This report provides an overview of the impact generated by Circle Economy in 2022 across three categories—analyse, act and scale. It also contains a section on internal performance in relation to gender equality in our team. This report dives into examples of how our work has informed policy decisions and contributed to a better understanding of the circular economy—and its potential—for businesses, cities and nations.
While numerous projects are featured in this document, many more have kept our team busy during 2022. The outcomes of other projects are shared in this section.
Cities have a critical role to play in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. They are centres of consumption and production, hubs of culture and innovation, and host the systems and policies that govern urban life.
But how exactly can cities lead the circular economy transition?
A Circular Economy Strategy is the first stepping stone in this direction.Creating such a roadmap can provide the direction needed to enable local stakeholders, both within and outside the municipality, to act and engage in the transition.
The European Investment Bank and Circle Economy have worked with several cities as part of the Circular City Advisory program of the Circular City Centre (C3), a competence and resource centre that aims to support EU cities in their circular economy transition. Key insights from this program have informed the development of this guidance document-the third guidance document in the C3 series-a step-by-step guidance document that outlined how any city can develop a Circular Economy Strategy.
Find out more about the Circular City Centre here.
This paper is the final outcome of a collaborative project between the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, RESPOND, Circle Economy and SYSTEMIQ. Through a series of interactive workshops, we developed a shared understanding of the ‘regenerative economy’ and, from our learnings, created tangible actions for changemakers to put the regenerative economy into practice.
This publication, developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, presents circular trends and strategies for the European automotive industry, enabling it to overcome supply chain challenges, decarbonise faster and stay competitive.
The European passenger car sector boasts high recycling rates, but circularity requires more than recycling: cycled materials must also be used as input for new passenger vehicles. Currently, 79% of material inputs for new vehicles come from virgin sources. This paper proposes five circular strategies for the automotive industry to boost circularity to 66% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, by going beyond recycling and also seeking to reduce material use. It also discusses circularity with regard to trends and forecasts for European mobility, including shared mobility, autonomous fleets and electric vehicles.
This publication, developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, presents circular trends and strategies for the European construction sector, enabling it to overcome supply chain challenges, decarbonise faster and stay competitive.
The paper suggests five key circular economy strategies that can help the construction sector journey towards net-zero—boosting the industry’s circularity to 50% and cutting production-related greenhouse gas emissions by around 52%. It argues that there is significant future earning potential for businesses in low-carbon and circular materials, enabling the construction industry to respond to rising consumer demand, reach climate goals and navigate material disruption.
This publication, developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, presents circular trends and strategies for the European machinery and equipment industry, enabling it to overcome supply chain challenges, decarbonise faster and stay competitive.
The European machinery and equipment industry is integral to the clean energy transition and today’s innovative and tech-driven economy. Yet despite the importance of green growth, the industry remains an energy- and resource-intensive part of the economy. This publication proposes five circular strategies for the European machinery & equipment industry, zooming in on two product groups—wind turbines and industrial water pumps. By adopting these strategies, the industry can increase its circularity from the current 30% to 64%, become more resilient and journey towards net-zero.
In collaboration with the @British Fashion Council—we present findings from the foundation phase of circular fashion ecosystems developing in UK cities. In this pioneering piece of work, the Doughnut Economics framework is applied, for the first time, to the fashion sector.
In the first phase of the work undertaken by the Institute of Positive Fashion, ten priority Action Areas were identified to make this transformation happen. Circle Economy joined the second phase of the Institute of Positive Fashion’s work to assess the feasibility of developing a city-level Circular Fashion Ecosystem.
This publication —Unlocking the Potential of International Financial Institutions in the Circular Economy Transition — proposes a series of concrete steps to unlock the potential of international financial institutions (IFIs) to fund the circular transformation.
It addresses the lack of unified assessment standards for financiers and enables them to better understand the circular investment’s potential value and risk. This high-level roadmap should spur further debate and fine-tuning among key stakeholders and evolve into a formalised and widely accepted action plan in the near future.
The roadmap proposal is the culmination of six months of collaboration with an IFI exchange network. The network, commissioned by the Dutch government and developed by Circle Economy, hosts content specialists from: the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Chatham House, UNEP-FI, and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, alongside technical representatives of major international financial institutions and private banks (acting in their own capacity), all of whom work directly on the circular economy strategy of their respective institutions.
Over a series of working sessions, the group convened to discuss the opportunities, bottlenecks and best practices in financing circular projects— and the key actions required to address them. The inclusion of the private sector perspective was invaluable, as its approach to financing the circular economy is often the most advanced.
On 17 November 2022 at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh Circle Economy launched this roadmap and hosted presentations and a panel discussion with representatives of: The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Intesa Sanpaolo, European Investment Bank, the Global Environment Facility, our CEO Martijn Lopes Cardozo and Strategist Marvin Nusseck and a closing word by the Dutch Minister for the Environment Vivianne Heijnen, You can watch back the recording of that session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLf_ZwpxzxA
Are you interested in joining the discussion aimed at developing this suggested roadmap into a formalised document for financing the circular economy?
Contact us at info@circle-economy.com or marvin@circle-economy.com
This paper is the third outcome of a collaborative project between the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, RESPOND, Circle Economy and SYSTEMIQ. Through a series of interactive workshops, we developed a shared understanding of the ‘regenerative economy’ and, from our learnings, created tangible actions for changemakers to put the regenerative economy into practice.
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