"Innovative Business Practices and Economic Models in the Textile Value Chain" (InTex) is a three-year UNEP project funded by the European Union. The InTex project has five components, two with global reach and three focusing on national implementation in three African countries: Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia.
CIRAA is a company active in promoting circular economy principles and helping businesses ensure that their plans and projects abide by those principles.
Commissioned by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), which advises the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and co-authored by Circle Economy and Shifting Paradigms, this report uncovers the range of socio-economic and environmental co-benefits that circular mitigation interventions can bring to GEF countries of operation.
The report supports strategic advice by the STAP to the GEF and its implementing partners, and helps carve out a role for these bodies in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon circular economy. Its findings will be highly relevant to the development of future GEF projects and programmes across its different focal areas.
For the occasion of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, from January to June 2021, CECOLAB (Portuguese COLAB for the CIRCULAR ECONOMY) was invited by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education to organize an International Conference on circular economy on 20-21 April 2021.
Sitra commissioned this study to investigate whether and under what assumptions and policy measures the decoupling of CO2 emissions from economic growth could occur at a sufficient rate for CO2 emissions to decline to net zero by 2050. The analyses were carried out on a global level.
The results of this study show that deep CO2 emission cuts in line with the 1.5 °C target and positive GDP growth can occur at the same time.
A natural next step would be to analyse in detail the decoupling of other harmful environmental impacts from economic growth. For example, a global shift to more circular business models could reduce CO2 emissions and help cut the use of materials and natural resources while maintaining economic growth.
This study by Sitra set out to find diverse circular economy solutions that are viable and scalable, that drive systemic circularity, and that have exceptionally positive environmental and social impacts. Over 200 organisations around the world submitted their solutions for consideration.
The study presents 39 outstanding examples of circular economy solutions that are closing material loops and driving the circular transition while being very relevant to their own environment. These solutions demonstrate the benefits of circular business operations and how different organisations across society can use circular thinking to improve the value of their business and progress towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
VCØB aims to guide, support and involve actors from the construction value chain in Denmark. They help identify issues and barriers to the circular economy in construction, through increased knowledge sharing and dialogue.
Ultimately, VCØB wants Denmark to have a flexible market for the circular economy. It is working on:
This working paper, prepared by the ILO, looks at the future of work in textiles, clothing, leather and footwear (TCLF) industries.
It explores how technological advances, climate change, globalisation and changing demographics will shape these industries. It then analyses how these challenges and opportunities will impact decent work, and looks at the future of TCLF production in three categories of countries (least developed, middle income and high income). It concludes that at the present rate, the TCLF industries will not move to a circular economy approach for years.
Last Minute Market is a social enterprise, founded in 1998 as a research initiative and now a spin-off from the University of Bologna. Today, it is an entrepreneurial society working at the national level in Italy, developing local projects to recover unsold goods and benefit non-profit organisations. Its objective is zero waste.
Orybany is an ethical concept store located in the heart of Brussels working with a community of artisans and designers connected by the same values: "Human, Ethical and Diversity".
FOREWEAR is a project based in the Czech Republic. It collects unwanted clothing from company employees and donates them to charity organisations. Part of the material is recycled and, together with surpluses from textile industrial productions, is then used to produce recycled products printed with companies' branding.
The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra is a future fund collaborating with partners to research, trial and implement bold ideas that shape the future. It aims to make Finland a pioneer in sustainable well-being.
Since 2015, Sitra has been working to lead the way to a circular economy – a new kind of society in which everyday lives and well-being are no longer based on excessive consumption and fossil fuel use.
Currently, 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.
Circular Point is a service hub set up by Geonardo Ltd to provide practical and business circular economy solutions for companies and organisations. Its versatile services allow its clients to choose the most suitable and relevant support their company or organisation needs to apply circular economy principles in their daily practice or product development.
Circular Point has a mission to serve both the efficiency and profitability of its clients, while creating a positive environmental, social and consumer impact as well. The circular economy offers a wide range of opportunities for innovation, better and long-term consumer relations as well as for reducing the negative ecological footprint and for the sustainable management of natural resources.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is Europe’s largest network of environmental NGOs working for a better future where people and nature thrive together.
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.
Jacqueline Cramer, Chair of Holland Circular Hotspot’s supervisory board, invites other Circular Hubs for an interview to discuss experiences of circular economy governance. She plans to hold individual Zoom meetings in January and February with hubs interested in sharing their experiences.
Maria Nikolopoulou, member of the European and Economic Social Committee and keen supporter of circularity, reflects on the circular economy as a recipe for success in an article published on Open Access Government.
The Treottouno Social Cooperative of Forlì (Italy) is committed to the implementation of circular economy systems where everything can be recycled, both goods/waste and people.
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.
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.
The French company, Envie Autonomie, collects and renovates technical equipment, such as wheelchairs, used beds, walkers and other aids. In this way, they ensure a second life to important equipment.
