Repairmystuff is an online platform based in Ireland which supports, promotes and encourages the repair industry in Ireland.
It promotes a circular economy by providing a free online space for repair companies. It aims to give consumers more options for accessing repair services throughout the country. It also provides consumers with a search tool which suggests service providers according to what needs to be repaired and where in the country the person is located.
In Slovakia and Czechia, an initiative set by three recent graduates has been positively impacting the sector of waste management in both countries. The Elwis Waste Registration System has the objective to increase efficiency in the cities’ waste management systems by helping reducing the amount of mixed waste.
Madaster is an online registry which aims to enable and promote circularity in the construction industry and eliminate waste.
Data are recorded on all components used in a real estate or infrastructure project, such as buildings and bridges. This provides information on how an object can be dismantled and whether the resulting materials can be reused, along with details on embodied carbon and toxicity.
The site includes the Madaster Platform, where material passports can be created. The platform adds details on circularity, environmental impact and residual value. Users can search for specific materials within a set area and ensure that their project complies with regulations. Policymakers and anyone looking for data on the built environment can find relevant data.
Circular Berlinis an NGO that focuses on making Berlin circular.
Berlin is envisioned as a resilient, citizen-oriented region where resources are sourced locally and their value is maintained as part of a continuous loop. Circular Berlin operates across areas such as community-building and education, as well as developing knowledge about industries with a high potential for circularity: the built environment, food and biomass, textiles and fashion, materials and products.
Circular Berlin hosts events where the community comes together to talk about key issues from sharing knowledge to collaborative planning sessions. Open-source digital tools enabling information to be exchanged more quickly have been built.
For more information on Circular Berlin, see their report.
Forest Sharing is a platform for the shared and innovative management of privately-owned forests.
It follows PEFC standards, and helps people who own woodland but do not know how to manage it effectively. The platform forges links between owners and economic operators in the supply chain. It creates the economies of scale needed to make forest activities (sale of wood or derived products, recreational areas, adventure parks, thematic routes, management of Rural Development Plans etc.) economically viable.
The project promotes the sustainable management of Italian woodland, by tackling parcels of forest as a whole and applying circular and sharing economy principles.
Sitra works with partners from different sectors to research, trial and implement bold new ideas that shape the future. It aims to make Finland a pioneer in sustainable well-being.
It is a future-oriented fund which creates preconditions for reform, spurring everyone towards making a change and providing opportunities for co-operation.
Sitra’s work focuses on supporting a fair transition to a circular economy and investigating how business can be based on sharing instead of ownership. Sitra is also working to advance circular trade policies, to increase the understanding of environmental effects of digitisation and to explore the potential of the circular economy to safeguard biodiversity.
The Nordic working group on Circular Economy and Nordic Swan Ecolabel have investigated the potential for developing ecolabels for the growing sharing economy. Their findings are set out in a Study into the Potential Framework for Ecolabelling of Sharing Based Services in a Circular Economy Perspective.
The study examines sharing economy sectors and gives some recommendations:
a screening model has been developed which indicates which market/business models ecolabels should focus on in future;
ecolabels should adopt a medium broad definition of the sharing economy, divided into its three main groups: gig, peer-to-peer and access economy;
ecolabels should focus on the transport sector and the entertainment business.
The Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) is an international, non-profit think-and-do tank that works with businesses, policy makers, partner organisations and civil society to deliver a good life for all. They are experts in sustainable solutions and aim to mainstream sustainability.
CSCP is active in fields such as social innovation, sustainable product portfolio and footprint assessments. It provides policy advisory services rooted in scientific research and hands-on experience, and develops focused research and evaluation through real-time prototype testing in a holistic living lab format. It also conducts training and capacity building.
