The Hungarian Ministry of Finance has approved a HUF 197.85 million non-refundable grant for Hutoepito, the parent company of KleanLabs, in order to fund research, development and innovation activities under the Upcycling of closed-cell rigid polyurethane foams project, which will run until 31 January 2025.
The Lithuanian Commune DIY, a team of skateboarding professionals and enthusiasts, collects old, broken Canadian maple hardwood skateboards that have lost their original purpose and recycles them 100 %. The new products made of skateboards are sustainable, strong and have a new life span which is longer than the one of an average skateboard deck.
Tarkett has launched an independently verified (by EPEA), science-based declaration highlighting the health hazards and risks of materials in a particular product. By introducing this Material Health Statement (MHS), Tarkett completes the environmental data provided by the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and complements its indicators.
Tarkett has developed a technology at its Dutch Waalwijk carpet production facility enabling the separation of the two principal components of carpet tiles. Its recycling centre creates two streams of materials that can be recycled and transformed into high-quality resources for new products.
Tarkett is pioneering post-use flooring recycling in Europe. It is working with IKEA to transform used Tarkett flooring from the IKEA Kungens Kurva store into new flooring.
Tarkett is working with the Swedish environmental company Ragn-Sells to develop carbon negative mineral fillers for vinyl flooring by 2025, using Estonian oil shale ash.
The Ocean Package UG is a young and sustainable company from Munich with the goal to make e-commerce more environmentally friendly and sustainable. For this purpose, they have designed reusable packaging made of recycled polypropylene, which contains a proportion of collected plastic from the North Sea. Their product can be used 20 times more often than conventional cardboard packaging.
CIMPA, an EU-funded H2020 project, aims to develop a recycling chain for post-industrial and post-consumer multilayer films from food and agricultural applications. This complex approach combines innovative compositional sorting, mechanical and physical recycling and an advanced decontamination process.
The consortium CIRCULAR FoodPack is working on solutions to enable the circular use of plastic packaging, focusing on the most sensitive product category: food. The project aims to develop recyclable packaging with at least 50% post-consumer recyclates incorporated behind a functional barrier.
The MERLIN project (Increasing the quality and rate of MultilayER packaging recycLINg waste) aims at designing innovative solutions for all the processes required to increase the quality and rate of recycled plastic materials coming from multi-layer packaging waste. MERLIN’s new solutions will meet the growing number of plants that are seeking effective solutions.
How can a city boost the circular economy in its local construction sector?
The URGE project, co-funded by the URBACT programme, brought together nine cities and their stakeholders to develop new strategies for circular building cities. This summer, the cities’ action plans were delivered.
Some of the actions that will be taken:
Curious about all nine action plans? More information is available here.
The Roadmap - Towards the Circular Economy in Montenegro aims to steer the transition to a circular economy in Montenegro. It is based on systemic thinking and outlines the main drivers, horizontal and priority areas, opportunities for circular transformation and recommendations for the way forward.
The strategy identifies five focus areas (food and forest systems, the built environment, tourism and manufacturing) that are highly interconnected and, through the principles of industrial symbiosis and synergies, can result in systemic change.
The roadmap is an outcome of collaboration between the Montenegrin Chamber of the Economy, UNDP, Circular Change and Deloitte BiH.
In 2017, Poland was the third most carbon–intensive economy in Europe. The five main contributing sectors are power, industry, the built environment (mainly heating), agrifood and transport.
Poland is home to 33 out of 50 cities with the highest air quality concerns in the EU, according to the WHO. The two major sources of pollutants are motor vehicles and the burning of coal in domestic solid fuel furnaces.
Recent action by Poland's cities, governments, and local communities indicate that change is sought after. The acceptance of the circular economy roadmap at the national level in 2018 and city development strategies emphasize readiness for a transition towards a circular economy. This transition could help tackle some of the country's greatest social and environmental challenges.
Each year, humanity consumes resources equivalent to 1.7 planets. Sustainable resource use is therefore essential if we are to achieve our national environmental and climate objectives and the sustainable global development goals in the 2030 Agenda.
RE:Source is a strategic innovation programme co-funded by the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova), the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) and the Swedish Energy Agency. The programme focuses on research and innovation in sustainable material use.
Within RE:Source, the RE:Agenda describes the innovation area of sustainable use of resources, which aims to support solutions that contribute to the efficient use of the earth’s resources within the planetary boundaries.
The Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy is Ireland’s first national circular economy strategy. The Strategy is a key addition to the Government’s drive to achieve a 51% reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to get on a path to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050, as per commitments in the Programme for Government and the Climate Act 2021.
The Strategy explains what the circular economy is, why Ireland needs to deliver on a circular economy and how national policy will develop to support that goal. A circular economy can have positive environmental, economic and social impacts, such as reduced plastic pollution, new jobs and better quality, longer lasting consumer products.
The Madeira Circular Agenda bolsters the position of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM) as a circular economy hotspot.
It involves civil society and public and private entities in a system that seeks to keep materials in the economy, and to promote efficiency, circularity and sustainability as competitiveness and differentiation factors for the regional economy. The Agenda also aims to ensure that RAM companies act as circular economy leaders in their respective sectors, adopting best practices and creating innovative solutions based on circularity principles, particularly in sectors deemed critical for the region, namely agri-food, construction, tourism, social sector and the sea.
Within the framework of the Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland (CEID) and its three interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral working groups, more than 130 experts from industry, science and civil society have summed up their findings in the Circular Economy (CE) Roadmap for Germany, which consists of a consolidated opinion addressing society as a whole.
This Roadmap, which has focused - right from the beginning - on shaping a consistent and common target vision for a circular economy in 2030, is a scientifically-based framework for action that systemically describes the necessary steps for Germany to transition to a CE and provides decision-makers from politics, industry and science with concrete recommendations for action.
In 2018 the City of Turku set the following target: becoming carbon neutral by 2029, in time for its 800th anniversary.
Finland's oldest city, Turku is a forerunner in circular innovations in the water, textiles and chemicals sectors, among others. A vibrant community of researchers and business actors, along with numerous public and private initiatives, already contribute to scale up circularity in the Turku region.
The Circular Turku roadmap is about creating the right conditions for a circular transition in the region. The city can support this transition through different levers such as local regulations, urban planning and infrastructure development.
Turku wants to promote a fair and inclusive circular transformation of economic systems that benefits all city residents.
This model reinforces Wallonia's objective of renewing its industry and will ensure that the region is better able to cope with future crises.
The strategy will achieve this by fully integrating the alterations and adaptations required by climate change, and by making Wallonia more independent in terms of resources and global supply chains.
Wallonia’s vision is based on the following guidelines:
Particular attention is paid to the six value chains: Construction, Plastics, Food, Water, Textiles and Metallurgy
The Intermunicipal Community of the Tâmega e Sousa is a public entity composed of 11 municipalities in Northern Portugal. It has developed a circular project aiming to enhance circular economy achievements and green transition agendas within local authorities, municipal companies and intermunicipal entities. In this regard, it has created the manual Economia Circular nas Compras Públicas on circular economy in public procurement to assist municipalities.
The manual presents an in-depth mapping of circular economy practices for a Portuguese strategy for ecological public procurement, as well as indications on how to address the circular economy challenge, with a range of criteria and procedures for public procurement.
In September 2019, nine Resourceful Cities embarked on their journey to develop next-generation urban resource centres as a way to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
The nine cities together with their local stakeholders were all able to deliver a high-quality Integrated Action Plan. Every one of those action plans is not just an expression of their resilience in times of crisis: it is also a manifestation of their individual response to their local context and needs.
This publication summarises their collective journey as a network and tells the story of each of the nine partner cities from their own perspective. Their journey shows that cities are big enough to make a difference and small enough to make it happen.
The textile industry’s figures are clear: of the 648 000 tons of textiles placed on the market each year in France, only 38% are collected for recycling.
The 10 proposals set out in this white paper (in French) seek to meet three objectives. The first consists of building the Extended Producer Responsibility approach around environmental benefits. The second is to support the development of a sustainable textile and footwear recycling industry. The last is to meet the legitimate expectations of transparency and traceability. The proposals aim to achieve these objectives in the context of the three key steps in a product’s lifecycle: (1) fabrication, (2) consumption, and (3) regeneration.
There can be no doubt that circular demand creates opportunities for circular supply. But how can closed loop criteria be integrated into public procurement, which represents nearly 14% of Europe's GDP? To figure it out, Renewable Matter interviewed Helena O'Rourke-Potocki and Simon Clement, respectively circular economy and procurement officer and senior coordinator on the circular economy at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.
ICLEI is a global network working with more than 2 500 local and regional governments committed to driving local action towards a social and ecological transition. In future, whether purchasing services or products such as buildings, furniture and food, local authorities will need to look for increasingly sustainable supplies.
The framework for inclusive circular trade is designed to help guide trade and trade-related circular economy and development policies, practices and agreements to ensure these all work towards a shared goal of an inclusive circular economy.
This paper sets out a framework for inclusive circular trade, intended to enable a pathway in which circular trade helps to promote fair, inclusive and circular societies. The framework was developed through the work of an alliance of organizations spanning Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.
Chatham House does not express opinions of its own. The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the authors. A Spanish translation of the paper is also available as a PDF.
Are there limits to robustness in our socio-economic metabolism? And is 100% circularity rate in the EU27 theoretically possible? Can we use principles and indicators from regenerative economics to develop (rather than just grow) regenerative circular economies?
These aspects are being discussed together with Dr. Dominika Alexa Teigiserova, assistant prof. Dr. Daan Schraven, prof. Martin de Jong, prof. Xin Tong, and prof. Bob Ulanowicz in the paper entitled: Are there limits to robustness? Exploring tools from regenerative economics for a balanced transition towards a circular EU27.
This peer reviewed paper is open access and published in the special issue "Sustainable Cities in the Context of Economic Transformation and Climate Change" of the Cleaner Production Letters journal.
In March, the European Commission released its Circular Economy Package which includes a proposal for an Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The ESPR identifies a Digital Product Passport (DPP) as key, enhancing the traceability of products and their components.
The Taskforce for climate neutral and circular materials and products and the Wuppertal Institute have released their new report. This report builds on business insights into how a well-designed DPP could enable climate action and enhanced circularity in the EU.
Circular Buildings: constructing a sustainable future is the latest addition to a series of publications from Holland Circular Hotspot about circular challenges and opportunities in different sectors including infrastructure, plastics, manufacturing and textiles and apparel industries.
It explores how circular economy concepts can help tackle challenges in the building sector, supporting the transition towards a more sustainable and futureproof industry. It provides 25 good practices from the construction value chain and offers a framework for an international shift towards circular construction comprising policies, measurement standards, collaboration initiatives and knowledge exchange.
The conference Towards a Circular Economy: Competences for Youth aimed to enable participants from different backgrounds to learn more about the outputs from the Circular Economy - Sustainable Competences for Youth (CESCY) project, to share their views and to hear from experts from different sectors.
The worsening climate crisis and the growing scarcity of natural resources have increasingly demonstrated the limits of our predominantly linear economy. There is no question that our business models and practices must become more sustainable and circular. It is therefore essential that young people be prepared to contribute and lead the way towards a more circular economy in Europe and beyond.
The fashion sector is awash with certification schemes, sustainability labels and multi-stakeholder initiatives all seeking to steer the industry onto a greener course. Such schemes serve a dual purpose for the brands. As the fashion industry is one of the least regulated sectors in the world, they partially exist as a genuine attempt to move towards sustainability but they also enable ‘greenwashing’.
This report has sought to assess whether certification schemes, labels and multi-stakeholder initiatives are fit for purpose and what role they play in addressing the damage done by the fashion industry. The findings show that the majority of schemes offer a false promise of certification for textiles and a highly sophisticated form of greenwashing.
This report:
It is designed not only to provide an overview of the project’s activities, but also to share learnings, findings and models that could support potential future initiatives in the field of circular electronics and beyond.
Circular Regions is:
For more information, contact: info@circularregions.org
Neue Effizienz is an institution for knowledge transfer and research in the area of energy and resource efficiency based in Wuppertal, Germany. As a regional association, it is funded by the municipalities, public utilities and regional economic development institutions of Wuppertal, Solingen and Remscheid.
Neue Effizienz promotes innovation as well as science and technology transfer in the fields of energy, circular economy, new mobility and smart cities. bergisch.metall, a competence network for the metal industry, fouses on the circular economy; the bergisch.circular project assists the municipalities with the establishment of intermunicipal structures and initiatives supporting the circular transformation.
ITENE is a research centre specialised in packaging. It specialises in developing circular solutions along the supply chain, from raw materials development to final waste management. To meet the sustainability requirements, it develops technological solutions focused on new materials and recycling technologies as well as responding to requirements in terms of safety, design and functionality in packaging.
Besides offering services to the industry ITENE attracts a community of over 4 000 companies and 10 000 professionals, is a member of the leading organisations in its field, and plays an active role in a wide range of sectoral fora and initiatives. Formed in 1994 as a private association with non-profit purposes, it is located in Valencia (Spain).
There are major benefits to be gained from residual flows that are used to a limited extent in food production. By scaling up the use of residual streams for human consumption, we can take a big step towards a circular sustainable food system. But because these residual flows require pioneering work in cooperation with various organisations, an impactful chain transition is not realised.
To accelerate the transition of upcycling of residual streams towards food, co-creation and rock-solid cooperation are needed. The Upcycling Community started by Foodvalley NL is a safe environment where organisations can develop their ideas together and gain inspiration from each other. With the right support and a mix of cross-sector organisations, we make a circular impact.
The Czech Circular Hotspot's (CCH) mission is to facilitate cross-sectoral and international cooperation in the field of circular economy. The ambition of the platform is to create a space where public and private sector can cooperate to accelerate the transition towards Czech circular economy.
The CCH is organized by the Institute for Circular Economy which is a non-governmental organisation that promotes circular economy principles since 2014. INCIEN is built on 5 pillars:
The project Osservatorio Innovazione Packaging (Observatory for Innovative Packaging) aims to trigger innovation in the area of packaging. It collects, prepares and provides case studies, knowledge and experience in order to promote circular, collaborative and responsible innovation projects along the packaging chain.
One of the observatory's goals is to create a regional and national "network of networks" within the packaging sector so as to foster connections between stakeholders. The platform contains:
The Circular Economy Network in Islands (RECIS) is a non-profit association based on the island of Gran Canaria.
It studies and disseminates circular economy solutions to resource scarcity and environmental fragility, which hinder the development of island territories. It also promotes the circular economy in islands and nurtures good practices and sustainability. The network takes a broad approach, since many of the problems facing islands require multidisciplinary solutions.
The network focuses on:
The Romanian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ROCESP) was launched at national level by the Ernest Lupan Institute for Research in Circular Economy and Environment (IRCEM).
ROCESP members include local and central government institutions, academic, research and innovation institutions, businesses and civil society representatives.
The platform aims to promote and reinforce circular economy measures at national level and to facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue in Romania. It acts through 11 working groups, such as: Social and collaborative economy, Urban and territorial development, Energy efficiency, Education and training for the circular economy, Mobility and transport, Materials, Goods and packaging.
Resourceful Cities is an URBACT Action Planning Network of European cities that want to develop next-generation urban resource centres to accelerate the transition to the circular economy. The idea for this network arose from one of the actions identified by the Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy under its ‘better knowledge’ pillar - namely to promote Urban Resource Centres for waste prevention, re-use and recycling.
Broadly these centres serve as connection points for citizens, new businesses, researchers, and the public sector to co-create new ways of closing local resource loops, while promoting waste prevention, re-use, repair, and recycling. Their precise manifestation will differ from city to city in response to the local context and needs identified.
WaVa / Waste Valorisation is a chemical exchange platform for all professionals which promotes the circular economy among manufacturers. Specifically, it is a co-product marketplace where sellers can sell their waste as a secondary raw material and buyers can buy cheaper, local materials.
Any industrial raw material, waste, by-product or manufacturing co-product can be traded on the WaVa platform. It aims to help people achieve their circular economy objectives and thus reap the economic and environmental benefits.
WaVa is not recognised as a waste disposal facility; it simply connects buyers and sellers. It never actually takes ownership of the product.
There are no fees for registration, selling or buying.
At Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), Larissa Copello is the Consumption and Production Campaigner working on upstream solutions for packaging and single-use plastic products, such as waste-free business models and reuse systems.
Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) is the European network of communities, local leaders, experts and change agents working towards the elimination of waste in our society. ZWE advocates for sustainable systems and the redesign of our relationship with resources to accelerate a just transition towards zero waste for the benefit of people and the planet.
ZWE is also part of Rethink Plastic, an alliance of +10 European NGOs working with European policy-makers to design and deliver policy solutions to tackle plastic pollution, in which Larissa Copello follows policy developments on single-use plastic and packaging.
Guido Lena (Italian – 1965) was Director for Environmental Affairs in UEAPME from 1999 to 2008, when he was appointed Director for Sustainable Development, extending his competences to EU energy and climate change policies. His experience covers the challenges and opportunities of sustainability applied to SMEs. In this role, he has represented his organisation in several consultative committees set up by the EU Commission and worked as both sherpa in high-level groups set up by the EU Commission and as expert for the EESC. Due to the recent name change of his organisation, he has been Sustainable Development Director in SMEunited since November 2018.
SMEunited, formerly known as UEAPME, is the association of crafts and SMEs in Europe with around 70 member organisations from over 30 European countries. SMEunited is a recognised employers’ organisation and European social partner and acts on behalf of crafts and SMEs in European social dialogue and in discussions with the EU institutions. SMEunited represents national cross-sectoral craft and SME federations, European SME branch organisations and associate members. It speaks on behalf of the 24 million SMEs in Europe which employ almost 95 million people. It is a non-profit seeking and non-partisan organisation.
Dr Sarah Miller is Chief Executive of the Rediscovery Centre, Ireland's National Centre for the Circular Economy. Since 2005, Sarah has overseen the development of the centre as an ecological centre of excellence and an innovation hub for the circular economy in Ireland. Sarah has a keen interest in research and holds a PhD in Environmental Science, a Master’s in Business Administration and an Honours Degree in Biotechnology.
Based in Dublin, but operating on a national basis, the Rediscovery Centre is a creative movement connecting people, ideas and resources to support the circular economy and sustainable, low-carbon living. The centre’s work is built around the three key themes of education, demonstration and advocacy. To support the transition to a circular economy in Ireland, the centre provides training, education and events that inspire active participation and citizen engagement.
The visitor centre demonstrates good practice through social enterprise excellence, a reuse retail collective and onsite circular economy programmes and showcases. Working in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, the centre also runs the national Circular Economy Academy, a free mentoring and support programme to assist social enterprises and community organisations embrace circularity. In collaboration with the Irish government, regional and city authorities, NGOs, academic institutions and corporate partners, the Rediscovery Centre’s education, research and policy team coordinate action-based programmes which drive change and support the circular economy in Ireland.
Alberto Arroyo Schnell is responsible for policy and programmes at the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has held leading positions on EU environmental policy for the past 15 years. His current focus is working together with the key sectors related to / impacted by / benefiting from biodiversity and nature, aiming to find ways to achieve the environmental targets jointly and to ensure ownership of these targets by all stakeholders. He is Spanish, with a background in Forestry Engineering.
Agnieszka Sznyk is chair of the Board at INNOWO, the Institute of Innovation and Responsible Development in Warsaw, Poland. She holds a PhD in Life Sciences and is an expert in the fields of sustainable production and consumption, circular economy and healthcare economics. Agnieszka has been connected with nongovernmental organisations for many years, notably as founder and manager of the Polish Circular Hotspot and the international educational campaign Circular Week.
Agnieszka serves as an economy expert at the CE Working Group under the National Smart Specializations (NSS) appointed by the Steering Committee, which consists of representatives of the Ministry of Investment and Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy in Poland.
She is author of numerous reports including:
INNOWO (the Institute of Innovation and Responsible Development) is a foundation, non-governmental organisation and a THINK-to-DO TANK established to support the development of innovation and implementation of systemic changes for the purpose of sustainable socio-economic progress. The circular economy is the main field of interest and expertise of INNOWO. The organisation supports decision-makers and different stakeholder groups in identifying effective solutions and policy instruments to engage businesses and consumers in achieving a significant and lasting change towards sustainable production and consumption.
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network of more than 1 750 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in over 100 countries, ICLEI influences sustainability policy and drives local action for low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development.
Mark Hidson joined ICLEI in 2003. He is a member of ICLEI Europe’s Board of Directors and responsible for ICLEI’s sustainable economy and procurement work. For 25 years he has worked for, and on behalf of, local, regional and national governments in project, policy and strategy development on sustainability issues such as smart cities, circular economy, business and city interaction, procurement, climate change and transport.
Freek van Eijk is CEO of Holland Circular Hotspot (HCH), a private-public platform that facilitates the transition to a circular economy at international level by bringing together government authorities, knowledge institutes and especially businesses. HCH supports knowledge exchange with the aim of stimulating entrepreneurship in the field of the circular economy.
Freek van Eijk is also vice-chair of Circular Biobased Delta, an alliance of Dutch provinces, businesses and knowledge centres pioneering a sustainable circular and biobased economy. He is one of the more senior Dutch experts in the field of waste management and the circular economy. He also serves as Managing Director of Acceleratio.
Previously, Freek van Eijk worked for over a decade as Director of strategy and PA at the multinational SUEZ and as a board member of the Dutch Waste Management Association and the Society and Enterprise Foundation and acted as a Sherpa for the EU Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials.
He has a MSc. Eng. (Delft University of Technology).
Agata Meysner is a youth activist and the director of Generation Climate Europe (GCE). She holds an LLB in European Law from Maastricht University and is currently pursuing an MSc in Public Policy from University College London specialising in the circular economy and resource efficiency. Ms Meysner previously worked at the European Environmental Bureau, where she focused on the implementation of the SDGs by and in the EU.
Generation Climate Europe is the largest coalition of youth-led networks at the European level, pushing for stronger action from the EU on climate and environmental issues. GCE brings together 460 national organisations across 47 countries in Europe. It is guided by the voices of 20 million young Europeans. GCE's mission is to create a platform for the youth to advocate for a just and green transition in Europe.
The circular economy is one of the key thematic areas for GCE, encompassing various issues such as textiles, digitalisation, energy and food systems.
EuroCommerce is the principal European organisation representing the retail and wholesale sector. It embraces national associations in 31 countries and 5.4 million companies, both leading global players such as Carrefour, Ikea, Metro and Tesco, and many small businesses. Retail and wholesale provide a link between producers and 500 million European consumers over a billion times a day. It generates 1 in 7 jobs, providing a varied career for 29 million Europeans, many of them young people. It also supports millions of further jobs throughout the supply chain, from small local suppliers to international businesses. EuroCommerce is the recognised European social partner for the retail and wholesale sector.
Nick Dornheim is advisor for Environment & Sustainability at EuroCommerce. He focuses on promoting retailers' and wholesalers' circular economy initiatives such as deploying more sustainable products, ensuring the right waste management infrastructure and empowering consumers.
Mercè Boy Roura is coordinator of the Interreg MED Green Growth community and EU project manager at the BETA Technological Center at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (Spain). She is an environmental scientist with a PhD in Experimental Sciences and Sustainability. She has 10 years' international experience in research and knowledge transfer projects in the field of natural resources and sustainability.
The Interreg MED Green Growth community is a multi-stakeholder network of projects which promotes the green and circular economy in the Mediterranean by enhancing cross-sectoral innovation practices through a regional cooperation approach. Since 2016, the network has consisted of 14 projects connecting 165 partners from 13 countries in the Mediterranean. It structures its work around four focus areas: food systems, eco-innovation, smart cities and waste management. The community supports projects with their communication and capitalisation efforts, thus increasing their impact at policy level and fostering potential transfer and replication of their results in other regions. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled the Green Growth Community in October 2019, acknowledging its potential to advance cooperation in the transition to a green and circular economy in the Mediterranean region.
Reduce water use in Diageo's operations with a 40% improvement in water use efficiency in water stressed areas and 30% improvement across the company.
Replenish more water than Diageo uses for their operations for all their sites in water-stressed areas by 2026.
Invest in 150 projects to improve access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in communities near Diageo sites and local sourcing areas in all of Diageo's water-stressed markets.
Engage in collective action in all of their Priority Water Basins to improve water accessibility, availability and quality and contribute to a net positive water impact.
Achieve zero waste in Diageo's direct operations and zero waste to landfill in Diageo's supply chain.
Ensure 100% of Diageo's packaging is widely recyclable (or reusable/compostable).
Continue to reduce packaging and increase recycled content in Diageo's packaging (delivering a 10% reduction in packaging weight + increasing the % recycled content of the packaging to 60%).
Ensure 100% of Diageo's plastics are designed to be widely recyclable (or reusable/compostable) by 2025 and achieve 40% recycled content in Diageo's plastic bottles by 2025, and 100% by 2030.
Provide all of Diageo's local sourcing communities with agricultural skills and resources, building economic and environmental resilience (supporting 150,000 smallholder farmers).
Develop regenerative agriculture pilot programmes in 5 key sourcing landscapes.
Become Net Zero carbon in Diageo's direct operations.
Reduce Diageo's value chain carbon emissions by 50%.
Use 100% renewable electricity across all of Diageo's direct operations.
By 2025, 100% recyclable beverage packaging & PET bottles of 50% recycled content.
By 2030, PET bottles of 100% recycled and/or renewable PET, 90% collected & more use of refillables.
By 2025, all new PET bottling lines will be suitable for processing up to 100% high-quality rPET without compromising output quality, efficiency or effectiveness.
By 2022, alternative secondary packaging solutions free of disposable plastics will be available for every established SKU format multipack.
Krones will leverage its technological expertise to help customers design packaging that specifically facilitates post-consumer recycling.
Krones will assist its customers to adapt existing lines in order to achieve the best possible outcomes when using recycled or renewable input materials.
With immediate effect, Krones will make available capping equipment for tethered caps.
Krones makes it possible to use detachable labels to enhance recyclability. It aims to make labels jointly recyclable with containers or to eliminate separate labelling.
Krones will continue to allocate substantial R&D resources to its recycling technology division in order to facilitate physical recycling of post-consumer plastics.
Krones will actively explore disruptive new technologies delivering beverages to consumers without conventional PET packaging (e.g. pulp bottles, no-packaging solutions).
LIPOR's Environmental Education and Intervention Program aims to create an educational offer that encourages citizens to implement good environmental practices and facilitates the acquisition of skills that support civic intervention and a sustainable development.
LIPOR intends to reach 90 000 people with its awareness campaign within its catchment area. This involves delivering about 10 direct environmental awareness actions to the community its environmental education technicians daily.
LIPOR’s annual prevention programme includes several projects and initiatives implemented across all eight municipalities aiming to prevent and reduce food waste.
With the “Embrulha" (Pack It) project LIPOR wants to engage 50 restaurants in Porto Municipality and 10 restaurants in other LIPOR municipalities to recover 6 tonnes of food waste.
The "Dose Certa" (Right Portion) project aims to certify 46 food establishments in total.
The Strategic Plan for Urban Waste 2020 (PERSU 2020) is the reference instrument of the urban waste policy in Portugal.
LIPOR has defined a target of 50 kg per inhabitant a year in 2020 for selective collection as a goal. Several projects that aim to increase multi-material and organic recovery figures are defined in LIPOR's strategic plan.
For landfills, the target is a maximum value of landfill of biodegradable waste deposition of 10%.
One public tender for catering services with fully sustainable and circular criteria.
Starbucks target is to phase out plastic straws from its more than 28,000 stores worldwide by 2020, a decision that will eliminate more than 1 billion straws a year.
100% recycled and other sustainable sourced materials by 2030.
100% recycled, certified organic or sustainable sourced cotton by 2020.
To increase the collected volume of garments to reach 25,000 tonnes annually; achieved in 2019 with 29,005 tonnes of garments collected for recycling and reuse.
100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging
Reduce plastic packaging by 25%
25% post recycled plastic across all packaging used
100% recycled or other sustainably sourced material
100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging
Reduce plastic packaging by 25%
25% post recycled plastic across all packaging used
Buyers have committed themselves to successfully completing two circular purchasing projects between June 2017 and June 2019. In practice they will choose 1 or more goals that will guide them towards circular products & services.
These goals are:
- Reduce total amount of materials
- Reduce non-renewable virgin input
- Extend the use/lifetime of products
-Optimize the potential Reuse of products&components
-Optimize the potential Recycling of products& materials
How to facilitate Circular Economy Transition? Capitalization of cooperation experiences and tools - a webinar on 14 October by Veltha.
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.
In this webinar on 6 October 2022, the project partners will share their knowledge, experiences and insights regarding design and product development with recycled plastic.
The webinar will be chaired by Prof. David Greenfield (SOENECS), joined by representatives from project partners Technische Universiteit Delft (NL), Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and the Green Plastic Factory (NL).
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 students' call for Circular Economy Innovative Projects (Navarra Circular Economy Awards 2022) is open until 25 September 2022. It is geared to the textile and plastics sectors as well as food industries. The call seeks to identify vocational education and training final projects, final degree projects, Master's final projects, PhD theses or similar developed by students.
The European Commission is launching a survey to collect data on food loss and waste prevention initiatives along the food supply chain.
This survey aims to collect relevant information by 3 October 2022 on both ongoing and concluded food waste prevention initiatives in order to analyse their efficiency, effectiveness, and impacts.
The European Commission is currently accepting proposals for EU grants to help stakeholders take action against food waste. Fighting against food waste is one of the key action strands laid down in the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally friendly.
Following the success of the sixth European Food & Beverage Plastic Packaging Summit which brought 100+ senior industry professionals to Antwerp in February 2022, the event will be returning to Belgium. The seventh Summit will take place in Antwerp on 15-16 February 2023.
Following the success of Lignofuels 2022 which brought 150+ senior industry professionals to Helsinki in June 2022, we are pleased to announce that the 2023 conference will be taking place in Helsinki again on 8-9 February 2023.
Are you an official representative of a city/region/basin in which a significant share of economic activity depends on oceans, seas, rivers and lakes? Do you wonder how to implement a RISC-proof blue economy? If so, fill in the OECD survey: Localising the Blue Economy. Towards a Resilient, Inclusive, Sustainable and Circular approach to the blue economy in cities and regions by 16/9/22.
AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, has created its own trademark to certify that reusable food packaging is safe and retains its properties after repeated washings. The trademark responds to companies’ need to adapt their products to regulations promoting the circular economy in order to acquire a market advantage.
Circular Buildings: constructing a sustainable future: a new brochure which explores how the circular economy can help tackle challenges in the resource-intensive building sector.
This Reflection paper of the ECESP Leadership Group on Network governance and circular economy hubs draws on the lessons learned when a group of ECESP Coordination Group members focused on road-mapping processes in various countries. The key to success is making the networks work, making them actionable, with a focus on network governance and the role of individual circular economy hubs.
The built environment has a significant impact on a multitude of sectors, on local jobs and on quality of life. The construction sector accounts approximately for 50% of materials extracted in Europe, and is responsible for more than 35% of Europe's waste.
Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes (EPR) are increasingly used across Member States to finance proper waste management. The workshop discussed the take-aways, benefits but also shortcomings of EPR Schemes, in order to focus on the various areas of improvements. Particular emphasis was placed on the role played by eco-modulation of fees.
While digital networking is of great advantage for everyday life, the incredible amounts of electrical devices bring with it some particularly ecological risks, especially with regard to the use of resources. This is why the European Commission in the New Circular Economy Action Plan announced a Circular Electronics Initiative. There are still many challenges to be discussed during this workshop.
This workshop brought together experts from various organisations to discuss topics like the undervalued importance of infrastructure in tackling climate change, discuss the markets for secondary resources, the relevance of deconstruction design to enable the renovation wave, and stress value-chains collaboration.
At a moment when the EU stakeholders hold their breath for the EU Textiles strategy to be published, this workshop aims to give a final signal to the policy makers that a high level of ambition needs to be maintained in the upcoming proposal in order to create a watershed moment for the textile production and consumption, and more importantly for its global impact on the society and environment.
This workshop aims to better understand the key ingredients for the successful circular transformation as well as the definition of the optimal profile of the transition broker.
This workshop used the concrete example of procurement of charging stations for electrical vehicles to link circular procurement to the energy transition.
The Cities & Regions Leadership Group in 2021 continued the work on the analysis of indicators to measure the transition to the circular economy in cities and regions.
This workshop capitalized on those discussion points, gearing the discussions towards the definition of operational cooperation leads between different initiatives supporting CE transition in cities and regions.
This workshop session was divided into three different thematic blocks focussing on:
The first Circular Bio-based Europe - Joint Undertaking call for proposals is now open for submissions and will run until 17:00 CEST on 22 September 2022.
Fashion For Change is a 3-year project co-financed by COSME, the European Union programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Together with COSME, Fashion For Change is enhancing the competitiveness and environmental performance of European fashion SMEs, designers and start-ups.
Greece's Green Fund aims to enhance development by protecting the environment. It achieves this goal by managing and providing financial and technical support for programmes, measures, interventions and actions geared towards safeguarding and restoring the environment, with a view to supporting the country's environmental policy and serving the public and social interest.
Submit your R&I project proposal and attend Info days for the 2022 Horizon Europe circular economy related calls under Cluster 4 ‘Digital, Industry and Space’ and Cluster 6 ‘Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment’!
Cluster 4 calls are open for submission; deadline: 30 March 2022. Cluster 6 calls open for submission on 28 October 2021; deadline: 15 February 2022.
In September 2018, Intesa Sanpaolo launched a Circular Economy Plafond to finance innovative and transformative projects and companies that adopt Circular Economy principles.
The 2021 edition of BeCircular offers up to EUR 200 000 financial support for circular economy projects in the Brussels-Capital Region. Its launch event will take place online on 15 March.
This new UNEP report highlights the critical role of financial institutions in advancing the growth of circularity by investing in businesses that take a more sustainable approach to production and consumption.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new report highlights rapid growth in circular economy financing and investment, and describes how investors and the banking and insurance industry are capitalising on the resulting opportunities.
Eco-vouchers (Ecocheques) are an incentive for Belgian households to purchase eco-friendly goods and services, including second-hand and refurbished ones.
JLG, a company that takes machines back to a dedicated reconditioning facility after their first use cycle and repairs and restores them to original specification, builded a business model that integrates the recovery of assets.
This allowed their financial partner to develop a complete finance offering for JLG’s new and reconditioned assets, including rental solutions.
The Erasmus+ project CirThink - Embedding Circular Economy Thinking in Higher Education Institutes (HEI) through University and Industry Partnerships aims to embed circular economy thinking in HEIs through cooperation between universities and industry.
The Polish AGH UST Faculty of Management will be providing a 45-hour course on Business strategies in the circular economy on 5-12 July 2022. This 3 ECTS-credit course is free of charge and will take place online in English. It is intended for foreign students studying for a bachelor's, master's or phD degree.
There can be no doubt that a significant change in lifestyle and patterns of production and consumption is needed to cope with the various climate, energy and resource-related crises coming our way. Cittadinanzattiva promotes the circular economy by means of training, debates, awareness raising activities and the encouragement of positive patterns of behaviour.
The Reflow Masterclasses offer a deep dive into dedicated topics relevant to the transition to circular cities. In a condensed 30-minute lecture, experts provide an overview of key knowledge about and insights into circular economy-related topics.
Following a massive open online course (MOOC) approach, REFLOW Academy enables stakeholders to enrol in a set of three courses focusing on the circular economy.
In this six-week course, participants will learn about circular economy, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency and clean energy through interactive materials, live events and working groups. The course is part of the Interreg Euro-MED Academy catalogue and will provide particpants with tangible examples of actions, policies, and tools available to apply effective solutions in their own context.
The INSIGHT training course aims to increase knowledge, skills, and competences concerning industrial symbiosis for trainees willing to become industrial symbiosis facilitators. The course, which is available for free on an online e-learning platform, is in English, but summaries of each unit are provided in Italian, Spanish, French, Slovenian and Romanian.
The Circulab Academy is proud to announce the following training courses for 2022:
The Girls Go Circular Project aims to equip 50 000 schoolgirls aged 14-18 across Europe with digital and entrepreneurial skills by 2027 through an online learning programme about the circular economy.
This open access MOOC is for entrepreneurs and students to work on a sustainable, circular or social business model using the Business Model Template (BMT).
In three phases and 10 steps, all aspects for developing a business model are systematically dealt with. The MOOC consists of a self-paced programme of seven chapters and over 50 teaching units.
This roadmap supports governments in their goals to work towards 100% circular procurement and commissioning. The roadmap provides for a step-by-step plan that helps to design the implementation process and select actions needed.
Reducing the negative environmental impact caused by building processes and materials is an important element of circular construction. Sustainable construction applies to both public spaces (as it pertains to civil and hydraulic engineering) and the built environment (the construction of residential and non-residential buildings).
Circular design is gaining momentum as regards creating both a sustainable built environment and public spaces. Circular design makes buildings more adaptable and facilitates the high-value reuse of a structure’s materials once they have reached the end of their life. This toolbox article summarises the circular design of buildings in eight core principles.
Flanders DC and Circular Flanders have developed a tool to guide fashion entrepreneurs through the basics of a more sustainable way of working. With this online platform they want to encourage the industry to steer clear of a linear system (take-make-waste) and to embrace a more circular approach instead (with a focus on durability and avoiding waste).
Between September 2021 and March 2022, the Circular Economy - Sustainable Competences for Youth project team conducted an online survey, reaching more than 200 young people aged 18-30 across Europe. These findings fed into data used to prepare recommendations advocating better inclusion and opportunities for young people regarding the transition towards a circular economy.
UNECE and UN/CEFACT, together with key industry stakeholders, have launched a project for an international framework initiative to enhance transparency and traceability for sustainable and circular value chains in the garment and footwear industry.
Reducing your value chain’s emissions is a key factor in combating climate change, transitioning to a circular economy and ensuring that your business is competitive and complies with the law. This guide by Normative sets out six building blocks to measure and reduce carbon emissions from your value chain, a prerequisite for adopting circular business model principles.
This guide helps municipal authority practitioners adopt a more circular approach to public procurement. It provides an overarching framework that should be adapted to the local context and the reality of each city. Each step includes questions to consider, examples of how other municipal authorities have implemented circular procurement, and resources.
As a company or organisation you want to contribute to circularity. This may require a new business model focused on efficient use and reuse of products, components and raw materials. You can use Saxion University of Applied Sciences' free, interactive toolset to clarify what you want to achieve and start exploring how to develop your circular business model.
This Whitepaper presents research into existing and emerging circular business models (CBMs). This results in the identification of seven basic types of CBM, divided into three groups that together form a classification.
Tarkett, a worldwide leader of innovative flooring, has launched a new thorough - yet easy-to-use - Carbon Calculator to offer customers, across all sectors, transparency on the carbon footprint of Tarkett’s flooring collections, to help them make informed purchasing decisions. Tarkett's carbon calculator is supporting low carbon footprint in building and construction projects.
The Circular Benchmark Tool (CBT) enables regions to take stock of both their progress towards a circular economy and possible steps to improve their performance with a view to accelerating their transition to the circular economy.
SuperDrecksKëscht has developed the concept of resources potential certification of demanufacturing plants. It allows for product-related evaluation of treatment, recycling and disposal plants including actual volumes of raw materials recovered and the proportion used for energy generation.
Normative's carbon accounting service explains the role of carbon emissions in a circular economy and why it is important to reduce them.
CircularTool is an instrument developed by Matrec to measure the product circularity. It supports designers in the product design phase as it evaluates the choice of sustainable materials and helps them apply the Circular Economy EU Action Plan strategies and the Ecodesign Directive.
Following the study on the material flow analysis for Flanders in the period 2002-2018, which was published by the Circular Economy Policy Research Center in June 2020, this study introduces the link between the material flows in and out of the Flemish economy and the material flows within the Flemish economy.
This report is part of the ongoing research at the Policy Research Centre for Circular Economy to create a monitoring instrument to guide the transition to a circular economy in Flanders. This report presents a guiding framework specifically for circular economy in the food system and provides a first set of indicators to monitor the food system.
This report presents a circular economy monitor for the societal need fulfillment system of buildings and housing in Flanders. It is part of the CE monitor of the Circular Economy Policy Research Center.
This report is part of the ongoing research conducted by the Circular Economy Policy Research Center on creating a framework for a monitor to guide the transition to a circular economy in Flanders. It presents a set of indicators for the system of consumer goods, revealing how this system performs in relation to circular economy principles.
This report addresses blind spots in current research about the understudied circular phenomenon of reuse. It also explores the variety of channels for reuse, both formal (i.e. included in our economy through regulated economic units and protected workers) and informal (i.e. part of an informal economy in which transactions are not registered).
