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Textile supply chains are moving towards new directions, where sustainability and competitiveness are directly linked to building strategic partnerships along the value chain to share innovation, inspiration, and state-of-the-art solutions beyond business as usual. Specifically, the fashion industry is in the process of rethinking how it manufactures, consumes and disposes of textiles and apparel.
In the last 15 years, clothing production has approximately doubled. Globally, the USD 1.3 trillion clothing industry employs more than 300 million people, while cotton production accounts for almost 7% of all employment in some low-income countries. At the other end, the latest trends and data show that the negative impacts of the textile industry are set to dramatically increase by 2050 should there be no shift in the business as usual modality.
For Egypt, the cotton value chain forms an important pillar of the local economy. It is characterised by the fact that the entire value chain, from cotton cultivation over ginning, spinning, weaving all the way to the manufacturing of final garments and home textiles is present. Post-industrial cotton textile by-products from the manufacturing stages represent a large growth potential for the industry in Egypt, with around 23 kilo tonnes of scraps that could be cycled back into fibre.
Making use of the untapped potential of by-products and waste streams is an important part of the circular economy, a metaphor for an economy where we move away from the take-make-waste consumption patterns and keep products and materials in use for as long as possible. Currently, the world is only 8.6% circular, leaving a massive amount of materials being wasted each year. The fashion industry is no exception to this, as less than 1% of the material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing and less than 15% of clothes are collected for recycling.
In such context, ‘The Egyptian Cotton project’ of UNIDO, in collaboration with Circle Economy, just launched the first of its kind report “Egypt’s Market: Environmental and Economic Assessment of Post-Industrial Cotton Waste Recycling.”. The report highlights results of a denim-recycling pilot, ‘RE.ACT’, rolled out to support the development of circular solutions for denim recycling in the Egyptian cotton textile industry through strategic partnerships between Italy and Egypt, rallying industry stakeholders for knowledge and technology transfers.
On 1st December 2020, UNIDO in collaboration with Circle Economy delivered a workshop showcasing the promising results of the pilot report to a variety of local industry stakeholders and government representatives. The pilot was implemented by T&C Garments, Filmar SpA, Albini Group and Marzoli Textile Engineering part of the Camozzi Group.
According to cotton-textile private sector partners, circularity is likely to be one of the key business trends of the next decade. They all agreed on the opportunities provided by such pilots and the need of supporting joint initiatives in this endeavor to work together for making circularity in textile the new normal.
Marco Marzoli, CEO of Filmar Network highlighted that sustainability is at the core of Filmar’s work as it represents an important lever of development and value creation for a more sustainable growth. “That is why we are committed to support circularity in textile by investing in new business models and strategic partnerships. The participation to the UNIDO Re.ACT pilot has been truly inspiring: as member of the UN Global Compact and UNIDO’s partner, we reaffirm our commitment to supporting joint initiatives in this endeavor and work together for a more sustainable future”.
Stefano Albini, President of Cotonificio Albini Spa highlighted that this project can be the starting phase to implement a virtuous value chain of recycling in Egypt. “Recycling of post-industrial fabrics scraps and also, in a short future, of post-consumer garments will be an important step to enhance the sustainability in our Textile and Apparel business. Thanks to Unido for having managed this project with all the participants.”
“We are focused on continuous innovation in mechanical regeneration of fibers” stated Cristian Locatelli, General Manager of Marzoli Textile Engineering, part of Camozzi Group. “Developing and adopting green technologies means for us at Marzoli to carefully balance economic with environmental sustainability. Circularity of fibers, thanks to fabrics regeneration, is creating a synergetic value chain among all the stakeholders. The new paradigm of a circular fiber supply chain will accelerate learning and development of know-how for all participating stakeholders pushing innovation and opening up to new potentials.”
This pilot tied a strategic partnership across the supply chain from manufacturers, producers, spinners and weavers uniting to trial post-industrial denim waste transformation into NE 30/1 cotton yarns to create high-value knitwear and fabrics. The finished fabrics produced a promising quality knitwear capsule collection through an educational ‘Knitwear Design for Sustainability’ workshop delivered by Italian fashion designer Marina Spadafora to Egyptian and Italian Fashion design students.
Local stakeholders including Marie Louis Bishara, President of the Ready-Made Garment Export Council and Cherine Khallaf, Representative of the Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, shared their excitement in seeing such a promising opportunity for the Egyptian and global markets in advancing recycling in the cotton supply chain, highlighting that Egypt already has the full supply chain in one place and should grab this opportunity.
Emphasis was placed on advancing circular processes, the importance of collaboration and shared competencies, and pursuing technological advancements such as artificial intelligence in improving the processing of fabrics. In turn, such an opportunity would have a significant positive impact on the economic and environmental arena in Egypt, responding to rising market awareness and demand for cleaner high-quality products.
The business case and life-cycle assessment conducted with the support of Circle Economy’s expertise on the recycled yarns produced in a scaled-up scenario, highlighted that the comparison with virgin alternatives is positive, with lower impact for all considered categories: water consumption, total energy demand and global warming potential.
The economic assessment sheds light on the attractive opportunity that bringing a recycled cotton yarn value chain to life at scale in Egypt may present for industry stakeholders and on the rising opportunities for the Egyptian textile industry and market.
Egypt’s strong national roadmap (Egypt's Vision 2030 Strategy) towards economic competitiveness and diversification further highlights the potential of the Egyptian cotton value chain, its fibre and products, to significantly improve the environmental and social sustainability of textile production to stay competitive within the global markets. Government representatives shared that indeed Egypt is already on its way to a complete make-over of the cotton-textile industry, through all the supply chain in collaboration with the public sector, investing 250 M Euros into sector initiatives including but not limited to factories’ revamp, while investing in sustainable agricultural practices for cotton production.
"It has been truly inspiring to see the commitment of industry partners towards environmentally and socially-sound textile innovation, and the initial results of the study support this and show a significant potential in the untapped market for recycled cotton yarns within the Egyptian cotton-textile sector." - Natalia Papu Carrone, Research Analyst at Circle Economy
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Circle Economy is delighted to announce the launch of v3 of the Knowledge Hub: the open-collaborative library for case studies about the circular economy.
Anyone interested in contributing to the global transition to the circular economy—from entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers to policymakers, consultants and educators—can now openly collaborate in adding and editing case studies to the global library. Experts in specific fields can take on the role of curators to maintain content quality. Finally, organisations with existing case libraries can upload their cases to this common library within dedicated, branded Knowledge Hub ‘collections’ that they can share with their communities.
‘Evidence is critical to inspire action. At the same time the circular economy field is still fragmented and knowledge often difficult to access. By making this knowledge openly accessible and enabling anyone who would like to support the transition towards a circular economy to contribute their know-how into one shared place, we aim to bridge this gap. This is what the Knowledge Hub is all about.‘ — Martijn Lopes Cardozo, CEO, Circle Economy
The use of case studies is popular amongst circular economy practitioners and researchers. Finding the right case study, however—one that is contextually
relevant—, is not always easy.
By compiling over 2,000 case studies, making them openly accessible on the Knowledge Hub and tagging them with key information such as relevant industries, impacts or location, we aim to remove this barrier to knowledge.
Over the past few years, the Knowledge Hub has seen a steady increase in readership, with over 1500+ direct monthly visitors and 10 partner organisations, including ICLEI, Circular Economy Club, Australian Circular Economy Hub Planet Ark, Zero Waste Europe and more.
‘Knowledge-sharing through an open-source database with compelling examples of what works, and what does not, is crucial to develop a global coalition of successful circular economy practitioners. Only together can we challenge the incumbent linear economy and change the rules of the game so that our legacy serves the interest of our future generations. The Knowledge Hub is the go-to source for circular economy case studies, reports or policies. With its convenient filters, open-source set-up and democratically-curated content, it is the ideal place to find convincing case studies or to give your circular economy initiative the exposure it deserves.’—Jelmer Hoogzaad, Founder of Shifting Paradigms
Thousands of people around the world are compiling case examples to demonstrate the potential of a circular economy on a regular basis, from individual professors selecting examples to showcase in their sustainability or business innovation course, to regional circular economy platforms working to compile regional case studies of lighthouse projects and more.
By enabling everyone to add and edit any case study on the Knowledge Hub, in the same way Wikipedia does, we now aim to harness the collective power of circularity advocates around the world and foster the spirit of open collaboration that is so crucial to the transition to the circular economy.
In growing the Knowledge Hub, we always prioritised breadth over depth so as to ensure knowledge can be found. Now, to make sure depth is also available in the library, circular economy and industry experts are taking on the role of ‘curators’: reviewing and giving case studies that pass quality thresholds a stamp of approval.
‘I am excited to be a curator of the Knowledge Hub. This is such a great initiative that aims to share best practices from around the world and make them accessible to all in order to accelerate the much needed transition to a circular economy. Whether you are an expert, a student or a practitioner, come check out our curated case studies and contribute with your expertise and passion.’ — Simona Grande, Researcher at University of Turin, Expert curator on the Knowledge Hub
The wealth of knowledge bases that exist around the world speak to the unique knowledge needs different stakeholders have. Businesses in Australia may not be interested in hearing about the same examples as local governments in Nigeria, for example. Non-governmental organisations working to curate examples relevant to their context may have particular cases in mind they would like to advocate for. While we acknowledge the uniqueness of needs, the entire circular economy community would benefit from knowing about these examples. What if this were to happen automatically and without additional coordination efforts?
Visit the Circular Norway collection →
This is what the new Knowledge Hub ‘collections’ are for. ‘Collections’ enable knowledge organisations to upload their case studies to the common Knowledge Hub library and to make these cases accessible not only to their audience, but to all Knowledge Hub users. Visually, ‘collections’ look like dedicated, branded environments, which allow organisations to offer their communities a curated access to case studies. In time, we aim for ‘collections’ to remove the need for these organisations to build stand-alone, siloed libraries on their own website—so that knowledge can truly be shared.
‘Circular Norway hope that by sharing case studies on the Knowledge Hub, we can inspire others to become more circular. Because the KH is global and open-access, we think it’s the best place to gather all things circular. There are so many filters, so our Norwegian readers can easily find Norwegian examples, but they can also be inspired by others. We think that if everyone starts using the Knowledge Hub actively, it can become the go-to place for circular economy reports, business cases and policy developments.’ — Sofie Pindsle, Project Manager, Circular Norway
‘By researching and collecting circular economy case studies across Africa, we want to give exposure to entrepreneurs and to inspire other people on the African continent to join in the circular economy movement. We are sharing these cases on the Knowledge Hub because we believe it is better to build a rich, global library to advance knowledge-sharing and learning and would like to invite every individual and organisation interested in the circular economy to visit the Knowledge Hub, check out the cases available and publish their case studies.’ Deborah — Deborah Ohui Nartey, Research analyst at Footprints Africa
January 26, Amsterdam – Circular economy strategies can cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 39% and play a crucial role in avoiding climate breakdown, reveals a report from impact organisation Circle Economy launched today during the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda Week. The Circularity Gap Report finds that the 22.8 billion tonnes (Gt) of annual emissions associated with creating new products from virgin materials can be eliminated by applying circular strategies that drastically reduce the amount of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass consumed by the world’s economy.
It finds that changes to the ways we construct and use houses, commercial and industrial buildings can achieve half these savings. Changes to how we travel and transport goods and the way we feed ourselves account for most of the rest. The report also offers strategies tailored to countries at different levels of development as they plan to stimulate economic recovery from the Covid pandemic and strengthen their climate commitments ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit in November. Annual emissions reached a record high of 59.1Gt in 2019 and the UN Emissions Gap Report 2020 finds that by 2030 they must fall by 15Gt to keep global warming below 2°C and by 32Gt to achieve the safer limit of 1.5°C.
'The Circularity Gap Report offers not only a sober warning of the danger of climate inaction, but a clear map forward. Collaborative effort among government, business and civil society is necessary to scale the circular economy and drive down emissions. Only through collective investment in and commitment to circular practices can we shape a more sustainable, resilient future.' - Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum
The world is currently on course for climate breakdown. Current climate pledges would see global temperature rise by 3.2°C this century. China and the US have recently announced plans to achieve net zero emissions around mid-century, but these are not yet formal national pledges and they are still not enough to meet the Paris Agreement commitment to keep global warming well below 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that going beyond 1.5°C to 2°C would significantly increase extreme weather events with devastating social, environmental and economic consequences.
The Circularity Gap Report has now identified a set of circular strategies that can keep the planet on a well below 2°C trajectory by cutting emissions by 22.8 billion tonnes beyond what is achieved by current pledges, a 39% reduction from 2019 levels.
The report calculates that 70% of all emissions are generated by the extraction, processing and manufacturing of goods to meet society’s needs - the clothes we wear, the phones we own, and the meals we eat. The world is consuming more than 100Gt of materials a year and just 8.6% are reused.
The strategies it identifies would cut annual material consumption to 79Gt, by reducing the volume of materials used to create products and services, using resources for longer, and replacing finite resources like fossil fuels with regenerative resources like renewable energy. They would also increase the proportion of materials that are reused from 8.6% to 17%, nearly doubling the circularity of the global economy.
'Governments are making huge decisions that will shape our climate future. They are spending billions to stimulate their economies after the Covid pandemic and they are committed to strengthening their climate commitments ahead of the Glasgow Climate Summit. Circular economy strategies hold the key to a resource-efficient, low-carbon and inclusive future.' - Martijn Lopes Cardozo, Circle Economy CEO
The report finds that three key societal needs are responsible for almost 70% of global emissions and are the areas where circular strategies can have the greatest impact: housing, mobility and nutrition.
Housing – including commercial and industrial buildings - generates 13.5Gt of emissions every year. It consumes vast amounts of virgin resources, it makes abundant use of carbon-intensive materials such as cement and steel, it creates significant emissions from heating and cooling, and it generates huge amounts of waste. With circular strategies, 9.5Gt of construction and demolition waste could be diverted from landfill and reused, reducing the need for virgin materials; cement and steel could be substituted for more lightweight, regenerative materials; and a shift to renewable energy would reduce emissions from heating and cooling. Together these would cut emissions by 11.8Gt and reduce demand for materials by 13.6Gt.
Mobility generates 17.1Gt of emissions a year, primarily from burning fossil fuels for passenger and freight transport. New design approaches to make vehicles lighter will reduce consumption and strategies like car sharing can make their use more efficient. Circular strategies can cut emissions by 5.6Gt and material use by 5.3Gt.
Nutrition generates around 10Gt of emissions a year, including 4Gt of emissions a year from land use alone. As global populations and increase and more people adopt western diets more land is needed to grow crops - especially for animal feed - and for pasture, and this drives deforestation. Regenerative agriculture and aquaculture can reduce the environmental impact of fish, cattle and crop farming while producing good yields. Switching to more plant-based diets will have a lower footprint. Circular strategies can cut emissions by 4.3Gt and material use by 4.5Gt.
'For billions of years, our home planet was in a perfect cycle: New life constantly emerged out of the same carbon that existed as life before. We need to restore this balance and achieve carbon neutrality without delay. For that, we need to eliminate waste and create products that last, can be repaired and ultimately can be transformed into new products.' - Martin Frick, Senior Director Policy and Programme Coordination at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Different strategies are appropriate to countries at different stages of economic development and the report presents blueprints for action for countries in three broad categories.
Low-income “ Build” countries such as India and Nigeria are home to 48% of the world’s population but struggle to meet their basic needs. Their economies are dominated by agriculture and they are still building basic infrastructure. They use 19% of global resources and generate 17% of emissions.
Priorities include:
1) Reforming agriculture to avoid monocropping and deforestation;
2) Applying circular principles to building projects, such as using lightweight materials like wood, clay and loam;
3) Minimising the need for motorised transport in cities by creating self-sufficient neighbourhoods and introducing electric scooters and public transport;
4) Formalising and training waste pickers and setting up recycling plants.
Middle-income “Grow” countries such as China and Brazil, home to 36% of the world’s population, are industrialising rapidly and building infrastructure to lift their populations out of poverty and accommodate a growing middle class. They are global manufacturing hubs and the world’s biggest agricultural producers. They use 51% of resources and generate 47% of emissions.
Priorities include:
1) Switching to sustainable agriculture, especially for exports;
2) Mainstreaming resource-efficient, low-carbon construction materials;
3) Meeting growing energy demands with renewables;
4) Setting up infrastructure to collect, sort and process waste materials, especially construction waste.
Higher-income “Shift” countries such as the US, Japan and European countries, are home to 16% of the world’s population but consume 31% of resources and generate 43% of emissions. They have already developed mature housing, transport and infrastructure to meet the needs of their citizens.
Priorities include:
1) Reducing their consumption of animal products and cutting food waste;
2) Extending the lifespan of buildings and infrastructure through renovation, requiring the reuse of construction materials, and designing new materials so they can be reused;
3) Extending vehicle lifespans, switching to sharing models such as car clubs and using digital technologies to reduce the need for physical travel;
4) Ensuring waste is properly valued to maximise its potential for reuse.
As the Netherlands races to meet its climate and circular economy goals, it must make significant strides in a heavily polluting industry—construction—by meeting future demand for housing primarily through timber. This is according to a new report by a Community of Practice (CoP) named Building with Wood (Houtbouw). The report details a value chain roadmap of how timber construction may develop in the Netherlands, illustrating enablers for a ‘Timber Revolution’ and barriers to realising this ideal.
Construction is often overlooked in its contribution to climate change, being less obvious than air travel and less relatable than food. Nonetheless, the Dutch construction sector accounts for half of the country’s resource use and a staggering 35% of its CO2 emissions—primarily owing to its use of emissions-intensive materials like cement, concrete and steel. While traditional construction materials pose a problem, bio-based alternatives—like timber—present a promising solution. Tree growth absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and locks it into place, and timber allows for modular, prefabricated construction, slashed costs and significantly speedier construction processes.
The CoP, in collaboration with ABN AMRO and Invest-NL, has identified two crucial enablers for timber’s successful uptake in the Netherlands, and four potential pathways the industry could follow on the journey to 2030. The paper elaborates on barriers, as well as means to surpass these barriers in building a clean, sustainable and safe future.
From the research, two trends emerged that highlight how timber-use can be revolutionised: legislation and industrialisation. The future success of timber will be made or broken by its pricing, ultimately driven by developments in policy and law. The Dutch policy MilieuPrestatie Gebouwen, which measures the sustainability of materials used for a building, will likely ignite a shift in the materials prioritised by architects and contractors. Similarly, the Dutch CO2 tax and EU Emissions Trading Scheme prices are expected to grow, hiking up the price of emissions-intensive materials like reinforced concrete by up to 33%—and concurrently driving down the cost of sustainable alternatives. Similarly, a professionalisation and industrialisation of the sector, resulting in faster project delivery and costs slashed by 30%, are crucial for timber’s successful upscaling.
The paper highlights four scenarios we can embark upon over the next ten years: Timber Revolution, Timber Evolution, Timber Disappointment, and Business as Usual. In the ideal scenario—Revolution—80% of the demand for new housing will be met by timber, and the industry boom will create thousands of new jobs throughout the country. The other options aren’t so attractive: while Evolution will see large-scale investments in bio-based materials and up to 30% timber use, Disappointment and Business as Usual scenarios fall short, resulting in sluggish development and poor investments in the sector.
Why might we continue down the latter two paths? Timber is currently more expensive than traditional building materials and a lack of long-term insight on the part of investors and financiers could result in a fragmented, small-scale industry carrying forward. The impact of covid-19 also has a role to play in timber’s potential triumph (or lack thereof): efforts to ‘build back’ including regulatory rollbacks and weakened climate legislation, as well as failure to stimulate price incentives for sustainable construction, might hinder timber’s uptake as a viable alternative material.
The good news: currently, there is more than enough growth to meet Dutch housing demand, and timber’s popularity is gaining momentum across the continent. For the Timber Revolution to become a reality—and for Business as Usual to fall by the wayside—it is necessary for investors to analyse opportunities and returns in the long-term, and recognise the inevitable truth: the future of construction lies in the forest, not the factory.
Circle Economy is delighted to announce the completion of the Circle Region Scan process in Kongsvinger, where we worked together with our partner Circular Norway to identify key opportunities for circularity in the Kongsvinger region.
The scan focused on the built environment value chain and, thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of local public and private stakeholders, we were able to successfully set up exciting pilot projects.
Some key learnings:
Find out more about the pilots, our learnings and the process we followed in the Phase 3 & 4 report below.
Residual resources, such as food processing surplus streams—now often categorised as ‘waste’—can be reused at their highest potential value if fair pricing can be ensured, finds the latest report of the Coalition Circular Accounting. In their Valorising Residual Resources report, they elaborate on the financial, accounting and legal aspects of valorising food waste and the organisational challenges of being circular in a linear world.
Annually, 88 million tonnes of food is wasted in the European Union alone. An estimated third of that waste occurs before food items even hit the shelves. In some food categories, waste is particularly hard to avoid because of a lack of knowledge, logistical challenges or expiration dates. But in a time when climate change and hunger threaten millions of livelihoods around the world, minimising food waste is a must, resulting in higher food security and a reduced industry footprint.
A current go-to solution for many food manufacturers is to downcycle and sell waste streams as animal feed. But when these resources are of premium quality and fit for human consumption, this is a massive loss. To ensure efficient resource use, the circular economy aims to maintain the highest possible value of resources for as long as possible. But producers need a stronger incentive to valorise all their waste streams—an incentive the linear economic system does not provide.
The Coalition Circular Accounting (CCA), led by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA) and Circle Economy, has identified opportunities to salvage and valorise residual resource streams before they are turned into input for the production of animal feed or waste. Using biscuit dough as an example, the coalition teamed up with cooperative IntelligentFood to explore the challenges they are facing and identify promising pathways for circular ways of working that can be applied to a multitude of other types of residual streams.
IntelligentFood is organised as a cooperative that receives residual biscuit dough from Europastry—a leader in the frozen bakery dough sector—and joins forces with value chain partners to add value and create new products. Members can contribute either as an employee, as an organisation, in cash or in-kind. All members that have contributed value share in the profits, following a distribution key.
The CCA has found that the cooperative governance structure of IntelligentFood offers great incentives for partners to collaborate, create value and share risks. As a cooperative, IntelligentFood does not own production facilities, nor employs chefs or has any logistical capacities. Their primary role is to develop new food concepts that use residual food streams and connect different external parties—from resource input to final product sales—on its platform. They take on the role of a Circular Value Chain Director, connecting and redirecting resources between stakeholders, processes and industries to ensure their highest potential and value.
The CCA once again confirmed that what gets valued, gets managed. The business case proved that residual resources should also have financial value. However, determining a fair price for these resources has sparked a debate about valuation theory versus market value. Moreover, the report provides potential options for accounting for the residual resources, based on a situation where profit margins after sales of the final product constitute the value of the resources used.
Lastly, it becomes clear from the research that our current accounting models do not incorporate impact. Currently, accounting models and investors focus too much on profit and do not take environmental or societal aspects into account.
The Coalition Circular Accounting will tackle this topic in their next case study. Together with Impact Institute, they will investigate how accounting can standardise impact assessment in order to better reflect the environmental and societal impact. This report is scheduled to appear in the first quarter of 2021.
The Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA) and Circle Economy founded the Coalition Circular Accounting to identify accounting related challenges in the circular economy. Together they create solutions and best practices to overcome these barriers. The coalition includes experts and scientists in the field of finance, accounting and law from: Invest-NL, ABN-AMRO, Rabobank, KPMG, Allen & Overy, Sustainable Finance Lab, Impact Economy Foundation and scientists associated with Nyenrode Business University and Avans University of Applied Sciences.
The coalition has brought together experts to discuss and work out three specific, existing circular business models with a valuation or reporting issue. These cases are chosen to cover a diverse range of challenges. The presented findings and solutions are generalised to be applicable to other cases elsewhere and made freely available in the form of whitepapers.
An increasing number of businesses market themselves and their products as being sustainable and circular. Yet, whether new business models actually deliver resource savings and sufficiently consider other aspects such as social equity remains an open question.
A new report by Circle Economy, the European Environmental Bureau and the Fair-Trade Advocacy Office launches a debate on what constitutes truly sustainable business models. The report identifies blind spots in the European textile and electronics sectors, helping policymakers and business leaders understand how they can address the manifold challenges of the post COVID-19 economy.
Jean-Pierre Schweitzer, Policy Officer for the Circular Economy at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said:
There is no doubt we need more circular businesses like repairing, reusing and product as a service. Yet in a world where inequality is soaring, we cannot neglect other key aspects of sustainability like human rights and social justice. Policy makers and entrepreneurs urgently need to connect the dots on these topics to reduce the exploitation of natural resources as well as individuals and communities.
Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, said:
“Free trade approaches to the circular economy have many blind spots. Rather than turning a blind eye on them, let us work together to promote business models and supply chains that are both circular and fair”.
Natalia Papu, Research Analyst at Circle Economy, said:
"In their plans to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and businesses need to address many challenges, ranging from growing inequalities to the climate breakdown. Once its blindspots are addressed, the circular economy offers an opportunity for decision makers to strengthen justice and fairness for all."
Recommendations include:
The report was launched at an online event hosted by FTAO and the EEB, as well as Young Enterprise Europe, The Club of Rome, and the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. This event is part of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform’s series of #CircularTalks.
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Time to walk the talk of building back better. It's been a year since the covid-19 pandemic began to shake up life as we know it. Many of us have come to realise that the impacts of the virus aren't going to disappear anytime soon. The need to boost our resilience to future shocks has never been more salient. But while talks about the need to build back better have dominated public debate, many concrete long-term actions are yet to materialise. It's time to walk the talk.
That is why Circle Economy invites circular economy enthusiasts and experts to share and discuss practical examples of how circularity can support resilience in times of unforeseeable change.
Together, we will crowdsource a digital collection of case studies and ideas, and discuss selected examples from this collection during an expert dialogue on 17 December 2020.
Boosting resilience in the circular economy. Our latest research highlights the resilience-building potential of the circular economy. Particularly three circular economy strategies—decentralisation, resource efficiency and transferable skills—can contribute to the resilience of nature, economies and communities but also carry risks.
The question that we ask ourselves now is: how can we realise this potential in practice?
From theory to action. Circle Economy invites you to jointly explore answers to this question in two steps:
We will crowdsource a digital collection of case studies and ideas that demonstrate how the circular economy can or is already helping to build resilience.
Please add your circular economy case studies and ideas related to the hotspots: decentralisation, shared resources and transferable skills to our digital collection (Password: Resilience2020).
Please add your name and contact details to your case studies if you'd like to be contacted to reflect on your contribution during the expert dialogue on 17 December 2020.
On 17 December 2020 from 3 - 4.30 PM (CET), we explore the viability of selected cases from our crowdsourced digital collection during an expert dialogue.
We are excited to be joined by experts My Selleberg (Researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre), David Jácome Polit (Chief Resilience Officer, Quito, Ecuador), Natalia Papu (Research Analyst at Circle Economy) and Esther Goodwin Brown (Partnerships Manager and Strategist at Circle Economy).
After the dialogue, we will share a summary of the insights and learnings we gained during the session. This summary will provide businesses, governments and communities with anchor points for strengthening resilience through circular economy and for walking the talk of building back better.
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