This paper examines the socio-environmental justice aspects of 11 key EU policies guiding the textile industry's journey towards circularity.

It found that action is needed to tackle overproduction and overconsumption in the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. Steps must be taken to address the impacts of EU circular economy textile policies on the Global South so as to ensure positive social and environmental outcomes. 

The paper also concluded that efforts are needed to make just transition policies globally accountable and alleviation mechanisms integral to the Textile Strategy rather than supplementary corrective measures. Meaningful participatory mechanisms are needed that ensure the democratic inclusion of different views and actors.
 

Circular economy practices are gaining importance in the global textile and apparel value chain. However, the circular economy's social dimension is often overlooked.

To address this problem, this study develops transformative circular futures (TCFs), co-created circular economy scenarios that are diverse and systemic and embed social impact considerations. The aim is to inform policy and business decision making in the textile and apparel value chains of India, the Netherlands and Spain.

The study recommends normalising living wages for direct, indirect and informal workers, implementing regulations challenging the patriarchy, eliminating gender pay and establishing permanent global committees of social actors.

Companies in the textile and apparel value chain have been increasingly implementing circular economy practices. However, implementation has focused on the techno-environmental (hard) dimension, and partly overlooked the (soft) social dimension. There is a lack of empirical knowledge about how businesses in this value chain simultaneously manage soft and hard aspects of circularity and what kind of socio-environmental impact they generate.

This research analysed the soft and hard aspects of ten circular business cases from three countries. It demonstrates that both aspects are integral components of a comprehensive transformative circular transition framework that facilitates the adoption of more inclusive and circular practices while improving sustainability performance.

This paper reviews digital tools that support the transition to a circular economy in the built environment. 

It explores how computer-aided design, building information modeling and computational plugins can assist architects and engineers in creating more sustainable buildings. While Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) remains the main approach for evaluating environmental impacts, the study highlights other methods and tools that can help assess circular design strategies, such as computational methods to design with reused elements and circularity indicators. The paper identifies both the strengths and limitations of these digital tools. 

This research is useful to academics and to practitioners designing buildings aligned with circular economy principles.

Concrete accounts for 8% of the world's CO₂ emissions. Efforts are being made to reduce its embodied carbon, but reusing concrete from existing buildings has significant untapped potential.

This study presents an innovative digital workflow for predicting the lifespan of concrete elements, CO₂ uptake via natural carbonation and embodied carbon savings through reuse. The workflow was tested in a building from the 1960s with high reuse potential. 

It found that most precast elements would last long enough to be reused effectively and that reuse is better for the environment than carbonation.

The digital workflow is useful for quickly assessing lifespan, carbonation and embodied carbon of concrete. It is a useful tool when designing for reuse.

The uptake of green and digital technologies will massively increase demand for critical raw materials (CRMs). Since CRM supply chains are heavily concentrated, this exposes the EU to significant CRM supply risks. Several policy options emerge for the EU to address these risks. Domestically, there is potential to produce primary and secondary CRMs, yet significant time and resources will be required to scale up production.

Material substitution and resource efficiency might also play non-negligible roles with enough R&I support. Internationally, both trade policy and international cooperation (including within multilateral fora) hold significant prospects for mitigating supply risks. If properly managed, stockpiling CRMs can also help shield against short-term supply or price shock.

In recent years, the concept of green jobs has been the focus of increasing attention. The principles of green jobs and green employment are grounded in a variety of evolving concepts such as green economy, green growth, sustainable development and circular economy, which are multi-dimensional and their understanding evolves in both academic and political contexts.

At the EU policy level, the green transition is seen as an opportunity to create jobs in existing and emerging economic sectors. A large number of different approaches to how green jobs can be defined and classified have been put forward. Differences and gaps identified in these existing definitions and frameworks have exposed the need to create a novel, integrated taxonomy for green jobs, which is developed in this report.

With the EU striving to achieve circularity and climate neutrality by 2050, this publication explores the Netherlands' target of reducing primary raw material consumption by 50% by 2030. This is all the more impressive given that the current global circularity rate is 7.2%.

The brochure showcases over 20 best practices from the Netherlands, with an emphasis on the transformative applications of chemical recycling. The toolboxes and strategic approaches presented serve as a pragmatic blueprint for implementing effective and sustainable chemical recycling initiatives.

This white paper examines China's transition to a circular economy.

A new plan for China’s circular economy (CE) was set out in the 14th Five-Year Plan 2021-2025. Circular Innovation Lab's previous paper on China’s Circular Economy Policies: Review and Reflection argued that there has been significant improvement in environmental aspects in China. It also identified challenges in the implementation of past five-year plans, such as coordination challenges, uneven and unsustainable development, and lack of research.

This paper builds on those findings to address the way forward in China's CE transition, including challenges and opportunities.

More than 140 million SMEs make up a significant part of China's economy and technological innovation.

However, they are also responsible for significant environmental issues, with most environmental regulation violations in China being incurred by SMEs. This paper investigates how SMEs can help China transition to a circular economy by harnessing their potential for technology innovation and flexibility in adopting circular practices. By looking into the development characteristics of Chinese SMEs, it highlights the implications for SME-related policies and management and emphasises the need for collaboration between businesses, NGOs and individuals.

By tapping into their strengths, SMEs can play a vital role in delivering the successful transition to a circular economy in China.