalities and public waste companies wishing to develop re-use activities in their area using a social enterprise model.
As the Horizon 2020 research programme becomes Horizon Europe, what better time to witness how great ideas turned into real projects? LOOPS will be the opportunity to show what cutting-edge research has been produced, and which changes it can bring to our communities. The topic of the episode on 12 April will orbit around the concept of circularity in the textile industry.
TCO Development has invited H&M to talk about their work on the sustainability initiative “Double Sales – Half Impact”. The session will explore how the initiative changed the organisation and what H&M has learned from it.
Circular Innovation Lab invites you to the launch event for ShopC - the first ever marketplace for circular fashion & lifestyle. Circular Innovation Lab has invited an exciting panel of participants – representatives of international organisations and fashion brands and circular economy experts – exploring topics such as sustainability, innovation and circular fashion & lifestyle.
On 26 March, the Dutch provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe and Northern Netherlands organise a webinar on the greening of Europe’s transport system and the contribution of inland ports to the transition to a sustainable and circular mobility sector.
The European Commission, in partnership with the city of Mannheim (DE), will hold a European Social Economy Summit on 26-27 May.
On 23 March (1:30 - 3:00 pm), in preparation of this summit, the EESC is organising a workshop to discuss how to bring a civil society perspective to the debate on the contribution of Social Economy Enterprises to the transition towards circular economy in Europe.
Tondo – an international non-profit organisation working in the field of circular economy – is pleased to announce its first hackathon, realised in collaboration with the Circular Economy Lab of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and Cariplo Factory and under the patronage of the Cariplo Foundation. The hackathon on 23-24 April will be held entirely in Italian.
