Welcome to Loops 2.0!
We’re pleased to announce that our initiative, Loops, is back for yet another season! After the success of the first season in terms of knowledge exchange and participation, we will open again the curtain of our live webinar series Loops, conceived as a virtual occasion to showcase the research and results that the Horizon2020-funded projects are producing in the field of circular economy and innovation. Please save the date: on…
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…
Circularity Success Stories: How 3 European Cities Have Made Circular Governance a Reality
In 2015, the EU adopted its first ever Circular Economy Action Plan. Renewed in 2020, it is acornerstone of the European Green Deal, and a key building block of the 2050 climate neutralitygoal. However, while a circular Europe is a target we need to strive for, it is still far from being areality: for instance, the recycling rate of waste is an aggregate of 55% in the EU, and only…
The 2nd outcome of the Policy Lab has been officially released
We are pleased to announce that Veltha has issued the second publication of the Policy-lab 2.0 and it is now fully available online. A short reminder of what the Policy Lab represents The Policy Lab 2.0 sets itself as a follow-up project of the first version of the Policy Lab (SCREEN Lab from the H2020 SCREEN project), introduced in 2016 to enable EU-level and regional policymakers to mutually discuss the…
The Influence of Various Schools of Thought on Circular Economy
The concept of Circular Economics has received tremendous interest from policymakers, researchers, and academia in recent years worldwide. 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 were taken, and initiatives were introduced to accelerate the transition towards C.E. in E.U. Meanwhile, China’s central government accepted the…
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 in Europe: alliance building on the radar
One of the main buzzwords that resonates from the talks about circular economy is the term “collaboration” on multiple fronts, among different actors and at various levels of governance. Building bridges is indeed an extremely crucial engine in the creation of a well-oiled circular machine. However, turning this principle into a pragmatic action is not that simple and some territories might be better equipped or with ideal existing conditions that…
Policy Lab 2.0 -2nd digital workshop with stakeholders
On the 17th of May, Veltha hosted the 2nd Policy lab workshop for private stakeholders. The issues discussed emphasised the theme of this Policy lab period – Circular tools for the transition to circular economy. During our 2nd digital workshop for Regional officers the following topics were discussed: 1) how a specific office/service should be structured; 2) Data capacity building with private and public actors; 3) what kind of data…
Circular Economy in the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan
It is well known that Italy will benefit from the highest quota of the “NextGenerationEU”, the temporary financial instrument drafted by the European Commission to help member states recover from the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, Italy will receive a total of 172,7 billion of euro and the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, affirmed that such money will be used to render Italy greener, more digital and committed to research and…