Charity shops are the most basic form of circular economy-driven supply chains: people donate unwanted items rather than throwing them away so that they can be put to use by someone else. La Poubelle is a variation on the theme of charity shops: it's a goods bank tailored specifically to the needs of people facing hard times.
The Ressourcerie Namuroise in Belgium provides collection and processing services for bulky household waste, while also helping people with scant marketable skills to break into the labour market. In 2017, the cooperative established a partnership with Namur's waste management authority, which enabled municipalities to outsource the collection of bulky items with a view to their reuse.
This roundtable discussion on 10 June 2021 will bring together experts from Europe and beyond to share knowledge and best practices in life-cycle assessment approaches, particularly in the rare earth sector.
Circular Week, an international campaign consisting of a series of events and initiatives devoted to circular economy and sustainable development, will take place on 12-18 October 2021 throughout Europe. Its goal is to promote the idea of a circular economy, support sustainable business models and establish cooperation between interested stakeholders.
The Market-driven Circular & Bioeconomy EU Green Week Partner Event on 8 June 2021 brings together representatives of European projects based on industry-academic partnerships in the fields of biodiversity, forestry, engineering, chemistry, agriculture, and transport.
“Staramaki” is a straw made of wheat. It is produced by a social cooperative KoinSep in Kilkis, northern Greece. The most widely produced local product wheat is used to create a viable eco-friendly alternative to single use plastic straws. At the same time they create employment opportunities and promote social cohesion, as well as local and regional development.
"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.
The study The winning recipe for a circular economy 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:
Stop Food Waste is an Irish initiative which aims to prevent food waste through better buying, storage and cooking, as well as through home composting.
Zona Urbana is a fashion company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2004, it designs and manufactures products with recycled materials, mainly bags or wallets.
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.
Re-food is an independent, citizen driven, fully volunteer, eco-humanitarian community charity, working to eliminate food waste and hunger on a neighbourhood basis. This Portuguese movement targets at ending food waste and hunger by saving food which was going to waste at local venues.
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.
