During Romania's Presidency of the Council of the EU in Spring 2019, IRCEM began a project to support the development of a circular economy strategy for Romania. With support from the Ministry of Environment, Department for Sustainable Development and other public authorities, civil society organisations and private businesses, 9 conferences and workshops were organised from April to June 2019.
REDEL is an energy provider in Italy. Its activities comprise decommissioning outdated energy installations. The PVC Upcycling project aims to initiate a circular model for reclaiming resources by:
The 1st OECD Roundtable on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions will take place on the 4 July 2019 at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris.
Sustainable Finance: Commission’s technical expert group calls for feedback on their report on Taxonomy for sustainable economic activities
The Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, set up by the Commission in July 2018, has launched on 4th of July 2019 a call for feedback on their Report on Taxonomy published on 18 June 2019.
On 31 May 2018 ENEA (the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development) presented the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP). This platform, since launched formally on 3 December 2018 in the Italian Senate, is the mirror platform of ECESP at the national level and promotes the Circular Economy by sharing good practices from Italy.
This Retrace dissemination event will be an opportunity for participants to find answers to how to achieve a systemic change that would support the transition to circular economy.
This year took place the third The World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), beginning Monday 3rd June in Helsinki, Finland. The Forum is organised by SITRA, the Finnish Innovation Fund.
The fourth edition of the international Circular Change Conference was a meeting of the global circular community, and a platform that sent a strong message to change-makers across Europe that more needs to be done to accelerate the change from linear to circular.
On 19 June 2019, Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) and Circle Economy released the Circularity Gap Report Austria, the first measure of circularity for a nation state.
Experts and peer reviewers included CEC4Europe, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism, the Federal Environment Agency, the Federation of Austrian Industries, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, TU Vienna, the INZIN Institute and the City of Vienna. This landmark report paves the way for nations to lead the transition from a linear economy of Take-Make-Waste to a circular economy.
The analysis, commissioned by ARA, found a circularity rate for Austria of 9.7%, ahead of the figure of 9.1% in Circle Economy’s Global Circularity Gap report published in January 2019.
At the beginning of June, Circle Economy and Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) released the Circularity Gap Report Austria, which makes Austria the first nation to measure the Circularity Gap. This landmark report paves the way for nations to lead the transition from a linear economy of Take-Make-Waste to a circular economy.
One of the Interreg DTP MOVECO (Mobilizing Institutional Learning for Better Exploitation of Research and Innovation for the Circular Economy) project results is the Transnational Strategy to accelerate transition towards a circular economy in the Danube region.
Be transnational – reducing disparities within the Danube Region can only happen through cooperation, capacity building and knowledge exchange across borders. This holds also true for the implementation of the circular economy to make the Danube Region, as a resource poor region, less dependent on imported primary resources.
MOVECO identified key challenges with regard to the transition towards a circular economy and offers recommendations for progress. The strategy further provides the reader with many good practice examples and possibilities to raise awareness for circular economy.
Regular updates on the MOVECO project can be found on this page.
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
These factsheets outline circular economy opportunities to design out urban waste and pollution, ensure products and materials maintain their value, and regenerate the natural systems in our cities.
Easy-to-reference, the factsheets are a collation of research and case examples that answer some of the most prevalent questions around what circular economy can bring to cities:
The whole collection of factsheets, by system and phase, is available on the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation website.
The European Plastics Converters Association, together with the German association for plastic packaging Industrievereinigung Kunststoff-verpackungen, is organizing its annual conference under the theme A Circular Future with Plastics on the 13-14 June 2019 in Berlin.
CECIMO has published a report underlining how the shift towards a circular economy calls for a prominent role of manufacturing. Within it, the machine tool sector plays a crucial role. Machine tools already have multiple lifetimes and embrace some key principles of the circular economy. But there is always room for improvement.
The sector can invest in advanced manufacturing technologies, but also build upon the existing good practices. This would lead to improved productivity and resource efficiency, and consumers enjoying products that last longer and use less energy.
The report also makes recommendations to the industry and policy makers.
Stand-up innovation is like stand-up comedy, but instead of comedians performing comedy, scientists, pioneer thinkers, and circular economy pundits set the stage for innovative ideas.
Ok, we promise they’ll throw in a few jokes, too.
Globally, the circular economy movement is gaining momentum, and the Vienna-based NGO, alchemia-nova aims with stand-up Innovation to inspire people to think circular in Austria. This second event of the stand-up innovation event series is focusing on materials in a circular economy. How will they circulate, what does it need for it? Quality, Infrastructure, customers, new laws, …
Waste and pollution from the production of textiles and clothing have become critical global issues. This report launched by Ecopreneur.eu and the European Sustainable Business Federation calls for decisive policy measures based on 5 pillars:
The Circular Prague report is a visual roadmap that identifies the strategies that are best positioned to kick-start the Czech capital’s transition towards a circular economy.
The report marks the culmination of Prague’s Circle City Scan; a 12-month collaborative innovation process involving local government, research organisations and businesses. The collaborative Circle City Scan process has highlighted the potential to promote circular lifestyles in ReUse Hubs using public procurement, to boost the construction through circular procurement, and to use the city’s food waste as biomethane to power the city’s waste collection fleet.
The EREK international conference will demonstrate how successful businesses and industries seek resource efficient solutions, collaborate in a circular and social economy, and pursue digitalisation to gain a competitive edge. From keynote speeches to practical sessions, the conference aims to gather the Resource Efficiency community by promoting exchanges between all actors, from newcomers to front runners, from SMEs to business intermediaries, raising awareness of existing and upcoming opportunities to make the Circular Economy a reality.
Smart Circular Economy is an international workshop focusing on the role of ICT as an enabler for the Circular Economy. This workshop will bring together scientists and researchers as well as relevant stakeholders from industry and local communities to share and exchange their experiences, discuss challenges, and report state-of-the-art and in-progress research at the intersection of ICT and the Circular Economy. Accepted and presented papers will appear at IEEE Xplore and will be listed by all major indexes.
The policy brief discusses Circular Economy Business Models (CBM), gives several examples and considers the challenges and solutions facing policymakers. It makes a number of recommendations to regions to speed up the development of CBMs ‒ something this brief argues regions are in a good position to do ‒ and shares several good practices from Interreg Europe projects. It should be read in conjunction with the Interreg webinar on CBMs webinar on Circular Economy Business Models. It also briefly sketches EU policies in this area and offers some practical funding and networking tips.
In a circular economy, assets are no longer sold. Rather, the assets are collectively maintained by a network of stakeholders involved in the ongoing functioning of the assets - the circular service (CISE) network.
A CISE network however requires unprecedented levels of cooperation and coordination between participants, leading to high administrative costs and the need for trust and transparency in the network. CISE networks are a totally different way of doing business, requiring different financial, legal and governance structures. Would it be possible for assets to be owned and procured by a network that creates value from them? Could this, simultaneously, reduce administrative costs?
VertECO consists of a vertical ecosystem (vertical constructed wetland) treating greywater from handwash basins, showers, and laundries.
