Sustainable construction guidelines for public authorities – A circular economy perspective aims to help public authorities navigate through the topic of sustainable construction, understand what it means and determine how to encourage it.

The guidelines are especially targeted at local and regional authorities, as they play a crucial role in the whole construction life cycle not only by stimulating innovation and cooperation between all actors but also because they work at a level close to citizens.

Unlike most of the literature on the topic, these guidelines focus on circularity and material resource efficiency, rather than covering only energy efficiency extensively. Moreover, the report goes beyond waste to integrate the whole value chain of the construction sector.

"Chambers for a Circular Economy - Actions to Support SMEs' Transition to a Circular Economy" aims to offer a clear overview of the wide range of initiatives led or co-managed by Chambers in the field of the Circular Economy, with the intention not only to inform and share innovative actions, but also to spur and motivate synergies, triggering collaborations and the creation of new business models. The aim of each and every of these projects is to enable businesses to evolve from a linear to a circular mode of production and consumption.

This publication presents a total of 32 projects initiated or co-led by Chambers in 13 countries, and categorized under 5 main topics:

• certification,
• circular skills,
• cooperation,
• reuse & recycle and
• waste prevention.

A crucial element in the transition to the Circular Economy are the innovations at production and recycling facilities that aim at ensuring resource efficiency, prevention of waste and the use of production residues or materials recovered from waste as secondary raw materials. A key condition for making these circular innovations work is to better connect policy, law and regulation on the ground.

This guidance was developed to support regulators, policy- and law-makers and businesses to facilitate and carry through such innovations, and rise to some of the commonly shared challenges. The guidance was developed jointly by the Make it Work initiative (MiW), “Project Enabling eco-innovations for a circular economy” and the IMPEL “Waste management and Circular Economy Project”.

What does the circular economy (CE) mean from a territorial perspective?

This report by the ESPON CIRCTER project provides:

1. a territorial definition of a CE based on resource consumption and waste generation intensities and trends across European NUTS2 regions
2. a comparison with other socio-economic trends like employment dynamics and economic growth
3. evaluation of the territorial factors most critical for CE transformations
4. a description of the systemic mechanisms facilitating CE transitions at territorial levels
5. an illustration of policy approaches and best practices supporting the transition towards a CE in various territorial contexts, and
6. guidance supporting local and regional authorities in defining CE strategies.

This interactive policy guide aims to inspire local and regional policy makers to develop circular economy strategies that can change the structure and operations of their economies and industries so that they better contribute to more sustainable economic growth in Europe.

The guide provides suggestions on how to assess the local and regional contexts needed to adopt the right policy strategies and targets. It also gives insights on how to choose the right policy strategy, define priority areas, set favourable framework conditions and how to monitor and evaluate the outcomes.

Examples are used throughout the guide to illustrate the various elements. The guidance is based on analysis and insights generated by the ESPON CIRCTER project, which is co-financed by the ERDF.

Since 2016, the Brussels-Capital Region has set the circular economy as one of its strategic priorities, and is implementing concrete actions to that effect.

Where are we today? Is this just the beginning of a major cultural shift? What are the main challenges ahead? To find out, the authors met numerous actors - public or private - on the ground to better understand the implications of 'circularising' the Brussels Region.

This brochure gives an overview of the promises and limitations for this new economic model with concrete examples, providing inspiration and grounds for further reflection on transitioning to the circular economy.