Rounding the circle: taking steps t… – Information Centre – Research & Innovation

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It has been estimated that if we proceed to are living as we are, global consumption of raw products, these as fossil fuels, metal and minerals, will far exceed the methods in fact readily available. Squander era is also increasing at an exponential fee and is rapidly poisoning the earth. Although company as common is no extended an solution, generating the adjust to a extra sustainable design is not always effortless or clear.

The EU-funded R2PI project established out to discover round company designs that are now currently being place into practice and to analyze how they operate by detailed situation research. Carried out across Europe, these research coated 6 precedence sectors: h2o, development, electronics, food stuff, plastics and textiles.

Not only did the benefits of this investigate stage to prosperous company design patterns but they also highlighted the main boundaries and enablers to their widespread adoption, therefore tracing a path for other enterprises wishing to abide by this route.
‘Our conventional “linear” economy is particularly wasteful and carries a big environmental footprint. Transitioning to a round economy, in which methods are saved within the technique as very long as doable, by restore, reuse, recycling or comparable strategies, is a significant action in the direction of preserving the earth and promoting neighborhood jobs and very well-currently being,’ states project coordinator Alexis Figeac of the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Use and Manufacturing (CSCP) in Germany.

Modelling the foreseeable future

The project’s key benefits involved drawing up company tips – action-by-action procedures and tools using businesses on an ‘innovation journey’ in the direction of the round economy company designs.

It also produced a coherent typology of company designs for the round economy and discovered the several components that possibly facilitate or potentially hamper efficiently transitioning to a round economy company design (CEBM). R2PI discovered 7 CEBM patterns and highlighted how every single 1 functions. The patterns involved useful resource restoration round sourcing co-product restoration remake or recondition and obtain or overall performance-dependent transactions.

The project website now provides a wealth of open-supply product on procedures and tools for implementing prosperous CEBMs in every single of these spots. It also details the way to policies which could support pace up the widespread implementation of a round economy.

‘Scaling up the round economy from entrance-runners to the mainstream financial players will make a decisive contribution to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 and decoupling financial advancement from useful resource use,’ Figeac details out. ‘Our situation research exhibit that not only is it doable to save on methods and make financial gains, but the round design frequently benefits in more powerful shopper bonds and a cooperative rather than a transactional approach to client relationships.’

R2PI also involved an educational part with the participation of numerous universities. The project’s material was structured into an educational study course by the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP Small business School) while numerous other courses resulting from or knowledgeable by R2PI benefits are now coming on-line.

The R2PI website is an critical useful resource for any person interested in the round economy and provides concrete tools and assistance for the implementation of prosperous CEBMs. As these, it has made a key contribution to the aims established out in the European Commission’s new Circular Economy Motion Approach adopted in March 2020 and the European Environmentally friendly Offer for a sustainable EU economy.