The Basque Circular Summit is one of the largest events on eco-design and circular economy in Europe. It aims to provide information about major circular challenges, to analyse the opportunities for the Basque economy and to highlight the work carried out by local companies through public-private partnerships with a view to reaching the objectives of the Basque Circular Economy and Bioeconomy Plan 2024.
The EURE project is organising a conference in Brussels on 29 June (09:30-16:00 CEST) on the new territorial models for the management of European urban policy and the role of small and medium-sized cities in proposing a renewed European urban policy adapted to the challenges of our times.
The European Commission has launched new resources to help buildings professionals to start using Level(s), the EU common language framework for monitoring and assessing the sustainability performance of buildings. Level(s) is a simple entry point for applying circular economy principles in our built environment.
This Policy Dialogue will take place on 7 June starting at 14:00 CEST. It will consider the importance of strategic resources, notably critical raw materials, for achieving the European Green Deal objectives, and the role for a circular economy in enabling access to those resources.
The built environment has a huge impact on the environment. This means that it is a key lever for achieving both the goals set by the Paris Agreement and many other sustainability objectives. Activating that lever will require a long-term transformation of the entire sector.
The circular economy is a way to secure resources, limit impact and promote affordability.
The Metabolic Institute, supported by the Laudes Foundation Built Environment Programme, set out to explore the circularity of the built environment in Europe. The resulting snapshot lays out key challenges, needs and opportunities in this field.
This exploration fed into the process of shaping a new programme starting in May 2022: Accelerating the Circular Economy in the Built Environment.
During this event, members of the Inclusive Wise Waste Cities (IWWCs) project from China and the Netherlands will explore the transition to the circular economy.
Circular economy interventions in four key sectors can halt global biodiversity loss and help the world's biodiversity recover, finds this study.
Tackling root causes - Halting biodiversity loss through the circular economy, written by experts from Sitra and Vivid Economics, is the first to quantify the role a circular economy can play in tackling global biodiversity loss, targeting the four sectors with the largest impacts:
Circular interventions in these sectors can halt biodiversity loss even if no other action is taken. And more than that, the study finds that the world’s biodiversity can recover to 2000 levels by 2035, if the circular interventions are implemented.
A circular economy plays a key role in halting and reversing global biodiversity loss. Join the webinar on 13 June to discuss the findings of Sitra’s new study and its linkages to key business and policy measures.
The second Circular City Centre (C3) webinar in the morning of 17 May will focus on circular city actions and solutions. A new C3 guidance document on this topic will be presented and cities will share information and experiences about their circular actions and initiatives.
The European Commission is currently working on a proposal to revise the GPP criteria for buildings. To participate in the consultation process, you can register as a stakeholder on the website. The deadline for comments is on 10 May 2022.
The LCA4Regions partners are organising a conference in Brussels on 12 May. This will be an opportunity to share their project's initial outcomes and discuss how to apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to improve policy planning and actively make conscious decisions about resource efficiency and investments, with a focus on the sustainable built environment.
Learn on Friday 3 June how the Level(s) tools can help you implement core indicators to assess and report on the sustainability performance of buildings.
The circular economy (CE) is gaining momentum in cities. To ensure a sustainable CE, it is crucial to measure the environmental performance of CE strategies. However, environmental assessments overlook several strategies that are a key feature of urban CE practice. These include reuse and repair, sustainable built infrastructure and urban land use, green public procurement, smart information and access technology.
To provide insights into the environmental performance and potential of these strategies, industrial ecologists and municipalities should:
The 3rd Symposium on Circular Economy and Sustainability will take place in Chania, Greece on 27-29 June 2022. Researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs are invited to submit both empirical and theoretical papers that are broadly consistent with any of the topics covered by the Symposium.
The circular economy has the potential to tackle the main drivers of biodiversity loss, including land-use change, climate change, overexploitation, and pollution, by transforming how we produce, consume and manage materials. During this official side-event on 24 March 2022 at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations, the role that a circular economy can play in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework through supporting sustainable use of biodiversity will be explored.
ReCreate pushes towards circular construction by investigating the system changes needed in the whole ecosystems of construction and demolition.
The availability of a quality infrastructure system – networks of roads, railways, bridges and waterways – is a prerequisite for all economic activity to flourish and is also paramount for people’s health, wellbeing and safety. Infrastructure is very important for human society - but its adverse environmental impact on our planet is undeniable.
To mitigate the long-term catastrophic effects of climate change and depleting material resources, a circular economy for infrastructure is crucial. The publication Circular Infrastructure: the road towards a sustainable future aims to bring this aspect into the limelight to inspire action by public actors and practitioners.
The built environment has a significant impact on a multitude of sectors, on local jobs and on quality of life. The construction sector accounts approximately for 50% of materials extracted in Europe, and is responsible for more than 35% of Europe's waste.
This paper by ENEA focuses on circular economy in the construction sector, by illustrating the main market dynamics related to materials for buildings and infrastructures, and active and/or potential value chain collaborations in a circular and industrial symbiosis perspective.
The paper offers an overview of:
Contributors:
You are invited to participate in a webinar led by the European Commission, DG ENV, on 8 March 2022, to launch a "Support study for the development of the Roadmap for the reduction of whole life carbon of buildings", .
This workshop brought together experts from various organisations to discuss topics like the undervalued importance of infrastructure in tackling climate change, discuss the markets for secondary resources, the relevance of deconstruction design to enable the renovation wave, and stress value-chains collaboration.
On 17 and 18 January 2022, the ECESP Coordination Group will present Europe's pioneering work done by its Leadership groups in the field of the circular economy before a global audience at the Circular Europe Days in Dubai.
To evaluate the impact of adopting circular economy principles in cities – in terms of emissions, quality of life and resilience – Enel and ARUP, with the scientific support of the Enel Foundation, have collaborated on a research project focusing on four cities: Bogotá, Genoa, Glasgow and Milan, all committed to enhancing the energy transition.
The study concerns three key urban sectors:
It entailed interviews with stakeholders and analyses of existing decarbonisation policies and circular strategies. A reference model was used to help identify the most significant circular actions that could lead to a reduction in GHG emissions in three sectors.
The results could be used as a guide for decision makers.
Re-think Circular Economy Forum Milan 2022 on 10 and 11 February 2022 is designed to present a vision on macro-trends, possible evolutionary paths, and main projects concerning the Circular Economy both at a national and international level.
Its main purpose is to stimulate the birth and development of innovative and entrepreneurial activities that could have a positive impact on local and national economic systems. Over the two-day forum, corporates, startups, research bodies, and institutional actors will present the projects they are carrying out and supporting at different levels.
In Limbo is a platform (digital website and physical warehouse) facilitating the reuse of materials within the social and cultural sectors and schools in Brussels.
It encourages exchange and mutual aid within these sectors, as well as boosting recycling, reducing landfill costs and enabling organisations with limited resources to obtain reusable materials. Following the principles of circularity and sharing, all partners are invited to give and receive materials for free.
In Limbo is open only to registered partners which must be formal or informal non-profit associations or collectives, specifically social, cultural and artistic organisations, schools and temporary projects in Brussels. However, In Limbo accepts donations from all types of organisations.
Watch a video on In Limbo
