The Baltic TRAM (Transnational Research Access in the Macroregion) project strengthened the relationship between analytical research institutions and businesses by fostering cooperation between companies and researchers, linking expertise to industrial needs.
CIRCit was a 3½-year research project, spanning the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. The objective was to help their industry to discover and implement the opportunities of the circular economy.
This project was part of the Nordic Green Growth Research and Innovation Programme funded by NordForsk, Nordic Energy Research and Nordic Innovation.
The project focus areas for the circular economy were:
The project webpage contains 101 circular economy case studies in the Nordic region and several scientific publications.
The Digital Platform for Circular Economy (CE HUB) recently created by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia showcases circular economy-related information for the business community on:
The interactive part of the platform aims to:
The aim is for CE businesses to join the Alliance for Green Transition of Serbia.
EN: The MarketPlace Circular Labs aim to give visibility to good practices and circular economy success stories developed by businesses and entrepreneurs in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula (Castilla y León, Galicia and North of Portugal).
ES: El MarketPlace Circular Labs tiene por objeto dar visibilidad a Buenas Prácticas y casos de éxito de economía circular desarrolladas por empresas y emprendedores en el Noroeste de la Península Ibérica (Castilla y León, Galicia y Norte de Portugal).
PT: O MarketPlace Circular Labs pretende dar visibilidade às Boas Práticas e casos de sucesso da economia circular desenvolvidas por empresas e empresários do Noroeste da Península Ibérica (Castela e Leão, Galiza e Norte de Portugal).
Circular Innovation Lab invites you to the launch event for ShopC - the first ever marketplace for circular fashion & lifestyle. Circular Innovation Lab has invited an exciting panel of participants – representatives of international organisations and fashion brands and circular economy experts – exploring topics such as sustainability, innovation and circular fashion & lifestyle.
Fab City Challenge is an initiative launched in 2014 by the then mayor of Barcelona, “challenging” cities to become self-sustainable by 2054. Since then, the project has expanded to a global network of 28 cities and one country (Georgia), cooperating with each other to improve, implement and exchange their urban practices.
The end-goal is for each city to produce everything they consume. In order to reach its objective, the Challenge vividly promotes increased collective action and co-designed solutions for the common well-being of the planet. That is the main idea of its Manifesto, which contains 10 guiding principles for promoting sustainability and liveability – with actions at local and regional levels.
ACCEZ is a platform which aims to foster circular economy practices in the southern Netherlands. It pools initiatives by several regional universities and public and private actors in the following fields:
The platform bolsters cooperation between partners to develop solutions for knowledge-intensive issues. To do so, they oversee and fund triple-helix research projects. The end-goal of the platform is to enhance the regional knowledge base and networks, with a view to substantially accelerating the transition to a circular economy.
Across the world, cluster organisations have taken a leading role in the green transition. Cluster Excellence Denmark recently released a new e-book titled Towards a New Greener Normal – How Clusters are Dealing with Circular Transition in Times of COVID-19, exploring how this work has continued despite the current pandemic.
The e-book contains informative insights into how clusters are integrating the green transition and digitalisation, leading to brand new and innovative solutions with market potential.
eChiller is a refrigerator system developed and manufactured by the German company Efficient Energy which uses only water.
Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) of historic (and future) landfills is a key part of the solution for closing material loops. It addresses major societal challenges by recovering materials, energy and land. Machiels' ‘Closing the Circle’ project will be the first to put ELFM into practice.
To access Recovery and Resilience Facility funds, Member States will need to prepare and submit national recovery and resilience plans. What kind of approaches can governments adopt to classify budget headings and measure the impact on climate change and circularity?
BPost's project aims to replace all water fountains and vending machines for hot and cold drinks and snacks. The company would like to install new machines that are energy-efficient and produce less waste.
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.
Over the last 2 and a half years, CICERONE has worked closely with over 100 stakeholders, primarily programme owners, to build more alignment for circular economy programming and funding in Europe. The event on 30 March is an excellent opportunity to hear the partners present some of the project's results and experience first-hand the launch of the new EU Circular Cooperation Hub.
The report on Sustainable Plastics Strategy was prepared by the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) and its partners: Cefic, PlasticsEurope, European Plastics Converters (EuPC) and the European Composites, Plastics and Polymer Processing Platform (ECP4).
One of the keys to tackling plastic waste is the creation of a circular economy. However, the circular economy for plastics is not just about waste. Eliminating leakage and stepping up the use of secondary materials may be part of the picture, but the transition to renewable inputs completes it.
This report outlines the future research needed to fulfil the objectives of the European Strategy for Plastics and the Green Deal priorities.
On 4 February, Holland Circular Hotspot organised a webinar on European opportunities for the circular economy during the Dutch Week of the Circular Economy.
The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative, a space of encounter to design future ways of living, at the crossroads between art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology, in the name of simplicity, functionality and circularity. Its team is planning a series of information sessions to present the opportunities to contribute to the initiative.
Join the Finnish innovation Fund Sitra, the European Environment Agency and the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform to discuss how to create a level playing field for circular businesses and how to enable a transition to a circular economy through incentives that promote circularity. Rendez-vous on 25 March (13:00 to 14:30 CET).
CICERONE is a group of European programme owners, researchers and businesses seeking to build a platform for an efficient circular economy. Its report Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) on Circular Economy aims to help owners and funders of European circular economy programmes adopt a systemic approach to circular economy transition.
The SRIA was developed based on eight priority themes (biomass and biotechnologies, chemicals, construction and demolition, food, plastic, raw materials, waste and water) and builds on four societal areas that face sustainability challenges (urban areas, industrial systems, value chains and territory and sea) to identify priority areas to tackle EU region-wide issues and facilitate the circular economy transition.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has identified five universal circular economy policy goals that provide a framework for national governments, cities and businesses to create a transition that fosters innovation and decouples growth from finite resource consumption and environmental degradation.
As governments and industries around the globe move towards a circular economy, it is key to align ambitions and collaborate effectively. The five goals provide a blueprint for cooperation and the private and public sectors need to pull together to achieve them. The goals acknowledge that the relevant policies are interconnected, which will help avoid creating a patchwork of solutions.
Together with its research partner TNO Netherlands, the European Sustainable Business Federation - Ecopreneur.eu - invites companies to take part in a consortium of green SMEs to respond to future calls from the new HORIZON EU research and innovation programme, which runs from 2021 until 2027 and has a budget of around EUR 95,5 billion.
The European Sustainable Business Federation Ecopreneur.eu features six national associations with 3000 sustainable companies - mostly SMEs.
A member of the ECESP Coordination Group, Ecopreneur.eu is the international business organisation in Brussels committed to ambitious measures, rules and regulations for a low-carbon circular economy. Ecopreneur.eu advocates a new economic framework by bringing concrete experience from pioneering companies into the political debate, showing best practice examples and advocating the needs of green SMEs in a credible way.
The Ecopreneur.eu Low-Carbon Circular Economy Advocacy Group is a sounding board of circular economy pioneers, including Tarkett, Werner & Mertz, Interface, REMONDIS and HUMANA Kleidersammlung.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy. It works with, and inspires, business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilise systems solutions at scale, globally.
Its vision is a new economic system that delivers better outcomes for people and the environment. Business models, products, and materials are designed to increase use and reuse, replicating the balance of the natural world, where nothing becomes waste and everything has value.
A circular economy, increasingly built on renewable energy and materials, is distributed, diverse, and inclusive. The Foundation’s work focuses on six interlinking areas:
Fortunale is entirely eco-friendly, and it is inspired by modern principles of circular economy: a Fortunale sweater is designed, from its origin, to be recycled at the end of its natural use until 80%, because it is made of pure wool, and this precious characteristic allows us to regenerate its fibers into new prime materials.
