HISER project final conference: new circular economy solutions for the construction sector

HISER project final conference: new circular economy solutions for the construction sector

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The final conference of the project is organised during EU Raw Materials Week 2018 in Brussels in La Plaza Hotel, on 16th of November 2018. Agnieszka Kowalska, an Expert of ASM – Market Research and Analysis Center (project consortium member responsible among others for HISER dissemination) informed us that after nearly four years of collaboration in the project, the aim of this final event is to present HISER findings in an attractive way to contribute to the dissemination of the knowledge and experience gathered throughout the project – Covered topics will include among others innovative demolition methods and tools  –  Mrs. Kowalska adds – together with technological solutions for closing material loops. HISER will increase the use of recovered raw materials. This will be achieved by the development of new building products through the partial replacement of virgin raw materials by higher amounts of secondary high-purity raw materials recovered from complex C&DW. Cost-effectiveness is also guaranteed by using novel harmonized methodological solutions and tools. Moreover, the project promotes advanced technical methods as well as technologies for the production of high-purity raw materials from complex C&DW. Some really unique solutions have been proposed, like harmonized procedures complemented with an smart tool (BIM) and a supply chain tracking system, for highly-efficient sorting at source in demolition and refurbishment works. These solutions have been demonstrated in demolition projects and five case studies across Europe. Moreover, the economic and environmental impact of the HISER solutions has been quantified, from a life cycle perspective. Market analysis and policy and standard recommendations encouraging the implementation of the best solutions have been drafted.
Read the full article at: www.hiserproject.eu

Circle Economy Launches Circle Lab to Crowdsource Circular Solutions for Humanity’s Biggest Challenge

Circle Economy Launches Circle Lab to Crowdsource Circular Solutions for Humanity’s Biggest Challenge

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The circular economy is a concept that provides new business strategies and economic policies to create value again and again and aims to achieve inclusive economic, social and environmental prosperity within the planet’s boundaries. The launch of Circle Lab follows the news that the global economy is only 9.1% circular and that the current linear system of production is failing people and the planet. “eBay has been at the heart of the circular economy since its founding over 20 years ago. The eBay Foundation believes that by using the power of technology to bring people together, the circular economy can help fuel the future of commerce. We are proud to support Circle Lab, a platform that accelerates creative problem-solving and entrepreneurial action towards a more circular economy,” said Amy Millington, President of eBay Foundation. During the past five years, Circle Economy has worked on hundreds of business cases, and supported businesses, cities and regions in imagining a new “circular future”. After bringing to life countless pilot projects, they have identified the need for a platform that not only captures ideas and encourages collaboration, but also ensures that those ideas see the light of day and are actually implemented. During a successful market validation phase last year, Circle Lab brought together a community of nearly 14,000 and co-created unique reverse logistics solutions for the mobile phone industry. Following this phase, Circle Economy launched the open-access knowledge portion of Circle Lab in August of 2017. The knowledge hub has since brought together nearly 2,000 circular economy enthusiasts who are now using the hub’s 750 case studies to share and further learn about the topic. “The launch of the knowledge hub and results of the market validation showed us that there is a high demand for a global community to engage and co-create circular solutions. The addition of a challenge environment is the next step,” said Friedl.
Read the full article at: www.duurzaam-ondernemen.nl

Lehigh win Circular Economy award in Davos

Lehigh win Circular Economy award in Davos

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Lehigh Technologies has won the Young Global Leaders Award for Circular Economy SME (small to medium-sized enterprise) for The Circulars 2019, the 5th iteration of the award, in Davos at the World Economic Forum on 21 January 2019. Lehigh was recognized for upcycling end-of-life tyre materials into Micronized Rubber Powder (MRP), a sustainable, lower-cost, high performing and customizable feedstock for industrial and consumer markets. MRP is used as an additive in a wide range of consumer and industrial products, like tyres. By improving performance and cost, Lehigh’s business model is said to be closing the loop on tyre production, ensuring sustainability and stability in manufacturing costs for the tyre industry and reducing dependence on oil-based chemicals. According to the company, tyres made with Lehigh’s MRP have better vehicle fuel economy compared to tyres made of less technological rubber powder and have saved a total of over 20 million passenger car tyre equivalents from landfills in more than 10 years. To date, Lehigh’s products have been used to manufacture over 500 million tyres using a circular model. “Consumers, employees, stakeholders and policymakers alike expect companies to lead with purpose around sustainability and are holding them accountable. Inaction or idleness can severely harm competitiveness, with a drop in stakeholder trust costing businesses globally $180 billion in potential revenues,” said Peter Lacy, Senior managing director, Accenture Strategy. “Moving to a circular economy delivers the disruptive change needed to secure a sustainable future, while enabling businesses to unlock innovation and growth. We are proud to recognize the individuals and organizations that are leading the circular movement, creating a thriving global economy.”
Read the full article at: www.tyrepress.com

EuPC & Partners Publish Strategic Research Plastics in a…

EuPC & Partners Publish Strategic Research Plastics in a…

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Plastics can accelerate their contribution to the European Circular Economy objectives of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, higher resource effciency and job creation, according to a new report from EuPC and 4 other partners. ‘Plastics Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda in a Circular Economy’ was developed in cooperation with SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry; CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council; PlasticsEurope; and ECP4, the European Composites, Plastics and Polymer Processing Platform. The report presents a shared vision, demonstrates how collaboration within the plastic value chain will be a driving force for change, and outlines the future research needs required to fulfil the objectives of the European Plastic Strategy. The technology solutions described are part of an integral approach to make the entire plastics production more circular. To achieve an overall increased circularity, the report identified a number of key factors: Design materials with enhanced separation and recycling properties, Design articles/products to encourage reuse, Develop repair solutions that extend the lifetime of plastic articles, Innovate advanced recycling technologies to increase the value retrieved from plastic waste, Incorporate alternative feedstocks in the production of plastics – feedstocks that take waste or by-products from other sectors and processes, such as biological feedstock from the agricultural industry, carbon-based feedstock from the chemical industry and chemical and secondary plastics from the plastic industry.
Read the full article at: waste-management-world.com

New Case Study Report on Messaging the Circular Economy

New Case Study Report on Messaging the Circular Economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team

As more companies commit to innovative circular economy and sustainability strategies and investments, there is an increased need to learn the best practices for successfully communicating these decisions externally. The Chamber Foundation recently published a case study and insights publication, Messaging the Circular Economy, which showcases (1) tactics companies are taking to educate customers on their circular products, ambitions, or service offerings, and the opportunity the circular economy represents in the United States; (2) perspective pieces from nonprofit organizations, communications and advisory firms, academia, and trade associations on how to communicate to external stakeholders about circularity; and (3) research on what messages resonate with which audiences. The case study publication covers approaches from a wide range of businesses, from internationally headquartered to U.S.-headquartered, publicly traded to privately held, business-facing to consumer-facing, and across industries, from consumer electronics to apparel. Communicating business relevance, shared responsibility, and corporate priorities about extending the useful life of products and services involves many tactics, exemplified and explained in the publication. Within the report, you’ll see details of video campaigns, graphics, white papers, and playbooks, as well as the value in transparency regarding lessons learned and approach rationale. The publication fills the gap in the literature on how companies can most effectively communicate about their circular ambitions, products, and service offerings. Businesses that want to understand how best to communicate such priorities can reference the examples and research insights featured in the report.
Read the full article at: www.uschamberfoundation.org

What it Will Take to Create a Circular Economy

What it Will Take to Create a Circular Economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team

As great as the circular economy sounds, getting there will require profound transformations in how we do business. It could start with how we design products, suggested Faith Legendre, a circular economy solutions strategist at Cisco. She suggested that more companies could put leaders in charge of designing for circularity, and that companies should have a plan for and be held responsible for what happens at the end of a product’s life. Planning for disposal needs to happen while the product is being conceived, she said, not tacked on afterwards. Achieving circularity will require a combination of both rules and incentives for companies, the panel participants agreed. Legendre suggested that innovation centers and technology incubators could include criteria that judge new product ideas based on what happens at the end of its lifetime. She’d also like to see circularity incorporated into financial ratings systems. But ultimately she thinks regulation will be needed as well. Until producers are held accountable for the full lifecycle of their products, she said, they will continue to make decisions that contribute to sending those products to the landfill. Anne van Riel, head of Sustainable Finance Americas at ING, said that consumers can also help drive change by choosing to buy more sustainable products and to invest their retirement funds in responsible companies. “I wouldn’t underestimate the power that consumers have,” she said.
Read the full article at: news.climate.columbia.edu

The world is round; the economy should be circular

The world is round; the economy should be circular

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Entropy, life-cycle accounting and the circular economy are terms and concepts indicative of how society looks at the world differently than previous generations. As the global population pushes toward 10 billion by the end of this century, thoughtful approaches to sustainability will become ever more essential to policymakers. Yet a coherent narrative remains elusive. 
Industrialized countries continue to operate very far from a circular economy. Instead, they rely heavily on a linear economy, where the make-use-dispose product life cycle dominates. A circular economy, by contrast, encourages product reuse and longevity, not disposability and planned obsolescence. Efforts by communities and policymakers to develop circular economies and maintain the viability of natural ecosystems in the United States and other countries take many forms. Several cities around the U.S., including San Antonio, have made it a priority to implement policies aimed at long-term sustainability. For example, in August 2016, the city of San Antonio adopted its SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan intended to prepare the city for smart, sustainable growth in light of the prospect of an additional million residents by 2040. The plan is a fuller elaboration of past efforts such as Mission Verde and SA2020. For 14 months, the city of San Antonio engaged a broad range of stakeholders in a variety of venues to solicit input and develop the plan. Focus areas include energy, food systems, green buildings, infrastructure, land use, transportation, natural resources, public health and solid waste resources. Cross-cutting themes include air quality, economic vitality, equity, resilience and water resources. On a global basis, some of the most systematic research dealing with sustainability comes from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, which examines planetary boundaries affected by our waste outputs and attempts to gauge those most at risk. The boundaries include stratospheric ozone depletion, which filters out ultraviolet radiation; loss of biosphere integrity, which is necessary for biodiversity; chemical pollution; climate change; ocean acidification; the freshwater cycle; land system change, when forests, grasslands wetlands, coastal fisheries, savannas and other habitats that recycle are converted to municipal, industrial or agricultural use; the nitrogen-phosphorous cycle, or fertilizer runoff; and atmospheric aerosol loading.
Read the full article at: mahb.stanford.edu

Lebanon: EU helps implementing circular economy in wineries

Lebanon: EU helps implementing circular economy in wineries

ByThe Circular Economy Team

In late November 2018, together with its local partners in Lebanon, SCP/RAC, The Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production, has participated to The final capitalisation Seminar of the Pilot Project entitled “Wine Innovation for Sustainable Economies” in order to discuss its outcomes. The seminar has been preceded by a visit to the beneficiary of the project in the Beqaa valley namely Château Kefraya, to have more insights about the in situ composting process piloted on its premises. The seminar has witnessed the participation of many actors and has been an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas on the circular economy in Lebanon, beyond the winery sector.

Circular Economy? Member States want it ‘despacito’

Circular Economy? Member States want it ‘despacito’

ByThe Circular Economy Team

After an 18-hour-long last negotiating meeting between the Council and the European Parliament an agreement to review the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the Landfill Directive has been found. Zero Waste Europe welcomes the new agreement which should deliver the promised benefits in jobs, economic savings and reduced environmental impact. However ZWE is concerned that the pace of ambition is too slow to address the challenges that Europe is facing today. The agreement keeps Europe in the right path but it mitigates the ambition brought by the European Parliament in March, and almost every single meaningful objective proposed by the Commission or the Parliament has been axed or delayed by the Council. New EU Waste law aims at recycling 65% of total municipal waste by 2035, later and lower than 70% by 2030 that the Parliament had proposed. The push for repair and reuse through a specific target of preparation for reuse proposed by the Parliament has disappeared along with the marine litter reduction target. ‘National governments have lost the chance of securing a quick and ambitious transition towards a circular economy’, Zero Waste Europe’s Policy Officer on Waste, Ferran Rosa said. Despite the low ambition in terms of objectives, the new directives have the potential to deliver substantial change and contain the relevant elements to move towards a zero waste circular economy, such as the separate collection of bio-waste and textiles that becomes compulsory by 2023 and 2025, respectively, and the call on the Commission to propose targets on waste prevention and food waste reduction. Additionally, the new text aims at mainstreaming economic incentives in an attempt to transform waste management policies and the design of products under producer responsibility schemes. According to Mr Rosa, ‘the text is a long list of good intentions, objectives and obligations, but only implementation will deliver substantial change’.
Read the full article at: zerowasteeurope.eu

Synthetic biology toolbox offers “unprecedented” functionality, to assist with bio- and circular economy challenges | Envirotec

Synthetic biology toolbox offers “unprecedented” functionality, to assist with bio- and circular economy challenges | Envirotec

ByThe Circular Economy Team

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed what it describes as “an efficient synthetic biology toolbox for industry and research organisations.” The toolbox enables, in an unprecedented way, engineering of a diverse range of yeasts and fungi, says the group. VTT says it comprises DNA parts which can be easily combined to create new biological systems. 
The SES (Synthetic Expression System) toolbox seemingly enables expression of genes in yeasts and fungi considerably more efficiently and with better control than has been possible with previous methods. The toolbox is based on DNA components with well-defined functions and the components can be combined “as if they were Lego bricks.” In this way, molecular machines can be built, for example, for improved control of yeast cell performance in industrial bioprocesses for production of polymer precursors, fuels and medical compounds. Because the components of the SES toolbox operate the same way in different species, they can be used to engineer species that have attractive properties, but which have due to lack of engineering tools not been studied or used in biotechnology applications in the past. The SES toolbox is expected to enable development of numerous novel microbial production processes for valorization of various waste materials to higher value compounds. In doing so, the SES toolbox provides important solutions for bio- and circular economy challenges. VTT has written an article about the opportunities opened up by the toolbox, which you can read here. You can also read an article recently published in Nucleic Acids Research here.
Read the full article at: envirotecmagazine.com

Policy Brief On Circular Economy and Climate – Circle Economy

Policy Brief On Circular Economy and Climate – Circle Economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The major emissions reductions needed to achieve this heavy lift have been recognized. However, these emissions reductions often target the source of emissions. While this is a reasonable approach, additional mitigation opportunities exist beyond the point where emissions are created.Transformational ideas add new climate action possibilities to the table and increase the likelihood of staying under 1.5° C. One set of policy options, in particular, is the circular economy, offering promise for cutting the current emissions gap significantly. Circular economy policies go beyond the source of emissions to socioeconomic practices that create the demand for emissions in the first place. The strategy involves moving beyond the current linear economic models, which extract materials, produce goods, sell them for consumption, and then discard them. Undertaking circular economy strategies can be accomplished while improving livelihoods and economies, and are often attractive from a business perspective. Circular economy models have been embraced by some subnational actors, especially cities; however, they have not been examined in much detail by the international climate community.

Corporate execs confident on sustainability goals, admit more work needed

Corporate execs confident on sustainability goals, admit more work needed

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Most companies have hit their near-term goals for greenhouse gas reduction, and some have advanced circular-economy projects. But to get to net-zero emissions, suppliers, customers, and dedicated corporate teams will all be needed.  About six in 10 executives believe they can achieve their corporate sustainability goals over the next year, according to a recent global survey commissioned by Honeywell International. But only about 16% think they’ll do so primarily through technology-driven changes, such as upgrading or replacing existing systems with newer, more efficient or more sustainable technologies.  The vast majority of the 600 business leaders surveyed — 62% — expect to hit their short-term goals mainly by modifying or eliminating operational processes or business behaviors.

What Is The Impact Of Circular Economy On Hazardous Waste?

What Is The Impact Of Circular Economy On Hazardous Waste?

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The circular economy is designed to benefit businesses, society and the environment. For the hazardous waste industry, however, the circular economy offers a unique opportunity to help prevent the depletion of vital and non-renewable natural resources.  What is the circular economy? The circular economy focuses on eliminating waste and the unnecessary use of resources. The goal is to use as few resources as possible by keeping materials in circulation and getting the greatest value from them.  For manufacturers that generate solvent waste, incorporating circular economy practices into the disposal of spent solvents can have a significant impact.

An Interactive Tool for a Circular Economy in the Built Environment

An Interactive Tool for a Circular Economy in the Built Environment

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Imagine if all built environment projects eliminated waste, preserved the value of materials and restored natural ecosystems. If you are responsible for designing or managing work environments, now is a critical time for you to understand what the transition to a Circular Economy could mean for your business and the role you play in overall value creation. Design stage decisions have major consequences for managing buildings-in-use and post-use recovery of materials. Those who seize this opportunity will be heroes for achieving sustainability commitments that are targeted for 2030 and beyond.

IKEA and Ellen MacArthur Foundation announce strategic partnership

IKEA and Ellen MacArthur Foundation announce strategic partnership

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The partnership between Inter IKEA Group and the Foundation will focus on putting the home furnishing business on the global circular map and accelerating the transition to a circular economy within IKEA and beyond.  Working together, one of the first projects will be to develop a common glossary of terms to support an industry-wide transition.  Lena Pripp-Kovac, chief sustainability officer, Inter IKEA Group, said: “To become circular is one of our big ambitions and challenges for the future. It is a transformational shift of our entire business from how we develop our products and services, and source materials, to how we work through the supply chain and meet our customers.

We’re increasing our carbon fee as we double down on sustainability

We’re increasing our carbon fee as we double down on sustainability

ByThe Circular Economy Team

Since 2009, Microsoft has made and met a series of commitments to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. While we’ve made progress toward our goal of cutting our operational carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030, the magnitude and speed of the world’s environmental changes have made it…

Is General Mills the only one putting its money where its mouth is on sustainability?

Is General Mills the only one putting its money where its mouth is on sustainability?

ByThe Circular Economy Team

General Mills has been the subject of some bad press recently, particularly after a study concluded that 21 of its products, including Cheerios and Nature Valley cereals, contain glyphosate residue, the main ingredient in the much-vilified RoundUp pesticide. The chemical’s manufacturer, Bayer, has been battling a series of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs claiming that exposure to glyphosate caused them to develop cancer and that then-manufacturer Monsanto knew of the risk and failed to provide appropriate warnings.

WTO Committee on Trade and Environment Continues Efforts on Plastics Pollution, Circular Economy

WTO Committee on Trade and Environment Continues Efforts on Plastics Pollution, Circular Economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team

The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) met on 3 July 2020 to discuss how trade policy can address plastics pollution and a circular economy and to review the resumption of work on other initiatives disrupted by COVID-19.  The meeting, chaired by Ambassador Chad Blackman (Barbados), served to continue conversations previously introduced by members at the WTO, including a discussion on addressing plastics pollution in November 2019 and an informal consultation on the subject held in February 2020, co-hosted by China and Fiji.