Knof is a Slovenian social enterprise with a focus on circularity and sustainability. It operates reuse boutiques, a circular laboratory and a programme for individuals and entrepreneurs supporting sustainable companies.
Under the framework of the INSIGHT project, a Blueprint has been developed to provide specific recommendations on how to promote the application of Industrial Symbiosis and its facilitation to various stakeholders, as well as a roadmap of how the organisations are expected to apply the IS principles, by making use of educational specific inputs and resources.
The WCYCLE Maribor project provides for an innovative urban circular economy system, offering a new business and economic model for the city in the field of efficient resource management.
Since 2000, the “Slovenian Entrepreneurship Observatory” publishes a report annually providing analysis of the situation of Slovenian companies and insight into Slovenian entrepreneurship. In 2018 this report had a thematic focus on the circular economy (CE), with the authors centring in on the drivers and barriers to SMEs integrating CE into business practice.
This report first provides a theoretical framework for the CE, which aims to raise awareness and facilitate information exchange between companies and individuals looking to spread circular innovation. Simultaneously this report also provides an overview of the barriers companies face in transitioning towards circularity, which include a lack of comparable indicators to benchmark and track progress as well as cost of eco-design.
The underlying idea of the Strategy for the Transition to the Circular Economy (CE) in the Municipality of Maribor, as well as the Wcycle project, is to have an own innovative model as a system for managing all resources available in Maribor and the wider urban area.
The model is based on the operation of enterprises that are predominantly publicly-owned and already provide public services for residents. They are the city’s bottlenecks that until now have not functioned as a connecting link, which is a fundamental principle in the circular transition.
Only close cooperation between public companies, citizens, industry and local self-government can lead to a successful interconnected system that optimises resources and results - economic, environmental and social.
Cities and regions in Alpine Space have mainly set their low-carbon objectives and adopted relevant strategies in energy, mobility, construction aso. The project GREENCYCLE aims to introduce the system of circular economy as a holistic approach to support implementation of low-carbon strategies and provide additional 2-4 % greenhouse emission reduction to the partner cities.
