Circular Buildings: constructing a sustainable future is the latest addition to a series of publications from Holland Circular Hotspot about circular challenges and opportunities in different sectors including infrastructure, plastics, manufacturing and textiles and apparel industries.
It explores how circular economy concepts can help tackle challenges in the building sector, supporting the transition towards a more sustainable and futureproof industry. It provides 25 good practices from the construction value chain and offers a framework for an international shift towards circular construction comprising policies, measurement standards, collaboration initiatives and knowledge exchange.
The consortium CIRCULAR FoodPack worked on solutions to enable the circular use of plastic packaging, focusing on the most sensitive product category: food. The project aimed to develop recyclable packaging with at least 50% post-consumer recyclates incorporated behind a functional barrier.
Medwaves, the UNEP/MAP Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production, is about to launch the Switchers Policy Hub, a space for policymakers aiming to enable the transition towards a green and circular economy in the Mediterranean region.
Policymakers and other organisations are asked to respond to a survey by 15 July 2022 to help Medwaves build a more impactful Policy Hub.
If you are a representative of a retail SME based in a Member State of the European Union, you are invited to complete the survey "Twin transition for Retail SMEs", that is part of an independent study commissioned by the European Commission. The idea is to collect best case stories from SMEs engaged in digitalization to increase their sustainability.
The fashion sector is awash with certification schemes, sustainability labels and multi-stakeholder initiatives all seeking to steer the industry onto a greener course. Such schemes serve a dual purpose for the brands. As the fashion industry is one of the least regulated sectors in the world, they partially exist as a genuine attempt to move towards sustainability but they also enable ‘greenwashing’.
This report has sought to assess whether certification schemes, labels and multi-stakeholder initiatives are fit for purpose and what role they play in addressing the damage done by the fashion industry. The findings show that the majority of schemes offer a false promise of certification for textiles and a highly sophisticated form of greenwashing.
The European Economic and Social Committee has adopted an own-initiative opinion on the European furniture industry's recovery and shift towards an innovative, green and circular economy. The opinion calls on the European Commission to provide more integrated strategies for specific economic sectors, coordinating the various policy fields into an ongoing transition of the European economy.
Circularity offers pathways to achieve a more sustainable production and consumption and to provide benefits to society. Although sustainability entails an ecological, economic, and a social dimension, the discourse on social aspects seems to have been less prevalent than on economic and environmental ones. Hence the need to further explore the social impacts of circularity and its potential societal benefits.
The aim of this report is to frame, address and better understand questions related to the social impacts of the transition to a Circular Economy. The report synthesises the gathered insights into key emerging themes and identifies gaps or areas of potential in the field as part of the Consumer Insight Action Panel (CIAP) project, led by the CSCP and funded by Sitra and DBU.
On Thursday 23 June 2022, from 13:30 to 15:30 CEST, the United Nations Environment Program will be hosting a webinar to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Life Cycle Initiative. The event will take stock of how Life Cycles Approaches have accelerated the transition to sustainable consumption and production.
The European Commission has launched new resources to help buildings professionals to start using Level(s), the EU common language framework for monitoring and assessing the sustainability performance of buildings. Level(s) is a simple entry point for applying circular economy principles in our built environment.
