The Role of Insurance Companies in the Transition towards a Circular Economy
Insurers are no strangers to environmental concerns. As the economy’s financial first responders, they are often called upon to pay for damages and defend those filing claims involving environmental, social and governance events. In fact, according to a survey by DNV and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), circular economy tactics are rising on corporate businesses internationally. While other studies have been indicating that corporate sustainability is a success…
Policy Lab with Circular Regions – A new Chapter
On the 1st of October 2021, Veltha hosted the first digital workshop for regional officers, thus inaugurating a new 3-month session of the Policy Lab for circular Regions. During this workshop, we had the honour to welcome 19 regional officers from 11 European countries. Two broad events have been brought to the front during the session: . 1)The importance of the European Week of Regions and Cities in relation to…
The Role of Circular Economy in the Oversaturated Fashion Industry
There’s no doubt that clothes and fashion have long been an integral part of almost every aspect of our culture and society. The global fashion industry is estimated to be worth around 2,6 trillion euros, which represents 2% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nevertheless, the sector’s significant use of finite resources and materials, makes it the second most destructive industry, after oil, for the environment. Considering this, the…
Circular Economy: The Face of Rural Territories
Circular Economy is a consolidated theme in the EU agenda as well as in the agenda ofother regional and national institutions. Nonetheless, it has been less explored andimplemented in the mainly rural regions, even though the challenges these regions faceare crucial, especially those related with the agri-food sector. In rural communities, the main challenges are very deeply linked with the challengesfaced by the current agricultural system. Some of the main…
EU Bans and the Rise of Circular Economy From It
To tackle the global challenges facing the world, many solutions have been adopted. In thecurrent situation the world is facing with plastics, recycling them is not enough. The circulareconomy method of taking it back to the manufacturing of plastics is believed to be the bestmethod of decreasing the amount of plastic waste in Europe and abroad. EU banEuropean Union’s directive 2019 ban of single-use plastics as of the 3rd of…
The Influence of Various Schools of Thought on Circular Economy
Circular Economics has attracted the attentions of policymakers, researchers, and academia all over the world in recent years. It has been believed that this concept dates to the 1980s in European Union when Germany and the Netherlands introduced waste preventoria and reduction schemes to the Dutch Parliament. Later, several steps and initiatives were taken to speed up the transition to C.E. in the European Union. Meanwhile, China’s central government accepted…
Why do we need a Circular Economy
Our planet’s natural resources are declining due to an unsustainable economic growth, fast urbanization, rapid global population growth, and mass production. Every year, 100 billion tonnes of materials enter the global market, from which only 8.6% are recycled. From 200 years back until now, the dominant economic model was the take-make – waste or so called a linear economy model. The traditional economy model resulted in serious problems such as…
Circular Economy Indicators
An economic indicator is a statistic about an economic activity that allows to analyze current performance and predicate the future performance that can be used to measure the change in a phenomenon or process. According to U.N. (2017), “indicators are signposts of change along the development path. They describe how to track intended results and are critical for monitoring and evaluation”. Indicators can lead to simplifying and clarifying information available…
Circular economy and Regions: how do they become familiar with each other?
Circular economy is often perceived and described as a complex system, in need of a new set of skills, knowledge and expertise channelled at structurally reorganising the existing mechanism of today’s economy. This is in fact undoubtedly true. Moving to a circular model implies growing responsibilities mainly focused on re-examining the allocation, use and type of resources, seeking and providing new forms of support, devising new policy frameworks, coordinating the…
Circular economy and climate change: what’s the underlying thread?
Recently, we all have witnessed that the concepts of circular economy and climate change have started to make their way in the current talks in combination with each other, in the definition of what would be the preliminary conditions for a successful strategy to move out of the current crisis and avoid the potential threat of its consequences. Those that at first seem to be two separate and stand-alone aspects…