English version In October we had the pleasure to host Federico Porrà, Policy Officer at the European Commission, at our Re-think Circular Economy Forum, an event we designed to stimulate critical thinking towards some elements of the current industrial economic system and to show the possible evolutionary trends of the Circular Economy. Federico Porrà explained the European Commission’s vision and policies on the Circular Economy for the period 2020-2024, in particular by presenting the new EU Circular Economy Action Plan, a key pillar of the European Green Deal, which is the project through which the European Union decided to set the goal to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The European Union, in fact, recognizes that the Circular Economy is one of the key pillars for the economic recovery of the post-Covid era and an opportunity to support the green transition and create inclusive growth. Today, the Circular Economy is even more relevant than before, precisely because it is a tool that can be used to create local jobs and boost sustainable growth, while supporting resilient supply chains and new business opportunities. This is why the Commission is working to mainstream circularity principles along all the main strategies adopted in the context of the Green Deal. An example is the Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims at making food systems fair, circular, healthy and environmentally-friendly, and food chains more sustainable. What does the Plan entail? Building on the first Action Plan launched in 2015, the new Circular Economy Action Plan is currently one of the most ambitious documents ever adopted on the Circular Economy, thanks to its comprehensive approach targeting the entire life cycle of products. In fact, it introduces legislative and non-legislative actions to reform the way we think about sustainable products, production processes, consumption, waste, secondary raw materials, and...
Month: April 2021
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27 April 2021English Version Brave Brew is a Swedish company founded by three friends, Matt, Niclas and Julian, who were shocked to find out that 80,000 tons of bread are wasted every year in Sweden. They then asked themselves this question: what can you do with more than 200 tons of leftover bread per day? They came up with possibly one of the best answers: beer! This is how Crumbs was born: made from bread waste, Crumbs is a locally sourced, locally produced, delicious beer brewed using leftover bread which would otherwise be thrown away. Their motto is simple: “Less Waste, More Taste”. Brave Brew is not a brewery per se, but they work to collect bread that would otherwise be wasted and then they trust local experts to work their magic and turn this bread into delicious beer. Brave Brew has been running since March 2020. They started selling beer in June 2020 and have produced about 45,000 bottles of two different qualities of beer. The first one, Loafy Lager, has been produced in collaboration with Värmdö Brewery, a craft brewery from Stockholm. To produce this first beer, 30% of the grain count has been replaced with rescued bread. The result is a tasty, light lager with citrus notes and of course light bread. Brave Brew is now working with a new brewery with the goal to produce a third beer. The final objective for 2021 is to be able to systemise the bread collection to be able to scale production in other cities. Brave Brew is also working on the idea of producing a new beer using spent grain, which is a leftover of the brewing process. An ambitious goal Brave Brew also seeks to raise awareness on the issue of bread waste and to create an alternative circular and scalable...
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16 April 2021By Francesco Chesi English version Asia hosts 60% of the world’s population (4.65bn out of 7.8bn) and this number is set to increase by 12% before 2040. In 2010, the Asian Development Bank, the organ in charge of addressing poverty and inducing sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific, stated that seven economies (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand) had a combined total population of 3.1 billion (78 per cent of Asia) and a GDP of $14.2 trillion (87 per cent of Asia). The report ‘Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century’ states that these seven economies alone will account for 45 per cent of global GDP and adds: ‘Long before 2050, Asia will surpass North America and Europe as the largest energy-consuming block therefore Asian countries’ economic growth will heavily depend on improving the efficiency of natural resource use and winning the global race to a low carbon future.” Now that we have defined the numbers and the sense of urgency for the adoption of the circular economy, Ms Adrienna Zsakay (CEO at Circular Economy Asia) asks THE question: ‘’Is the circular economy achievable in Asia?’’ Planet earth’s fulcrum Her article for The Economist Sustainability Summit that took place on the 15th of November 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, questions the implications that the circular economy could have on society, employment, international trade, and SMEs. The foundation of the circular economy is based on the concept that having products last longer will be good for us as it not only saves us money, but it also may create jobs in the future. Yet, the statistics in Asia do not bear this out. In a comparison between the UK and India for the Household Appliance Repair industry, the UK sees a growth whilst India sees a decline. This may...
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9 April 2021By Giovanna Matrone English Version When during Christmas vacations I told my father I was getting enthusiastic about Circular Economy he started laughing. He is a 73 years old electronic engineer. He is passionate about any new technology innovation but quite skeptical about new business models linked to new generation values. Honestly – at that moment I was a little disappointed. Then, I started thinking about his reaction. Especially about why he showed himself cynical. As often happens, I found the answer working on another topic. In the same period, indeed, I was deepening concepts about cognitive biases for a study on Diversity and Inclusion. These biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment and decisions. So, I asked myself: is there any link between Circular Economy and biases? The answer is yes. Actually, not many studies have been found, but among those few, the most try to empirically demonstrate that consumers often behave far from traditional patterns of rationality, as influenced by cognitive biases. If this is valid for the relationship between consumer and product, emerging studies are demonstrating this “irrational” link exists also toward the acceptance of new business models, despite ethical values involved. From this perspective, it becomes imperative to explore, understand and overcome these barriers to allow the implementation of innovative models aimed to support the Circular Economy in creating value for customers, societies, and companies. The possibility for individuals to form and express their identity is key to enable acceptance of products and models. In their positions and decisions, people are influenced by their own values and beliefs, born from a specific set of factors, linked to psychology and personal experience, social environment, and culture. Individual and social factors The individual factors are those deeply reflecting the values of people. Psychological mechanisms, habits, attitudes are just a few among them. People are strongly willing to...
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2 April 2021By Giovanni Colombo, Senior Public Affairs Manager at EIT Food – from ReThink 2020 English Version EIT Food is one of the eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities created by the EU under the umbrella of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and is building an ecosystem to generate innovative solutions to make the food system more circular and bring these solutions to the market. The “Circular Food Systems” is one of the six Focus Areas. EIT Food, as Europe’s leading food initiative, is working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy, and trusted. It works in synergy with Europe’s leading agri-food companies, research institutes, universities, and startups to transform the food system and tackle some of the big societal challenges such as food waste. In the EU, around 88 million tonnes of food waste are generated annually, which represents 20% of food production and it is estimated that this could feed 200 million people. The production and disposal of this food waste generate 170 million tonnes of CO2 which accounts for 6% of greenhouse gas emissions of the European Union. The global cost is 870 billion euros. Today, the reduction of food waste is an opportunity because it could help to close the gap between the food needed to feed the planet in 2050 and the food that was available in 2010 by more than 20%. This has been recognized also by the UN SDGs target n° 12.3 which asks us to halve the food waste by 2030. In the European context, food waste covers food loss and food waste and it occurs at all stages of the value chain. Even though in Europe food waste occurs mostly at the consumption level, synergic efforts should be addressing the problem of food waste at all stages of the value chain. Colombo...