The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a UK charity which aims to speed up the transition to the circular economy. Since it was set up, the charity has emerged as a global thought leader, putting the circular economy on the agenda of decision makers across business, government and academia.
Carsten Wachholz joined the Foundation in 2020 after spending two years working for the European Investment Bank on Corporate Responsibility and another four years working for the European Environmental Bureau on the first EU Circular Economy Action Plan. Carsten leads the Foundation's newly established Brussels-based team supporting the development of circular economy policies at EU and international level (e.g. G20, OECD), in close collaboration with the Foundation's systemic initiatives on plastics, fashion and food.
The Nordic Sustainable Construction programme (2021-2024) aims to deliver the Nordic Vision 2030, which seeks to make the Nordic region (Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, The Faroe Islands and Åland) the most sustainable and integrated region by 2030.
The programme focuses on how construction can help create a green transition with green growth in the Nordic region by working towards carbon neutrality and a sustainable, circular and bio-based economy centred around knowledge, innovation, mobility and digital integration.
This report aims to inspire and show procuring organisations and their agents, management and sustainability managers examples of opportunities for circular procurement. The report targets the main sectors of ProCirc's activities, including furniture, construction, waste, ICT and textiles.
The report puts forward five recommendations:
Dare to try: start, learn and adjust.
Find the balance: push the market and encourage development during the contract.
Create alignment: link the organisation’s goals to the procurement practices.
Appreciate innovation: dedicate sufficient time and resources to finding new solutions.
Use existing knowledge: network, tools and experience sharing.
On 24 May, the HOOP project will share insights from the delivery of Project Development Assistance to eight cities and regions aiming to increase the circularity of biowaste.
This paper analyses CE policies and discourses in three European cities to draw critical insights and recommendations.
It first reviews the academic literature on urban CE policies to develop a new conceptual framework for analysing CE discourses and policies. This is then used to analyse and compare the CE policies of Glasgow, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
Results show that technocentric approaches to the CE are dominant in the three cities. Moreover, they have very limited social justice policies for fair distribution of the costs and benefits of a CE transition. Key policy recommendations to address these shortcomings are thus proposed.
The insights offered by this paper are valuable for practitioners and academics seeking to improve urban CE policies.
Is your country developing and implementing a national circular economy strategy? This is a unique opportunity to get your recipe book ready for creating a national circular economy strategy!
Finland, together with Germany, the Netherlands, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Environment Agency (EEA), is organising a hybrid Accelerator Session on 1 June in connection with the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) in Helsinki.
The European Commission has launched the Public Buyers Community Platform, an innovative platform designed to facilitate cooperation and knowledge-sharing between public buyers across Europe.
This Platform is a unique digital space where public procurement stakeholders, including public authorities, industry, SMEs and academia, can come together to exchange good practices, share experiences and discuss challenges, including sustainability and the circular economy.
In the conference "Circular Procurement: time to scale up!" in Brussels on 11 May 2023, the Interreg ProCirc partners invite public and private procurers, circular procurement experts, (sustainability) managers from procuring organisations, value chain representatives, and national and EU policy makers on Circular Economy and Procurement to learn from their experience, and together explore how to scale up. Throughout the day there is ample opportunity to meet, discuss, and share thoughts on circular opportunities and challenges.
For the eighth time, the Cradle to Cradle NGO is inviting 1000 participants to come and debate and network at the International Cradle to Cradle Congress 2023 on 8 and 9 September.
The Congress will feature panel discussions with high-profile speakers from business, politics and science, good practices from established companies and start-ups, inspiring keynote speeches about the circular transformation of our society and many opportunities for networking.
The focus of this online event on 18 April is on what the Interreg NSR ProCirc project partners have learned and developed in circular procurement. The event will start with a plenary session in English and the participants will then dive into the results in three breakout sessions in different national languages:
From one circular pilot to circular economy on everybody’s lips
Setting goals & monitoring: how to measure impact
How to scale adoption through Joint Statements of Demand
