WFZruhr is a network of public organisations and private companies who share circular economy competences in the Ruhr area (Germany). The network members cover the whole range of circular economy services.

WFZruhr allows member companies to take part in industrial symbiosis processes, to cooperate in the field of waste management and to receive support on circular economy issues (including IT, management, etc.).

WFZruhr also organizes top-class events on key circular topics.

The Danube Goes Circular is a circular economy platform, under the Interreg MOVECO project, which involves sixteen partners from the ten Danube countries. The platform offers a space for collaboration, awareness raising and a market place for reusable materials. Hence, it provides opportunities for trading materials and expanding their circularity.

Moreover, the platform offers information on how to extend a product’s useful life cycle and on legal requirements and business good practices linked to the promotion of circular economy.

Another benefit of the platform is that various stakeholders interested in circular topics can team up, which would ideally encourage the formation of partnerships.

For more information on the strategy named The Danube goes Circular, please click here.

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) is a private business and employers' organisation representing approximately 18 000 companies in Denmark. They aim to provide the best possible corporate conditions for their member companies.

The DI network for circular economy (text in Danish only) aims to create a platform for companies that are interested in, working with or want to be updated on the circular economy. It organises three meetings a year, and is open to members of the Confederation of Danish Industry. The network has around 150 members and growing.

Nachhaltig.digital is a platform for stepping up dialogue on the sustainability and digitalisation of SMEs in Germany.

It provides a space for the exchange of ideas, products, solutions, inspiration and discussion - both online and offline. The platform helps companies to use digitalisation to make their business sustainable.

The platform has also focused on the circular economy. As well as providing a forum where companies can interact, Nachhaltig.digital informs them about digitalisation and the circular economy, answering questions and telling them about current trends.

CIRCit was a 3½-year research project, spanning the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. The objective was to help their industry to discover and implement the opportunities of the circular economy.

This project was part of the Nordic Green Growth Research and Innovation Programme funded by NordForsk, Nordic Energy Research and Nordic Innovation.

The project focus areas for the circular economy were:

1. Sustainability screening
2. Business modelling
3. Circular product design and development
4. Smart circular economy
5. Closing the loop for a circular economy
6. Collaborating and networking for a circular economy.

The project webpage contains 101 circular economy case studies in the Nordic region and several scientific publications.

FISSAC is a project seeking to stimulate the coordination and facilitation of work in the construction and demolition value chain. Accordingly, the initiative aims to gather various stakeholders and to encourage the development and adoption of a common methodology and software platform for the exchange of information and best practices.

The overall aim of the project is to help companies with sustainability practices, by creating models that can be used by anyone. The models can be:

• manufacturing processes (such as demonstrations of close-loop recycling processes to transform waste into secondary raw materials)
• product validations (examples of eco-design and eco-innovative construction products)
• industrial symbiosis models (software platforms for example).

Madaster is a platform to register and document a range of materials or products. It offers its services to individuals, companies or public sector institutions that wish to collect and store data about their materials. Madaster stores the data in a secure and efficient way.

Most importantly, the platform offers updated information about the circular values and potentials of the owned materials, thus expanding opportunities for more efficient green management of resources. With the data, Madaster provides the clients with a “material passport” that enables them to use it for moving towards a circular economy.

Madaster has a global focus and operates in several countries (e.g. The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and China).

Circular Berlin is an NGO that focuses on making Berlin circular. Berlin is envisioned as a resilient, citizen-oriented region. Resources are sourced locally and their value is maintained as part of a continuous loop. Circular Berlin operates across areas such as community-building, education, as well as developing knowledge on industries with a high potential for circularity: the built environment, food and biomass, textile and fashion, and materials and products.

Circular Berlin hosts events in which the community meets, debates and exchanges. Topics range from sharing knowledge to collaborative planning sessions, and has built open-source digital tools allowing information to be exchanged more quickly.

For more information on specific projects, consult their website.

The Digital Platform for Circular Economy (CE HUB) recently created by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia showcases circular economy-related information for the business community on:

• possibilities of improving knowledge and practice
• current events in the EU
• potential grants
• financial support
• business models
• possible savings by shifting to a CE business model.

The interactive part of the platform aims to:

• link business people from different sectors,
• present best practice examples, ideas and projects, and
• establish future cooperation and new investments with national, regional and international partners.

The aim is for CE businesses to join the Alliance for Green Transition of Serbia.

Forest Sharing is a platform/marketplace for the shared and innovative management of unmanaged or underutilized privately-owned forests according to PEFC standards, a network where exchanges between owners and economic operators within the supply chain are facilitated and organized, thus creating the economies of scale needed for forest activities (sale of wood or derived products, recreational areas, adventure parks, thematic routes, management of Rural Development Plans etc.) to become economically viable.

The platform, online since September 2020, has around 300 registered users for 2 500 hectares of woods in various regions, with a potential of another 2 000 hectares. In 2019 it was selected as best practice/new business idea within Rosewood.