European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform

More than ever during the COVID-19 crisis, the circular economy has asserted itself as the model that can accompany recovery and enable a higher and better growth, through a systemic vision that makes it possible to tackle the most relevant challenges nowadays: the climate crisis and the environmental impact.

Companies must heighten their ambitions over the next Decade of Action, to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), by adopting a production and consumption model by 2030 that allows societies to keep growing economically, but under planetary boundaries and in the light of societal challenges.

This, in brief, is the content of the report Máxima Ambición Circular para la Década de la Acción (in Spanish) published by Foretica.

ACR+ is launching a publication to show the development and implementation of circular bioeconomy strategies in different contexts, focused on three detailed regional case studies in Navarre, Bayern and Flanders.

In the framework of a collaboration agreement with the French Pays de la Loire region, ACR+ set up a working group on circular bioeconomy, with a particular focus on governance. The objective of the working group is to support the development of local or regional roadmaps on circular bioeconomy where public authorities have a strong role in terms of steering and supporting the development of circular bioeconomy on their territory. The governance of circular bioeconomy publication is the result of the ACR+ activities implemented via the working group.

ACR+ is launching a publication on the development and implementation of circular bioeconomy strategies in different contexts, focusing on three detailed regional case studies in Navarre, Bayern and Flanders.

Under a cooperation agreement with the French Pays de la Loire region, ACR+ has set up a working group on the circular bioeconomy, with a focus on governance. The working group aims to support the development of local and regional roadmaps for the circular bioeconomy, as public authorities steer and support the development of the circular bioeconomy on their patch.

The publication is the result of activities implemented by ACR+ through the working group.

Commissioned by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), which advises the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and co-authored by Circle Economy and Shifting Paradigms, this report uncovers the range of socio-economic and environmental co-benefits that circular mitigation interventions can bring to GEF countries of operation.

The report supports strategic advice by the STAP to the GEF and its implementing partners, and helps carve out a role for these bodies in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon circular economy. Its findings will be highly relevant to the development of future GEF projects and programmes across its different focal areas.

The circular economy offers new answers to the question of how 9 billion people can survive on this planet, accepting that there are planetary boundaries and climate change is ongoing.

The aim of this study is to identify drivers of the big five globally largest material flows by mass - ferrous metals, aluminium, paper, glass, asphalt - from a circular perspective and to understand the story behind them.

The focus is on what the development of the BIG 5 tells us about intentions, because this will also reveal the unintended. 

This study might inspire industrial managers to take the right decision and pave the pathways to a circular society that is just, balances out social and ecological needs and will provide a solid ground for survival of mankind on planet earth.
 

+impact, a platform aimed at supporting Nordic start-ups with their ambitions to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has released a report about Nordic start-ups contributions and challenges while promoting its sustainable objectives. An evaluation of the impacts by those start-ups has led to the drafting of “10 myths about the Nordic impact space”, which explores to what extent common perceptions about the Nordic entrepreneurial space are valid or not. In conclusion, the report states an early adoption of the green agenda, balanced welfare societies and thriving start-ups ecosystems as good factors towards a privileged position of the Nordic start-ups on their contributions to promoting the SDGs.

REVOLVE magazine has published several articles on waste management and smart cities:

• Re-imagining the Future of Waste

Future is waste. When it comes to climate change and environmental degradation, waste is both the problem and the solution.

• Smart and green public servicies in Euro-Mediterranean cities

This article focuses on the Interreg MED Green Growth Community's work on developing green and smart public services in Euro-Mediterranean cities.

• Euro-Mediterranean resource efficiency for the EU Green Deal

Here’s a look at Euro-Mediterranean projects that have been making progress on the ground.   

The term "eco-innovation" basically boils down to innovation. What does eco-innovation really mean? And what is the link between eco-innovation and a more circular economy, particularly in the Mediterranean region?

A wide range of initiatives and programmes point towards innovation being key to enabling green growth. Eco-innovation and the circular economy: are they two sides of the same coin?

It is becoming clearer - and more urgent - every day that we need to abandon the linear economy. The climate emergency together with the economic crisis that the region is experiencing makes a transition based on eco-innovation a priority for a more sustainable future for the Mediterranean.

Read the full article here.

One of the ways we can accelerate the transition to a circular economy is to change our procurement practices. Programmes like ProCirc are running pilot projects to test the waters.

In an article titled Pathways to circular procurement, Joan Prummel and Cuno van Geet, two experts on the subject working at Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, explain the benefits of circular procurement and how to get started.

Textile products have a tremendous ecological footprint at all stages of their lives. This new report by the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), provides a comprehensive analysis of the current situation and goes on to explore the policies and standardisation actions needed to advance towards circular textiles, building on the lessons learnt from the implementation of the ecodesign approach in other sectors.

ECOS argues that textile products put on the EU market should comply with a minimum level of sustainability. Mandatory ecodesign requirements for textiles are needed to address minimum lifetime, as well as durability, reusability, repairability, recyclability, prevent the presence of hazardous chemicals, and limit microplastics release at all stages.