Clear Fashion, independant expert of garment evaluation, is a solution that informs consumers on brands' practices and clothes' impact, and enables fashion brands to communicate their scores, in order to bring more transparency in the fashion industry.
The PUCO2 project, led by AIDIMME, AIMPLAS and INESCOP, uses research and development to combat global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Seventeen companies have taken part in the project, which will also be relevant to producers of adhesives for related sectors, as well as the textile, automotive and toy industries.
To solve some challenges in the port environment, Blue Room Innovation is developing a solution based on blockchain technology: PortNet. It is a blockchain-powered waste management solution for greener, more efficient ports. A WastePassport has also been developed that connects waste disposed in port reception facilities to treatment plants.
RECICLOS provides incentives for recycling cans and plastic beverage bottles. Its main objective is to increase and improve recycling of these objects by introducing rewards that motivate people to do so. When people recycle using the RECICLOS app, they receive points that can be exchanged for sustainable prizes or used for local projects.
The zero waste consultancy wegozero has mapped more than 1000 businesses with zero waste potential in four European cities. Its maps are available for a monthly subscription and aim to tell people which businesses in their city are sustainable and geared to circular thinking.
The project of LC Paper consists in the migration of all the plastic packaging of paper products (toilet paper, hand towels...) to cardboard packaging and folding.
Yuman Village is a temple of the circular economy located in Brussels. It offers a unique 'one stop shopping' experience that encourages the emergence of new circular economy models, creates local jobs and reduces the number of trips needed to buy sustainable and local products.
Atelier Riforma started as a social economy startup with a pioneer marketplace for upcycled garments. Realising that the sorting and cataloguing of textile waste were too labour-intensive for industry standards, founders came up with the idea of developing an AI-based automated solution - called Re4circular - to create a digitized and truly efficient post-consumer clothing supply chain.
The VETERIA21 project, funded by the Valencian Regional Government and implemented by AIMPLAS, will develop new, more efficient transformation processes for thermoplastic composites that can be used to replace the metal content of electric vehicle batteries.
These materials ensure a major reduction in vehicle weight, thus extending battery life. They are also easily recyclable.
Agroamb Prodalt SL is a rural SME working in the primary sector. It provides agricultural services for farmers and organic fertilisers from biodegradable waste generated in the primary and agri-food sectors. Its process sanitises biodegradable waste and animal by-products with lime and produces organic fertilisers (turning these waste materials into resources).
At the beginning of June 2020 the Spanish Government published España Circular 2030, the new Strategy for Circular Economy in Spain until 2030. It contains circular economy objectives and a series of strategic orientations for the period 2020-2030.
The strategy:
In 2018, the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food and the Danish Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs launched a Strategy for Circular Economy, based on recommendations by an Advisory Board for Circular Economy. The strategy will be implemented in the period 2018-2022. The government launched initiatives within six thematic areas:
The city of Leuven, in Flanders, aims to play a leading role in initiating systemic change in cities and society at large.
The Roadmap 2025 · 2035 · 2050, drawn up by Leuven 2030 and numerous experts, serves as a guide to achieving the goal of a climate-neutral city by 2050. In September 2019 a professional team of programme managers started on no less than 13 specific programmes, which will transform this unique plan into concrete actions and impact on the field.
Leuven Circulair finds its place in specific programme #09, outlining key actions for circularity in the city with a strong focus on social, repair, refurbishment, knowledge and expertise from the University of Leuven and local fablabs.
This retrospective report is a review of the plans set out by Circular Flanders in the Kick-off Statement.
The most important finding? A good deal more was accomplished than initially anticipated. For example, the opportunity to launch three Open Calls, permitting the funding of over 130 innovative circular economy projects. The Green Deal on Circular Construction was also an unprecedented opportunity, as was the complementary reinforcement of the OVAM team of experts in ecodesign and area-specific operations, allowing the scope to expand.
This retrospective report is an interactive PDF. External links to downloads or online resources have been embedded on each project page for easy accessibility.
This French act of law contains about 50 measures providing for:
The Circularity Dataset Initiative by the Ministry of the Economy of Luxembourg develops an industry standard providing a regulated framework for circular data on products throughout value chains, from raw materials to finished products, from the use phase to re-usage and recycling.
The project addresses the difficulty for stakeholders to access reliable data on the circular properties of a product. Trade secrets are hindering transparency and reporting standards are lacking, forcing manufacturers to send out different data sets in diverse formats to customers and product platforms.
The objective is to save costs, increase value and enable circularity by developing a process and an internationally accepted dataset template, and data is verified through an auditing process.
In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, coordinated by SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute), pioneering municipalities have developed local circular economy roadmaps in 2019.
The town of Riihimäki is already a member of FISU (Finnish Sustainable Communities), a network of Finnish municipalities committed to becoming waste-free, and has now adopted a circular economy roadmap focusing on the participation of local actors.
In 2017, the local authorities asked the 29,000 inhabitants of this town what sustainable choices they would be ready to make and how the municipal council could best enable these. Inhabitants also contributed ideas to develop the resource efficiency of Riihimäki.
The circular economy and resource efficiency roadmap of Riihimäki covers five themes:
Every one of these themes is dealt with by taking into account the following points of view:
In addition to municipal actions, the Riihimäki roadmap also includes commitments to circular economy by local companies and communities. The roadmap also accentuates the education of students and recent graduates with the aim of incorporating the circular economy into all professional fields.
As cooperation is central to circular economym, the Riihimäki roadmap’s guiding principle is to increase cooperation between different communities and companies. The aim is to share good practice by developing a cluster that will monitor how companies are progressing and promote circular economy cooperation.
In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, coordinated by SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute), pioneering municipalities have developed local circular economy roadmaps in 2019. This roadmap, adopted by Finland's fourth biggest city, is based first and foremost on what stakeholders identify as local strengths, special characteristics and challenges.
Vantaa’s roadmap lists the priorities, objectives and actions to take in 2019-2030 that could a promote circular economy locally. Its priorities are the following:
The objectives are to be reached by 2030 in four timeframes, with responsibility for implementation shared among several local stakeholders that vary from municipal utilities to private companies. Specific indicators have been developed to measure and report on progress.
To stimulate circular business models locally, the municipality will set up a local cluster in cooperation with Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY.
Vantaa’s roadmap also puts a strong emphasis on construction and land use, committing to increase local (re)-use of soil and recycled materials in construction, which should reduce GHG emissions from transport. The use of demolished concrete has already increased and become fairly commonplace in infrastructure projects. It is used in street structures, repairs of building elevations and green landscaping.
In addition to this, Vantaa aims to develop a set of procurement criteria incorporating circular economy principles. As the circular economy benefits the natural environment, businesses and residents alike, cooperation among stakeholders is central to implementation of the roadmap.
In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, coordinated by SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute), pioneering municipalities have developed local circular economy roadmaps in 2019. The City of Porvoo is one of these and published its own circular economy roadmap in May 2019 to steer efforts that promote resource efficiency and circular economy in the coming years, so it can build on successes to date that range.
A steering group of 16 municipal civil servants and other local stakeholders drafted this roadmap, which focuses in particular on the following objectives:
The amount of high-quality soil and rock is not increasing in Finland, nor is the land area growing. This is why in Porvoo stakeholders are desiging a built environment that takes into account the sustainable use of soil materials and other resources.
Porvoo also aims to reduce food waste and improve the recycling of municipal waste through counselling and outreach for and to citizens. The impact of counselling on the volume of food waste is monitored at schools by weighing plate waste, for example. In addition to this, Porvoo will promote waste sorting by improving the quality of the recycling network using life-cycle analysis.
The roadmap also includes specific circular economy tasks and challenges for the local authorities and companies of the City of Porvoo to implement, with the most urgent having a completion date of 2020 while others have targets for 2030.
In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, Southwest Finland developed a circular economy roadmap in late 2018 to help implementation of the national waste plan and define regional objectives with concrete measures to achieve these.
The Finnish Environment Institute formed an expert network on circular economy, and began identifying regional strengths and special characteristics to start with.
In 2018, the Central Finland region produced approximately 1,8 million tonnes of different kinds of waste. Stakeholders thus sought to focus on waste management during the drafting process, and received training on, for example, plastic lifespan and creativity in the circular economy alongside many networking opportunities.
While the overarching theme is public procurement, the regional strategy focuses on the following sectors in particular:
This roadmap seeks to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste and increase reuse of such waste to 70%. The partial activities helping to reach the targets are listed in the roadmap.
Different stakeholders, ranging from municipal or regional authorities, to national institutes, educational establishments, and private companies will take responsibility for implementation.
France's Law Against Food Waste has become an international model for sustainable food policy. The law is often described as combining economic efficiency with environmental protection and social equity. However, stakeholder narratives cast doubt on whether this French CE law really contributes to social justice in the long run. This discourse analysis shows that:
Urban agriculture comes with its own share of environmental impacts. Circular strategies promise to reduce these impacts, but not all strategies are resource efficient and environmentally effective.
This paper finds that the most eco-friendly and circular strategies for urban agriculture, taking a Mediterranean tomato crop as a case study, include:
Policies are focusing on halving food waste to help conserve increasingly strained food resources. However, expanding their scope of action to include dietary changes and complement targets with resource footprints has greater potential to save resources while avoiding trade-offs.
This paper shows that in Germany:
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:
Many political, business and civil society stakeholders are disappointed with the German Packaging Act. They feel it makes a comparatively small contribution to the circular economy. This study explains why they are disappointed:
Based on its findings, the paper proposes possible courses of action. To create a shift to a circular economy, dialogue is needed using methods which explicitly address fears and overcome the current stalemate.
This literature review identified and categorised circular economy (CE) practices within all stages of the food and feed production chain in Europe to provide an overview of current and envisaged practices. There are four macro areas:
It is recommended that future primary research in novel food and feed in the CE focuses on areas other than insect farming, and that there are further investigations into the potential risks associated with importation into the EU of livestock/goods that may have been subject to different restrictions/legislation.
This book provides answers on how to govern the transition to a circular economy in different socio-cultural and political contexts.
It is intended to help the global changemakers who are building our circular future. Author Jacqueline Cramer spoke with 20 representatives of circular hotspots worldwide, thoroughly analysed their different contexts and extracted 10 key takeaways. Everyone working on circular initiatives can use these and adapt them to their own socio-cultural and political contexts.
In this book, Jacqueline Cramer shows how network governance can power the circular economy. Network governance is about building a coalition of partners, which all fulfill a specific function in the network and are aligned by so-called transition brokers. By complementing conventional, public governance with this new form of governance, the best of both worlds is created.
Prof. Cramer shares her huge experience of implementing numerous circular initiatives in the Netherlands. As a practitioner and scholar, she has identified ten guiding principles for building circular initiatives, based on network governance. These guidelines can support everyone who wants to start or expedite a circular initiative.
134 people died in the devastating flooding in the German region of Ahrweiler in July 2021, caused by a climate change-induced weather situation. Over 400 000 tonnes of waste were created by the floods in one night. 40 000 households were hit, and massive damage to infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals was reported. The situation was described as being similar to the massive destruction following a war.
Thinking Circular’s report summarises the process of waste management and learning from this regional crisis.
This is a guide to help practitioners in a city government to adopt a more circular approach to public procurement. Public procurement processes differ from one city to another and therefore this guide is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it provides an overarching framework that should be adapted to the local context and the realities of a city.
Users are not expected to read the guide in full from beginning to end, but rather, once they have read the framework overview, to jump to the section they need by using the menu bar on the left.
The European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network (EEAC Network) brings together advisory bodies offering independent advice to national or regional governments and parliaments on climate change, environment and sustainable development.
The vast majority of EEAC members work in particular on the transition towards a circular economy model. With representatives from academia, civil society, the private sector and public bodies, the EEAC network brings together experts with years of experience producing analysis and recommendations that should enhance the shift to a circular economy at sub-national, national and the EU level.
CONTINUED was launched in 2017 with the aim to create a generic software solution for circular consumption in the fashion industry. Recirculating clothes is up to 3000% more efficient than reusing material in reducing the fashion industry's environmental footprint.
With the CONTINUED platform, brands and consumers can be connected, while increasing the brands' environmental impact. The platform offers dashboard tools for Sales, Inventory, Finance and Impact, as well as a Webshop back-end supporting several rent/resale models, account management and payment.
CONTINUED is fashion as a service and sustainability as a product. It lets brands explore future business opportunities based on circular economy while carrying out existing business activities.
Precious plastic is a community platform launched in the Netherlands in 2012, that brings together the solutions needed to tackle the problem of plastic waste: the people, the machines, the knowledge, the techniques, etc. The platform aims to reduce plastic waste by boosting recycling, promoting new biodegradable materials or by adopting zero waste lifestyles.
As an open source project, all the information, code, drawings and source material contributed is made freely available online under Creative Commons licenses. The platform brings together plastic waste collection points, recycling workspaces for people to access equipment and machinery, a community of people to share knowledge, and a global network for collective action.
France Barter is a B2B platform allowing companies to save money by replacing purchases with exchanges. This marketplace, created in 2015, facilitates multilateral exchanges via its own unit of exchange: the "Barter euro". The barter system allows companies to pool and optimise the use of unused assets, such as human time, machine time, storage space, surplus stock, etc.
Companies register the assets they offer and their purchasing needs, then the platform's support team helps identify under-exploited assets and structure offers. The platform thus helps companies avoid unnecessary purchases, saving money while cutting resource use.
ShopC, is the first-ever online marketplace for verified circular products from the fashion and lifestyle sectors. Created at the heart of the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship at the Copenhagen Business School, it came as an answer to the problem of conscious consumers wanting truly sustainable products but being bombarded with green-washing campaigns and untrustworthy sustainability claims.
ShopC as a circular marketplace for sustainable, circular products, focuses on transparency, upholding the values of sustainability and circular economy to the highest standard. It focuses on brands that make products that last and if their life comes to an end, they are re-looped back into the system in some way.
Welcome to Green Tech Valley, focussing on Climate and Circular Solutions. The Green Tech Valley is located in the south of Austria and is internationally regarded as the hotspot for innovative energy and environmental technology.
The Green Tech Cluster initiates growth through innovation. It brings together around 220 companies and research institutions shaping green solutions of the future. With 20 global technology leaders within an hour’s drive, the location forms one of the highest concentrations of companies in this industry.
Have a look at their Don't waste / Invest campaign: One-stop-shop recycling solutions for a wide range of waste fractions derived from Austrian excellence in achieving one of Europe's highest recycling rates.
ReziProK is a funding programme focusing on a resource-efficient circular economy and innovative product cycles, and is run by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It supports research and development projects which will help reach these goals. The projects seek to close product cycles by developing appropriate business models, design concepts and digital technologies and thus contribute to the implementation of a resource-efficient circular economy.
The projects focus on:
SUSTAINair is an H2020-funded platform developing circular economy principles for the aviation and aerospace design, manufacturing, operations and end-of-life phases. This EU-funded research project aims to make the entire supply chain ecosystem greener, in line with the Circular Economy Action Plan, and to set new standards for aerospace manufacturing, enabling an increase in cross-sector synergies.
The SUSTAINair project provides the aviation sector with a path to a more cost-effective, low-carbon economy, while tackling the increase in resource consumption, waste and emissions. Because of this, the SUSTAINair project has been endorsed by the Future Sky research initiative of the Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics (EREA).
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:
The Circular Economy Platform was officially established in November 2018 in Hungary as an initiative of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology.
The aim of the platform is to facilitate the paradigm shift and joint thinking, along with building a community of forward-thinking change leaders and sharing business solutions that make a real impact. For the new model to develop and spread, collaboration and knowledge sharing are required, with the involvement of businesses, government and science.
Kari Herlevi is a circular economy multitalent. He is currently leading the circular economy area at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. There, he is focusing on the transition to a fair and competitive economy that tackles the root causes of biodiversity loss, climate change and overconsumption of resources, by facilitating the development and scaling up of the best circular solutions from Finland and the world. Previously, he worked at Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, where he was responsible for the Green Growth and Vigo accelerator programmes. Kari also worked in the Tekes Silicon Valley office for a few years, and is particularly interested in new ideas and fast-growing firms in the circular economy, not least on the African continent.
As an adviser for environmental and climate policy, Leon de Graaf particularly follows policies related to the circular economy, trade and climate, low-emission mobility, implementation of the Paris climate agreement (COP21) and the European emission trading system (EU ETS). He is also deputy manager of BusinessEurope's corporate Advisory and Support Group (ASGroup). Prior to joining BusinessEurope, Leon worked at the research consultancy Ecorys, focusing on renewable energy and international development issues, at DG COMP on energy and environmental subsidies in Europe, and at the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) on indirect ETS costs for energy-intensive industries. Leon has a MSc in environmental economics and climate change from the London School of Economics, and a BSc in business economics from the University of Groningen.
Ladeja Godina Košir, Founder and Executive Director of Circular Change, is an internationally renowned expert on the circular economy, speaker, (co)author of several CE reports and articles, and co-creator of international circular economy events. Ladeja was the finalist for the Circular Leadership Award 2018 (Davos WEF) and named in "The #EUwomen4future campaign” featuring extraordinary women active in research, innovation, education, culture and sport by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth in 2020. She is recognised as the regional "engine of circular economy transition". She is co-author of the first Roadmap towards the Circular Economy and creator and team leader of the annual international Circular Change Conference. Ladeja has consulted on the national circular economy roadmapping process based on stakeholder engagement for several countries and cities (Serbia, Montenegro, Norway, Israel, Chile, etc.).
Ladeja has several international roles: chair of the coordination group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) in Brussels (2018/20), visiting professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto and co-leader of the Research Group Circular Economy Systems at the Bertalanfy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS) in Vienna.
Ladeja takes a transdisciplinary systemic approach and holistic view as an entrepreneur, communications professional, speaker, moderator, lecturer, mentor and passionate connector. She is empowering a new narrative and circular culture. She bridges the bioeconomy and the circular economy; one of the EU projects to which she contributes is Effective (Horizon 2020 & BBI JU), a multi-company collaboration to produce more sustainable, bio-based fibres and plastics for large consumer products using renewable feedstocks and innovative technologies. She also chairs the expert group for the BIOeast Foresight Exercise 2050. Ladeja works with governments, city authorities, companies, NGOs, media and universities, empowering true collaboration to enable circular change.
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.
Dr Laurent Zibell led the development of industriAll European trade union's positions on the circular economy, innovation and digitalisation of industry.
He started his career as an R&D engineer and worked in the field of high-tech and industrial innovation. He is a member of the French trade union CFDT. He holds MScs in Engineering from École Polytechnique and from Mines Paristech (FR), and a PhD in innovation economics from Cranfield University (UK).
Municipal Waste Europe is the European umbrella association representing public responsibility for waste.
The members are national public waste associations and similar national or regional associations. They are committed to sustainable waste management that minimises the impact of waste on the environment and promotes resource efficiency, taking into account local conditions. Municipal Waste Europe promotes the interests of its members at European level, through joint positions on waste management issues and legislation and keeps its members informed on the latest EU policy developments. The association encourages the sharing of information among its members, including the exchange of good practice in the local management of waste.
Waste management services are a crucial aspect of the social responsibility for the environment and public health in Europe. This service, including collection and treatment systems, is best developed at national, regional and local level. For these reasons and also for the reason of continuity in the delivery of this indispensable service, regardless of market forces, Municipal Waste Europe promotes waste management as a service of general interest.
The Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management is an international network of cities and regions sharing the aim of promoting a sustainable resource management, through prevention at source, reuse and recycling, and accelerating the transition towards a circular economy on their territories and beyond. The network currently counts about 100 members, mainly local and regional authorities as well as national networks of local authorities representing around 1100 municipalities. ACR+ is directly represented in 23 countries of the European Union, and the network can also rely on members in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan
Francesco LEMBO is Managing Director at ACR+, overseeing programs and projects, and ensuring that strategic plans and realistic objectives are in place and monitored. His key duties include fundraising, marketing, community and stakeholders’ outreach. He has over ten years of experience in supporting public administrations, SMEs, employers' associations, NGOs and universities in the design and management of international programs on lifelong learning and sustainable development. He has been advocating for the active involvement of citizens in the development of local and EU policies and the dissemination of inclusive educational models, also designing training programs focused on sustainable development and social inclusion. He wrote about inclusive pedagogy and recognition of prior learnings, and circular economy education. He has a Bachelor in contemporary history, and then followed MA studies in Lifelong Learning Sciences.
In the framework of the Circular Economy Week, RREUSE and ENSIE are organising an event on “The Role of WISEs in circular economy” on 4 October 2022. Actors from various countries and background to exchange on the topic are being invited.
Join this event on 25 October to find out about the CirculAbility project and discuss the challenges and perspectives for the development of a circular economy which gives a proper role to people with disabilities. In general terms, they are working to promote an economy that fosters a fair transition and responds to social and environmental issues; specifically, they want to help achieve this through a project where people with disabilities recycle unsold food.
The high-level conference on ‘The bioeconomy - Enabling the European Green Deal in challenging times’ will take place on 6 and 7 October in Brussels. All sessions will also be live-streamed.
The conference will present the findings of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy Progress Report, adopted in June 2022, together with a series of bioeconomy success stories from EU research and innovation.
The event SoCircular will take place on 5 October 2022 and aims to celebrate Dublin’s social and circular economy ecosystem and culture. It will:
This #EURegionsWeek in-person side event @ImpactFactoryMechelen on 19 October will inspire those who want to support and accelerate the transition to a circular economy in their cities.
Registration is now open.
The agenda includes:
Infrastructure makes up a significant part of the built environment and is the backbone of a healthy economy. Delivering infrastructure, however, is becoming increasingly challenging. The sector has a significant environmental impact from material use, waste production and CO2 emissions.
As European economies are highly material import dependent, closing infrastructure material cycles at the European level is essential to address these challenges. It reduces pressure on the environment, enhances material supply security, increases competitiveness, innovation, and growth and creates jobs. But how can we achieve that? What challenges and opportunities for closing material cycles in infrastructure through European cooperation?
The ECESP leadership group on Building and Infrastructure invites you to identify blind spots and activate European cooperation for closing infrastructure material cycles. Join our panellists in an open discussion about closing material cycles at the EU level: what are the stakes, obstacles, and opportunities? What should be arranged at the EU level from a policy and market perspective to make that happen? Can the different value chain stakeholders collaborate on that?
Refashion Day on 4 October 2022 is an opportunity for debates and meetings with textile sector experts. It will bring together stakeholders working to rethink the environmental, economic and social balance in the textile industry.
The bioeconomic sector is an indispensable part of the world’s economy, providing food, feed, textiles, energy, and more. But to attain a circular bioeconomy, we must modify and adapt the inherited linear value chains in the sector.
The ECESP leadership group on Bioeconomy and Food Systems invites you to this EU Circular Talks (#EUCTs) on Bioeconomy Value Chains. Join us on 05 October 2022 (10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. CEST), to get insights on ways we can help design and build circular value chains that foster bioeconomic transformation.
A Circular4.0 community is being built in the Alpine region. In the heart of the Julian Alps, on the shores of the Lake Bled in Slovenia, a full-day Circular4.0 final conference will be organised on 29 September 2022 - in parallel to the global World Future Verse conference - to discuss digital technologies as enablers to foster the transition of SMEs to the circular economy in the Alpine Space Area.
Local governments play an essential role in guiding their cities into circular action and overcoming the main barriers to change. But how exactly can cities lead the circular economy transition? One of the most important steps is developing a holistic and cohesive Circular City Strategy, one that provides information and direction to enable local stakeholders, both within and outside the municipality, to get involved and engage in the process.
In this third of a series of Circular City Centre (C3) webinars on 5 October 2022, representatives from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Circle Economy will present the third C3 guidance document on how cities can develop a circular city strategy.
Give your feedback on the draft methodology for life cycle sustainability assessment proposed by ORIENTING. The deadline for contributions is 27 May.
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.
One major issue at the moment is making the EU less reliant on Russia.
This paper from the CEPS Think thank provides insights on Russia’s share among EU sources of key supplies for low-carbon technologies. It looks at prospects for meeting future material demands through circularity for three technologies: lithium-ion batteries, wind turbines and fuel cell electric vehicles.
What are your plans for May? ACR+ will kick off an entire month dedicated to innovation and circular economy in waste management. Through several events, ACR+ will showcase some of its activities and projects fostering innovative approaches and practices to reach a circular economy.
Almost all countries in the UNECE region, covering the US, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, have adopted national policies which are directly or indirectly related to the sustainable management of natural resources and the circular economy. On 6 April 2022, UNECE launched a new CIRCULAR STEP platform for policy dialogue on the circular economy.
In the context of a three-year project on “Innovative Business Practices and Economic Models in the Textile Value Chain” (InTEX), UNEP is seeking an Implementing Partner to support its impact assessment work on sustainable economic pathways for sustainable and circular textiles. The deadline for submitting proposals is 16 May 2022.
The Circulab Academy is an independent design studio and strategy consulting agency that helps organizations worldwide imagine and design regenerative solutions. It provides online courses based on powerful and open source circular design tools, created and enhanced by Circulab since 2014.
Now the Circulab Academy has a new free online course "Activate the Circular Economy".
Circular Cities offers grants for start-ups combined with a tailor-made accelerator programme with circular focus and climate impact. They connect start-ups with the largest climate-focused community in the world powered by EIT Climate-KIC ClimAccelerator as well as investors, partner cities, corporates and ecosystem partners. The programme will be run virtually, free of charge and in English.
The Czech Circular Hotspot will be launched on 12 April with an opening ceremony in the Kampus Hybernská in Prague. The event is organized by the Czech Institute of Circular Economy.
Today the Commission presented a package of European Green Deal proposals to make sustainable products the norm in the EU, boost circular business models and empower consumers for the green transition. The proposed rules are to make almost all physical goods on the EU market more friendly to the environment, circular, and energy efficient throughout their lifecycle.
The National Institute for Circular Economy (INEC) in France is launching the Circular Schools Programme (PEC), an operational project aimed at making schools a model for the circular economy.
This webinar, organised by Circle Economy, explored the interlinkages between the transition to a more circular economy and quality jobs, drawing on Circle Economy’s recent report on Jobs & Skills in the Circular Economy: State of Play and Future Pathways.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation invites everyone to discover the circular economy. You are free to explore their learning hub to learn more about the vision for a circular economy.
The French National Institute for Circular Economy (INEC), the Great Paris Area (MGP) and the Responsible Procurement Observatory (OBSAR) launched the "Circular procurement" action-programme in December 2018. The programme aimed to bring together stakeholders to foster the circular economy in the purchase decision-making.
Research led by Ellen McArthur Foundation in cooperation with Arup highlights the benefits of the circular economy. It outlines five models for real estate business.
ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, is directly involved in activities focused on the assessment, proposal and selection of circular economy indicators.
BusinessEurope organised two events for businesses and policymakers on challenges and opportunities for scaling up circular economy solutions in Brno and Madrid in October 2018.
This research note produced by Ecopreneur.eu is a 1st inventory of the potential impacts of future EU circular fashion on non-European textile producing countries. It uses existing literature and input from four circular economy experts to analyse the economic, social and environmental impacts.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation regularly shares case studies that are relevant to the circular economy.
This interactive timeline of circular economy thinking explores over 70 circularity concepts from the Global South and North alike. It helps researchers and practitioners better situate and navigate the concept of circular economy, both in its rich historical origins and in its theoretical diversity.
The Stars Are Circular Foundation educates children and families about the circular economy. It aims to provide them with the tools to become conscious, innovative and collaborative participants in the circular economy. Its educational programmes seek to develop children's social, creative and entrepreneurial skills to ensure a mindset that believes in a healthy planet.
Circular economy will profoundly impact business. The Circular Economy Research Center of the Paris based École des Ponts Business School wants to enable current and prospective students as well as the alumni of the School to learn more about the upcoming transformation so that they can understand it, embrace it and prepare for it in their domains of professional interest.
PackAlliance is a Knowledge Alliance that brings together academic and industry partners from 4 EU countries (ES, PL, FI and IT) committed to fostering Academia-Industry collaboration for the development of new skills and competence building for innovation towards the transition of the plastics packaging industry to a circular economy model.
The CIRCO training programme supports creatives and professionals within the manufacturing industry to create circular business.
Two of Ecopack's latest and more innovative projects are aimed at raising public awareness on the separate collection and recycling of packaging waste.
The Circular Classroom is a new educational platform for learning about the circular economy. This open platform provides secondary schools and upper secondary schools with new tools for discussing the circular economy within a curriculum that promotes phenomenon-based learning and integrated subjects.
Circul'R is an international network of circular economy startups. Its mission is to unlock the circular economy's potential by connecting innovative startups with companies so that they can co-create solutions to accelerate their transition towards the circular economy.
The DGNB Academy provides professionals from the construction and real estate sectors with up-to-date knowledge on sustainable construction, including circular economy principles which have been made assessable in the DGNB Certification System.
The WISER project impacts positively upon behavioural change in relation to resource efficiency and reuse principles. Through its activities WISER raises awareness relating to resource consumption and waste generation building upon pilot project activities of the Rediscovery Centre that hosts 4 social enterprises (upcycling paints, furniture, fashion and bicycles).
Professor Rebecca Earley introduces a series of short films about the design tools produced at the Chelsea College of Arts research centre, and how to use them to become a more sustainable and circular designer. The series aims to help designers access and use the research resources to stay inspired and motivated to design better futures.
Sustainable construction guidelines for public authorities – A circular economy perspective aims to help public authorities navigate through the topic of sustainable construction, understand what it means and determine how to encourage it.
These guidelines are especially targeted at local and regional authorities.
Increasingly, circular procurement is seen as one of the ways to promote a circular economy. The book Circular Procurement in 8 steps provides a practical approach to integrate circular economy principles into a procurement process.
A new web-portal to help cities become circular: the Circular City Funding Guide was launched on 31 January 2020. The guide provides information and support on funding and financing of the circular economy in an urban context. It has two main target groups: fund-seekers and funders of circular projects in cities.
A crucial element in the transition to the circular economy are the innovations at production and recycling facilities that aim at ensuring resource efficiency, prevention of waste and the use of production residues or materials recovered from waste as secondary raw materials. This guidance was developed to support regulators, policy- and law-makers and businesses.
This interactive policy guide aims to inspire local and regional policy makers to develop circular economy strategies that can change the structure and operations of their economies and industries so that they better contribute to more sustainable economic growth in Europe.
In this guidebook, the CSCP classifies cities into four broad categories: a legacy city or a pioneering city in a developed or an emerging economy. Based on this classification, a number of examples from cities across the continents this guidebook documents the journey towards becoming more circular, and provides suggestions for cities seeking to make the shift.
This paper aims to outline the new role financiers have to play to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. This guide will help financiers thrive in the circular economy through 6 practical guidelines.
In order to better understand how to address the challenges in implementing circular strategies, Circle Economy and the Sustainable Finance Lab worked with circular business managers and financiers to identify ways to fund circular businesses, a key element they desperately need to achieve. Building on this research the authors outline 10 Steps to Financeability.
The transition to a Circular Economy requires innovative business models that stimulate optimised use of repairable products, reusable components and recycling of materials. Experts from different fields have collaborated in a Community of Practice (CoP) to improve the financeability of circular construction. This report retraces the 'learning-by-doing' trajectory of this CoP.
