ReCreate: Innovate and develop novel technological solutions for deconstruction and reuse
ReCreate pushes towards circular construction by investigating the system changes needed in the whole ecosystems of construction and demolition.
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The Innovation Agenda for Sustainable Use of Resources
The Innovation Agenda for Sustainable Use of Resources
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.
Van Werven: Plastics recycling
Van Werven Plastics Recyling specialises in creating high-quality raw materials from post-consumer hard plastics, collected from construction waste, industrial waste and municipal recycling centres. Van Werven has a separate machine for each type of plastic, as every material has its own properties.
Löfbergs' drive for circular change in the coffee industry
In Sweden, there is an initiative from the coffee roasting sector which aims to eliminate all waste related to coffee cultivation, processing and consumption by the year 2030.
Chalmers University: a decidedly fishy project
The NoVAqua project found that the countless thousands of litres of waste water thrown away by the fish processing industry was essentially nutritious stock which can be put to better use than just pouring it down the drain...
Using horse manure to power horse shows
Finnish energy company Fortum had developed a circular renewable energy service, dubbed HorsePower, that used recycled materials to provide a bedding management service for stable-owners, as well as using manure for energy.
Fjällräven up-cycles wool as a by-product of the meat industry
Fjällräven is giving wool waste a second life by using it for innovative purposes, like padding in jackets or backplate in backpacks.
Circular Gothenburg
Circular Gothenburg focuses on resource efficiency to reduce climate change and achieve circular material flows.
It has three target groups: citizens, city departments and businesses. For all three target groups, the goal is to make it simple, straightforward and attractive to participate in transformational circular work. This includes the municipality’s in-house processes and activities which help people to live in a more circular way. One of these activities is the Fixotek: staffed facilities, close to where people live and open to everyone, where people can meet, learn, repair and redesign products, borrow tools and swap toys, clothes and books.
Soeco: upcycling office furniture
Soeco Kontorsmöbler is a Swedish company that recycles and refurbishes office furniture. Its goal is to take furniture which would most likely be thrown away and transform it into an item that either looks like or is new.
Sopköket's garbage kitchen is the new circular trend
Sopköket is a Swedish restaurant and catering company founded in 20215. It prepares meals which partly incorporate rescued and surplus food from supermarkets and other companies. Their goal is to reduce food waste.
FISSAC - Fostering Industrial Symbiosis for a Sustainable Resource Intensive Industry across the extended Construction Value Chain
FISSAC is a project seeking to stimulate the coordination and facilitation of work in the construction and demolition value chain. Accordingly, the initiative aims to gather various stakeholders and to encourage the development and adoption of a common methodology and software platform for the exchange of information and best practices.
The overall aim of the project is to help companies with sustainability practices, by creating models that can be used by anyone. The models can be:
- manufacturing processes (such as demonstrations of close-loop recycling processes to transform waste into secondary raw materials)
- product validations (examples of eco-design and eco-innovative construction products)
- industrial symbiosis models (software platforms for example).
ResQ - finding a buyer for that leftover cupcake
ResQ Club is a Finnish company and mobile application, which also covers parts of Sweden, Poland and Germany. Its goal is to combat food waste by connecting sustainable restaurants, cafés and food shops with consumers who appreciate affordable quality food.
Textiles - from waste to resource by 2030
Textiles - from waste to resource by 2030
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has issued a report on how to make the textile sector more sustainable. It provides proposals for a more resource-efficient and smart textile sector, covering topics such as challenges and definitions of solutions towards a smarter sector. It suggests, for instance, to introduce tax relief programmes and industrial parks for resource-efficient textile production.
This report is one of several sector reports from IVA project Resource Effectiveness and Circular Economy (ReCE). The purpose is to make Sweden more competitive in a future with finite resources in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The project has established platforms for dialogue between actors in the public and private sectors.
The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra: leading the way to a circular economy
The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra is a future fund collaborating with partners to research, trial and implement bold ideas that shape the future. It aims to make Finland a pioneer in sustainable well-being.
Since 2015, Sitra has been working to lead the way to a circular economy – a new kind of society in which everyday lives and well-being are no longer based on excessive consumption and fossil fuel use.
Currently, Sitra’s work focuses on supporting a fair transition to a circular economy and investigating how business can be based on sharing instead of ownership. Sitra is also working to advance circular trade policies, to increase the understanding of environmental effects of digitisation and to explore the potential of the circular economy to safeguard biodiversity.
Swedish strategy for circular economy accelerates the transition to sustainability
In spring 2020, the spread of the COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis had a severe impact on society. This situation does, however, enable a stronger contribution to a transition to a circular economy through a green recovery.
As one of the world’s most innovative countries, Sweden has a good chance of addressing this transition by taking important steps to strengthen its competitiveness through technological development and innovation for circular solutions.
Adopted in 2020 based on an agreement between the Government, the Centre Party and the Liberal Party, this strategy sets out the direction and ambition for a long-term and sustainable transition of Swedish society.
Read it now in English.
Wallenius Water Innovation’s contribution to a circular economy: Using UV light to resist bacterial growth in metalworking fluids
Wallenius Water Innovation is a Swedish clean-tech company that works with UV light to prevent bacterial growth in metalworking fluids. The non-toxic solution secures long-lasting process fluids without using hazardous biocides. In this way, fluids can more easily be reused in the installation rather than be disposed.
Innovation competition for sustainable plastic use: How do we shape a sustainable food system?
Innovation competition for sustainable plastic use: How do we shape a sustainable food system?
This report describes innovation competition as a method of tackling major environmental challenges, specifically how to provide food sustainably and resource-efficiently in the future.
Two teams with expertise in plastics, logistics and sustainability developed solutions focused on a more regional food supply enabling us to reduce the amount of plastic, packaging and transport used. The winning submission is a conversion tool describing the principles of sustainable production and consumption of food.
Recovering nutrients from waste
Ragn-Sells collects, treats and recycles waste and residual products from businesses, organisations and households.
TOMRA: leading the circular revolution in plastics
TOMRA's Circular Economy Division was established in January 2019 to speed up the transformation to a circular economy and shape future waste and resource systems.
Creating value out of waste for a sustainable future
TOMRA’s cutting-edge sorting technologies retain valuable resources by extracting high-purity fractions from mixed waste and metal streams in the most remote parts of the world. Its technology and equipment has been used in the world’s most advanced recycling plants.
The world’s most efficient deposit-based return systems
TOMRA is the world leader in reverse vending solutions. It provides an automated method for collecting, sorting and handling used beverage containers for recycling or reuse. TOMRA has approximately 80 000 reverse vending machines in more than 60 markets.
Svenska Retursystem’s reusable transit packing system contributes to CO2 and food waste reduction
Svenska Retursystem contributes to the circular economy through a reusable transit packaging system. It offers an alternative to the single use transit packaging, such as wooden pallets or cardboard boxes, that often contributes to global waste.
ReTuna Återbruksgalleria – the world’s first recycling mall
ReTuna Återbruksgalleria revolutionises shopping by being the world's first recycling mall in Eskilstuna, Sweden. ReTuna takes old items and gives them new life through repair and upcycling. The public can leave items in the recycling containers provided by the mall, and they are then redistributed to the shops.
Copenhagen International School (CIS) - a low-energy building and the largest building-integrated photovoltaic in Europe
CIS Nordhavn is a new school building for the Copenhagen International School (CIS). It is a low-energy building and the largest building-integrated photovoltaic installation in Europe.
Resource Effectiveness and the Circular Economy
Resource Effectiveness and the Circular Economy: how to strengthen Sweden's competitiveness in a future with finite resources
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has always been a meeting place for Sweden’s future. It builds bridges between the business community, the public sector, academia and the political sphere.
Its two-year project "Resource Effectiveness and the Circular Economy" was aimed at making Sweden more competitive in a future with finite resources, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, by economising on resources and developing new technologies, services and business models in five areas:
Read the synthesis report, marking the completion of the project, which presents the most important conclusions, recommendations and action plans from the five subprojects.
Test yourself and your lifestyle by Sitra
Is your lifestyle good or bad for the environment? After taking this short test by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, you will receive tailor-made tips. The aim is to help you save time and money and so to improve your quality of life.
Smart textiles: Innovation in the textile industry
The textile industry needs to innovate for the sake of the industry and its people, the healthcare sector and the environment.
It can create clothes that monitor health conditions and measure body movements, as well as technologies that recycle/reuse textile fibres.
Since its creation in 2006, Smart Textiles has developed over 500 research/business projects. Visit its Showroom to find out about new materials/prototypes/products, or its Technology Lab at the University of Borås, where technological advances are achieved thanks to inter-disciplinary cooperation.
The circular project Re:textile has launched the F/ACT Movement, focusing on new sustainable choices without sacrificing the passion for clothing and fashion.