Drawing on cross-sector case studies from construction and food to finance and retail, this white paper illustrates how circularity is being translated into business models, procurement systems and design strategies.

It looks at systems thinking, industrial ecology, design innovation, business models, enabling mechanisms and behavioural change – all of which are key to understanding and implementing circularity across business and policy contexts.

The paper finds that organisational culture, leadership and behavioural change are as critical as technical solutions; EU policy momentum is accelerating uptake through regulation, finance and public procurement; and businesses that embed circularity across functions and align it with broader sustainability goals are best positioned for the future.

In a changing political landscape, the implementation of circular economy strategies presents significant potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing fossil fuel use and altering trade dynamics. Circular economy strategies related to material reduction, reuse and recovery complement industrial decarbonisation measures and have the potential to double GHG savings by 2050.

Through a multi-method analysis, this study shows that an ambitious circular economy scenario can yield substantial annual GHG savings across selected energy-intensive sectors and decrease EU imports, reducing trade dependency and increasing the trade balance by over EUR 30 billion compared to the decarbonised baseline.

This roadmap is designed to enable national governments to shift from a linear to a circular economic model.

This study on regenerative agriculture explores the climate impact of current Fertiliser, Agrochemical, Tillage, Bare-soil, Agricultural Systems (FATBAS).

It takes the position that FATBAS is a significant factor in both driving the immediate land-based climate change impacts we are seeing, including ‘global drying’, drought, heating, flooding, fire and heat domes, and increasing the risks of extreme weather events.

FATBAS, by driving down soil carbon and related stored water, reduces the evapotranspiration of plants. This in turn reduces land-based moisture circulation in the form of rainfall. Evapotranspiration of plants cools the planet’s surface areas, whereas sunlight on bare soils heats both the region and the atmosphere.

It calls for FATBAS to be replaced by regenerative agriculture.

Due to rising demand and shrinking supply, the built environment and its raw material suppliers must align with regenerative cycles. This thesis aims to create a circular procurement framework to determine and preserve building asset value at end-of-life, establishing transparent, measurable standards that reduce waste and optimise resources.

It creates a transparent and measurable standard for the circular procurement process, reducing waste and optimising resource use. The thesis focuses on four major deliverables: a database of site and inventory inspections, an exit scenario and resource recovery plan, a partial deconstruction plan, and an online marketplace for resource trading.

The framework uses existing tools and indicators to establish the circular procurement process.

The BioBoosters community aims to help build innovation partnerships that can enhance circularity by optimising biomass use, material flow management and value created.

This publication looks at how nine leading bioeconomy companies around the Baltic Sea have approached the circular transition in this region's bioeconomy sectors. The stories highlight barriers, enablers and success factors and showcase the impact of open innovation and inter-regional cooperation. With the support of the BioBoosters innovation community, these companies have applied open innovation to find cooperation partners and solutions to make their businesses more circular, sustainable and profitable.

The stories look at digitalisation for sustainability and biomass optimisation and sourcing.

The EU legislature has been working on legislation to transform the European economy into a circular one. One of the focal points of that legislation is the extension of the useful lifespan of products on the EU market.

This report analyses the legislative initiatives containing such measures. First, it describes their potential impact for the Belgian and Flemish policy level. Second, it explains their potential impact on businesses active in the Flemish region. Third, it describes how Belgian policymakers could help ensure that EU legislation reaches the fullest circular potential within its framework.

It also highlights potential shortcomings of EU legislation, where Belgian policymakers could consider advocating changes to that framework at EU level.

This research aims to map the magnitude and value associated with repair as a circular strategy in Flanders.

Repair is a key element in any circular economy strategy, preventing resource depletion, keeping goods in circulation longer, and reducing environmental impacts related to the energy needed for new products. However, the development of metrics to measure progress in scaling up repair efforts is incomplete. Knowledge gaps exist in sectors such as textiles and furniture, while more is known about electronic and digital devices.

The study concludes with recommendations to promote a repair culture, focus on textiles, recognise the value of informal repair activities, encourage repair skill acquisition, address gendered patterns and combat the throwaway culture that hinders repair.

The inclusion of green clauses in public procurement contracts is gradually becoming an obligation in certain sectors in the EU.

This report highlights the role of green public procurement (GPP) in the transition to a circular economy through an analysis of the European regulatory framework. It looks at both hard (e.g. Batteries Regulation) and soft law (European Commission working documents). Relevant European legislation that is still in the adoption phase (e.g. Construction Products Regulation) is also considered. 

An overview of useful model clauses for implementing GPP shows how these clauses can contribute to promoting the circular economy in public procurement. The study lists measures that could make GPP a more effective tool in the circular economy transition.

This book looks at Flush and Forget (FaF) systems, a traditional method of dealing with sewage which mixes everything (urine, faeces, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic-resistant material, personal care products, forever-chemicals, microplastics and a wider range of other pollutants) together and transports it by water. FaF cannot deal with these components and incineration is generally the only option.

There are better, less wasteful alternatives; vacuum  toilets, for instance, 'flush' using the force of vacuum rather than water and separate faeces and urine at source. There is far less waste water to be treated, creating opportunities for anaerobic digestion for green biogas followed by hyperthermophilic composting of the residue, and saving huge amounts of clean water.