Circular EconomyCircular Economy
The paper discusses the urgent need for a transition to a circular economy (CE) to achieve climate neutrality and Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing the importance of cities in this transition as they generate 85% of global GDP and are responsible for 75% of resource consumption. Despite the potential, progress has been slow, with the OECD reporting only 10% of cities advanced in circular transition, while public procurement remains linear. Public entities, especially at a local and regional level, should lead by example given they account for a significant portion of procurement in Europe. The paper outlines the 10 R-strategies for implementing CE, such as refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle, ranking them by their circular impact. However, accessing information and applying these strategies is challenging due to information overload and lack of common language in CE practices. Local efforts may be fragmented and documented in various languages, making it difficult for widespread adoption. A mental exercise demonstrates how CE principles can be applied in re-equipping a public building by prioritizing the use of existing resources vs. new procurement. The paper underlines that despite the complexity, this practical approach is customary in Scandinavia, showing environmental and cost benefits. The paper concludes with a suggestion for AI as a partial solution to information challenges in implementing CE strategies. It highlights the start of an innovation procurement by eight organizations in Europe to address these challenges, inviting other public organizations to participate and announcing public testing in autumn 2025. The article acknowledges the funding and insights from the CircularPSP project under the European Union's Horizon Europe Programme.
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Unlocking the Value of Industrial Symbiosis: A Comprehensive Guide to Pricing and Business Value
The article outlines approaches and a framework for pricing in industrial symbiosis, stressing fair and sustainable mechanisms, considering costs, earnings, risks, and value beyond economics for successful circular economies.
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Unlocking the Power of Industrial Symbiosis: How Data Exchange Fuels Collaboration and Innovation
The CORALIS project examines data exchange in industrial symbiosis networks, identifying lack of standardization and proposing a structured communication framework to improve trust, efficiency, and innovation for sustainable industrial practices.
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Unlocking the Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: Strategies for Sustainable Project Development
The CORALIS guidelines address financing and risk mitigation for Industrial Symbiosis (IS) projects, offering a structured process to enhance stakeholder relationships, align with regulatory frameworks, and improve project implementation for sustainable industrial operations.
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Digital Matchmaking for Industrial Sustainability: How Knowledge Platforms Enable Circular Economy
A discussion of the challenge of managing information for industrial symbiosis, focusing on digital tools developed for matchmaking and economic assessment. It underlines the importance of integrating technology with human relationships and adapting to regulatory changes that promote data standardization and transparency.
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The smart city puzzle: cities, platforms and service provider
Working in smart city projects requires to bring together different players in this very diverse eco-system, from IT to product suppliers, service providers, finance, social innovators and of course the cities with their various departments. A good way to start is looking at top notch smart city projects as well as knowledge, matchmaking and IT platforms.
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Demystifying Industrial Symbiosis: A Comprehensive Guide to Opportunity Identification
Industrial symbiosis (IS) optimizes resource use and minimizes waste by exchanging resources among industries. European initiatives invest in IS methodologies to enhance market adoption but face challenges like complexity and data availability. The identification process involves mapping, screening, and matchmaking, requiring collaboration and long-term viability assessments.
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Biomass Gasification: A Key to Decarbonizing Energy-Intensive Industries
The EU project CORALIS explores biomass gasification's techno-economic feasibility for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries, highlighting its potential with syngas and biochar production as fossil fuel alternatives. Larger-scale operations demonstrate better economic returns, with significant positive impacts on industrial decarbonization efforts.
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How new technology can allow factories without chimneys
Professor Hussam Jouhara discusses the development of the Heat Pipe Condensing Economiser (HPCE), designed to reduce industrial energy consumption and emissions by recovering waste heat and water. Supported by the EU's Horizon 2020, HPCE overcomes challenges such as exhaust stream variability and corrosive condensates, aiming to enhance efficiency and environmental sustainability in industries, especially in the chemical sector, by promoting energy and material recovery.
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Business Value Through Industrial Symbiosis
A new framework evaluates industrial symbiosis, showing cost savings, revenue growth, risk reduction, and intangible benefits, advocating strategic partnerships and regulatory navigation for long-term sustainable advantage.
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