14 Jan 2021
In this new episode of Re-think Webinars we will look into another circular city: Lisbon.
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Business incubators, Startups
Ecopreneur.eu - the European Sustainable Business Federation
The European Sustainable Business Federation Ecopreneur.eu features six national associations with 3000 sustainable companies - mostly SMEs.
A member of the ECESP Coordination Group, Ecopreneur.eu is the international business organisation in Brussels committed to ambitious measures, rules and regulations for a low-carbon circular economy. Ecopreneur.eu advocates a new economic framework by bringing concrete experience from pioneering companies into the political debate, showing best practice examples and advocating the needs of green SMEs in a credible way.
The Ecopreneur.eu Low-Carbon Circular Economy Advocacy Group is a sounding board of circular economy pioneers, including Tarkett, Werner & Mertz, Interface, REMONDIS and HUMANA Kleidersammlung.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, or how to accelerate the transition to a circular economy
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy. It works with, and inspires, business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilise systems solutions at scale, globally.
Its vision is a new economic system that delivers better outcomes for people and the environment. Business models, products, and materials are designed to increase use and reuse, replicating the balance of the natural world, where nothing becomes waste and everything has value.
A circular economy, increasingly built on renewable energy and materials, is distributed, diverse, and inclusive. The Foundation’s work focuses on six interlinking areas:
- Learning
- Business
- Institutions, Governments and Cities
- Insight and Analysis
- Systemic Initiatives
- Communications.
Arthur ten Wolde
Michael Laermann
CIRCULÉIRE – Ireland’s National Platform for Circular Manufacturing
CIRCULÉIRE is Ireland’s first cross-sectoral circular economy innovation network, first designated EU circular economy hotspot, and is supported by several government departments. Its goal is to accelerate the transition towards a net-zero carbon circular economy in Ireland.
CIRCULÉIRE is co-creating innovative solutions with Irish industry from the agri-food, pharmaceutical, recycling, medical devices, ICT and built environment sectors. It has a dedicated innovation fund to invest in innovation demonstration projects.
CIRCULÉIRE also engages with a wide range of stakeholders from the Irish innovation ecosystem through our open-access circular economy knowledge library and capacity building activities including annual thematic working groups and workshops.
PREVENT Waste Alliance
Initiated under the patronage of the German Development Minister Gerd Müller, the PREVENT Waste Alliance was launched in May 2019. It serves as a platform for exchange and international cooperation. Organisations from the private sector, academia, civil society and public institutions jointly engage for a circular economy.
The PREVENT Waste Alliance wants to contribute to minimising waste, eliminating pollutants and maximising the reuse of resources in the economy worldwide. Members of the platform work together for waste prevention, collection, and recycling as well as the increased uptake of secondary resources in low- and middle-income countries.
The platform focuses on waste from plastic packaging and single use products as well as waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Join the REFLOW community to become a circular and regenerative city, business or citizen
REFLOW is an EU H2020 funded project that seeks to understand and transform urban material flows, co-create and test regenerative solutions at business, governance, and citizen levels to create a resilient circular economy.
The project aims to develop circular and regenerative cities through enabling active citizen involvement and systemic change to re-think the current approach to material flows in cities. For more info, read the Reflow whitepaper.
Hosted on the REFLOW website, the Community of Practice (CoP) houses a Forum for exchange, a Best Practice Database and a host of Circular Resources. By becoming a member of the community, you join an ecosystem that is designed to share resources, knowledge and practical solutions to accelerate the transition towards circular cities.
Urban Click
missing in the original / SK
Concular - Digital platform enabling circular construction
Concular disrupts the construction industry by developing a circular process for material flow. The system is based on an AI-driven platform that matches buyers’ demand for construction material with suppliers’ circular materials.
Cliona Howie del Río
About this contact:
Cliona Howie is the head of circular economy development and transition for EIT Climate-KIC. She has been working as an environmental consultant for over 20 years, starting as an expert in Environmental Impact Assessment and over the years working for both the public and private sectors in areas such as conservation, resource efficiency, industrial ecology and symbiosis, environmental certification and management schemes, the REACH regulation and sustainable industry. Cliona has held important roles such as championing sustainable business in SMEs as the Chair of the Environment Sector Group for the European Commission’s Enterprise Europe Network for several years, as well as sitting on a range of committees and working groups for the European Commission to influence policy and EU funding programmes, including the Circular Economy Expert Finance Group.
Currently, Cliona develops large-scale, deep demonstrations on circular economy transition. She works closely with national and regional governments as well as other stakeholders such as business/industry, research organisations and financial bodies to promote political and economic support from the European Union and its Member States to develop policies in favour of a circular economy by fostering the development of national and regional strategies and tools for cooperation. Cliona advocates for a systemic design and approach for a regenerative, low-carbon, circular transition across multiple levers of change.
Cliona holds other important roles for EIT Climate-KIC in the area of the circular economy. She is a member of the DG RTD Circular Economy Expert Finance Group and the EU Sustainable Finance Group as the circular economy expert from Climate-KIC. Furthermore, she has been named circular economy expert for the COTEC Foundation which brings together the top 100 experts in Spain.
She holds an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University in the UK and a BSc in Biological Sciences from Clemson University in the United States.
16 Oct 2020
Part of the Circular Week 2020, the Mazovia Circular Congress on 16 October 2020 is aimed at representatives of public administration, local government, enterprises, managers dealing with sustainable development and CSR, start-ups, and media. It will include a panel discussion of various stakeholder groups on how to use circular economy solutions.
Gate C: Helping businesses capture the value of the circular economy
Gate C is a French consulting firm helping clients to map the benefits and capture the value of the circular economy.
Report from the Circular Economy Advisory Board to the Danish government
Circular Opportunities in the Danish Waste System
The Capital Region of Denmark is committed to becoming a fossil-free and circular region by 2050. Inter alia, this entails achieving an 80% recycling rate for the region’s waste by 2035, and growing green business activities by 8% by 2025. New forms of cooperation and dialogues between stakeholders are necessary to reach these goals.
Through a three-year public-private partnership, the Region and its partners aim to pave the way for greater collaboration between the waste sector and the business community. Metabolic collaborated with the Region to undertake a material flow analysis and an environmental assessment of the Region’s waste system, and to identify impact hotspots and circular opportunities.
Read the executive summary of the waste analysis, or the full Danish report.
Fit for a circular future: Competitiveness & Innovation
White Paper #4 - Fit for a circular future: Competitiveness & Innovation
The fourth Thematic Working Group (TWG) set up by Interreg MED's Green Growth community implemented and assessed solutions to promote competitiveness and innovation of Mediterranean SMEs in a circular economy.
The TWG's White Paper addresses the following issues:
- smart specialisation, public-private partnerships and innovative funding;
- lack of effective clusters for companies and stakeholders to connect, work together and transfer innovations;
- limited access of SMEs to tools, services and funds driving innovation;
- limited consumer awareness and interest in “green” and “circular” products and services.
DigiCirc - Digital innovations for the Circular Economy
The EU-funded DigiCirc project aims at enabling the digitalisation of the Circular Economy by building upon the innovation potential of SMEs. It accelerates innovation by identifying cutting-edge circular economy solutions and by promoting business development and start-up growth.
DigiCirc will build and coordinate an innovative network of stakeholders that will set the foundation for an open space for innovation performed through the DigiCirc accelerators.
45 circular innovations, addressing sectoral challenges and generating new value chain, will be selected through open calls in three domains:
- Circular cities
- Bioeconomy
- Blue economy.
For more information on open calls (the first on Circular cities to be launched in November) and the accelerator programme click here.
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan: setting the world’s largest single market on a transition towards a circular economy
This case study on the EU's Circular Economy Plan (CEAP) by the Ellen McArthur Foundation reflects back on the steps which the European Commission took to take a lead in circular economy policies globally. From initially aiming at improving resource efficiency, to redefining growth with positive social, environmental, and economic benefits, this case study analyses this policy-making process.
The CEAP was a comprehensive body of legislative and non-legislative actions adopted in 2015, which aimed to transition the European economy from a linear to a circular model. It mapped out 54 actions, as well as four legislative proposals on waste.
By rethinking resource efficiency and material flows, the European Commission has developed a framework to promote systemic change.
12 Oct 2020 to 18 Oct 2020
The Circular Week is an international campaign staging a series of events on circular economy and sustainable development throughout Poland and Europe, in order to promote the idea of a circular economy, support sustainable business models and establish cooperation between interested stakeholders.
The Joint Initiative on Circular Economy
European Investment Bank and national promotional banks launch the Joint Initiative on Circular Economy
On average, a European citizen produces half a ton of waste a year. This amounts to 2.5 billion tons yearly for the entire European Union.
The Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE) is a partnership between the EU’s largest national promotional banks and institutions and the European Investment Bank to invest at least €10 billion in the circular economy by 2023.
It provides loans, equity investment, guarantees, innovative financing structures and technical assistance.
The initiative will support projects that prevent and eliminate waste, increase resource efficiency and promote circular business models. Eligible projects can be submitted to the respective JICE partners.
The City of Helsinki’s Roadmap for Circular and Sharing Economy
Circular and sharing economy to help tackle sustainability challenges in Helsinki
The City of Helsinki’s Roadmap for Circular and Sharing Economy is one of the 147 actions in the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan.
The roadmap includes the following four focuses:
- construction
- procurement
- green waste and
- sharing economy and new business opportunities in the circular economy.
The goals for each focus are set until 2035, with interim goals and supporting practical actions for each one.
Reducing plastic consumption and increasing the use of recycled plastic are among the main topics of the roadmap.
This roadmap is the result of debates in workshops with experts from both inside and outside the City. A team of representatives of the City’s Environmental Services coordinated the work.
27 Oct 2020 to 28 Oct 2020
Re-think - Circular Economy Forum is an international event that brings together various actors operating at different levels in the Circular Economy fields who present a medium and long term vision on Circular Economy topics. The event will be online for the audience while the speakers and the main stakeholders will attend the event physically
Circular Economy Action Plan - Speeding up the green transition of the EU’s economy
Circular economy offers a path to sustainable recovery
The post-COVID-19 recovery plan should be extensive, as the effects of the pandemic on people and economy have, in many cases, been devastating. The recovery plan must also fully support the green transition to guarantee resilience over the long term.
The circular economy has the potential to raise EU GDP by billions of euros, and create around 700,000 extra jobs by 2030. With this in mind, the economic approach should be an integral part of that recovery. It is one of the messages of a new EUROCITIES policy statement on the EU Circular Economy Action Plan that sets out how cities, as significant engines for economic growth, can drive the circular economy to unlock economic, environmental and social benefits.
Poland's Circular Economy Roadmap
The aim of Poland's Roadmap towards the Transition to the Circular Economy (CE), which was adopted in 2019, is twofold: first, to identify cross-cutting measures capable of having the broadest possible impact in Poland, both socially and economically; and second, to prioritise areas that will enable Poland to take advantage of its current opportunities, and to deal with existing or future challenges.
The Roadmap focusses on 5 areas in particular:
- Sustainable industrial production
- Sustainable consumption
- Bioeconomy
- New business models
- implementation, monitoring and financing of CE.
The Roadmap includes a set of tools, which are not purely legislative, to create the conditions for a new economic model in Poland.
EIB Circular Economy Guide
An EIB Circular Economy Guide on how to support the circular transition
The European Investment Bank's Circular Economy Guide aims to promote a common understanding of circular economy, and raise awareness about and promote circular solutions.
The Guide provides information about EIB’s lending and advisory activities in this field, and communicates the vision of how the EIB can further support the transition to a circular economy. It is a living document that will be updated in response to the evolving understanding of circular economy needs, opportunities and risks, and growing experience with the appraisal and financing of circular economy projects.
The story of the case that NEVER gets THROWN AWAY
What is the link between old fishing nets and your smartphone? The casing. POPICASE is the new generation of eco-friendly phone cases by a start-up based in Barcelona.
Strategy for Circular Economy
Danish Strategy for Circular Economy
In 2018, the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food and the Danish Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs launched a Strategy for Circular Economy, based on recommendations by an Advisory Board for Circular Economy. The strategy will be implemented in the period 2018-2022. The government launched initiatives within six thematic areas:
- Strengthening enterprises as a driving force for circular transition
- Supporting circular economy through data and digitalisation
- Promoting circular economy through design
- Changing consumption patterns through circular economy
- Creating a proper functioning market for waste and recycled raw materials
- Getting more value out of buildings and biomass.
CIRCO Training Programme - Creating business through circular design
The CIRCO training programme supports creatives and professionals within the manufacturing industry to create circular business.
OCCE - Organisation for Climate and Circular Economy
The OCCE is a Brussels-based federation that provides support for European investors, territories and innovators in the field of circular economy.
For investors, the OCCE can provide a link between investors/investment companies and the EU/EIB with a view to accessing funding. For territories, the OCCE supports regions, communities and local actors in becoming promoters of innovation, which can then be transformed into CE investments, jobs and industrial success stories. For SMEs, start-ups and project leaders, it can provide support and knowledge, primarily with regard to the EU's financial support mechanisms. And for its members, by sharing its international networks, the OCCE allows them to integrate an international dimension into their projects.
05 Mar 2020
The first edition of the Circular Rethinking Academy - a winter school on Circular Economy - took place in Rovereto (Italy) from 3rd February to 5th March 2020.