This book provides answers on how to govern the transition to a circular economy in different socio-cultural and political contexts.

It is intended to help the global changemakers who are building our circular future. Author Jacqueline Cramer spoke with 20 representatives of circular hotspots worldwide, thoroughly analysed their different contexts and extracted 10 key takeaways. Everyone working on circular initiatives can use these and adapt them to their own socio-cultural and political contexts.

In this book, Jacqueline Cramer shows how network governance can power the circular economy. Network governance is about building a coalition of partners, which all fulfill a specific function in the network and are aligned by so-called transition brokers. By complementing conventional, public governance with this new form of governance, the best of both worlds is created.

Prof. Cramer shares her huge experience of implementing numerous circular initiatives in the Netherlands. As a practitioner and scholar, she has identified ten guiding principles for building circular initiatives, based on network governance. These guidelines can support everyone who wants to start or expedite a circular initiative.

Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this decoupling hypothesis are robust or not is needed.

This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely to happen in the future.

The Circularity Gap Report 2022 draws on five years of analysis to show the power of the circular economy to equitably fulfil our global needs and wants, with radically fewer materials and emissions.

The 2022 report by impact organisation Circle Economy reveals that the throwaway global economy is fuelling the climate crisis, with more than half a trillion tonnes of virgin materials consumed since the 2015 Paris Agreement was signed.

Circular economy solutions can have a huge impact on climate change. This is because 70% of greenhouse gas emissions are related to the production and use of products – from the buildings we live in and the transport we use to the food we eat and the clothes we wear.

Awareness is increasing about the presence of microplastics in our environment and their negative impact on ecosystems, animals and people. The wearing/washing of textiles made from synthetic fibers is one recognised source of microplastics in the environment. Textiles and plastics are among the key value chains in the EU circular economy action plan.

It is possible to reduce or prevent the release of microplastics from textiles by implementing sustainable design and production processes and caretaking measures that control microplastic emissions during use, and by improving disposal and end-of-life processing.

This briefing aims to improve our understanding of microplastics released from textiles from a European perspective and identify pathways to reduce or prevent this release.

Circular design is an important enabler of the transition towards sustainable production and consumption of textiles through circular business models. The design phase plays a critical role in each of the four pathways to achieving a circular textile sector:

1. longevity and durability
2. optimised resource use
3. collection and reuse
4. recycling and material use.

This briefing aims to improve our understanding of the environmental and climate impacts of textiles from a European perspective and to identify design principles and measures to increase circularity in textiles. It is underpinned by a report from the EEA's European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use available here.

How can a "strategic stock management" approach shed light on the potential of circular strategies for critical raw materials? This reports provides insights at regional macro-economic level for policy-makers.

The future economic and environmental potential of a Flemish Circularity Hub for li-ion batteries from electric vehicles is explored as a case study with high policy relevance.