More prosperity, new jobs: A practical business perspective on the Circular Economy Package by Dr. Katharina Reuter Director of Ecopreneur.eu Rotterdam, 25 January 2016

Sustainable business associations from… Belgium France Netherlands Spain Austria Germany

Ecopreneur.eu Founding press conference in Vienna (01/2015) Workshops in Madrid and Barcelona for and with green start-ups Guidelines for green start-ups Hearing of ITRE regarding GAP ( ) Breakfast presentation in EP ( ) Event during COP 21 Part of ACES, Alliance for Circular Economy Solutions via UnternehmensGrün (D) and De Groene Zaak (NL)

Supported by Business Manifesto on Circular Economy (05/2015)

Opportunities for companies and a sustainable economy in Europe: CE could make 3 million jobs by 2030 Up to 600 billion Euro could be saved per year in EU CE can lead to resource resilience by saving resources and leave them in there natural base. CE leads to Waste reduction and reduced environmental impact Source: European Commission, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and Accenture

Circular business models our members companies partly follow: Short cycle: Pay per use, repair, waste reduction, sharing platforms Long cycle: Performance based contracting, take back management, next life sales, refurbish & resell Recycling, cascading, upcycling, collaborative production Pure circles: Cradle to cradle, circular sourcing From physical to virtual: Digitisation Produce on demand: Produce on order, 3D printing Source: K. van Renswoude, D.J. Joustra and A. ten Wolde, 2015

A practical business perspective on the Circular Economy Package:

Cradle to Cradle

Experience of CE pioneers – our member companies We …. are successful with CE products and services generate financial revenues, innovation, new business, open up new markets, new clients and new jobs But there are two of the main barriers for us: Lack of demand pull for circular products and services, especially from public procurement Lack of transparency through the value chain

Companies needs government policies Government policies are needed accelerate and mainstream the circular economy Remove existing obstacles Improve the ‘rules of the game’ of our economy in a systems approach

What CE pioneers ask for: 1.Effective measures to meet ambitious targets 2.Financial incentives for producers and consumers (levies and taxes) 3.Extend Ecodesign Directive to Circular Design 4.An attractive research programme for companies, including SMEs

Response to CE Package proposal No targets, no milestones, little enforcement: risk of being ineffective Serious flaw: No economic incentives for consumers. No VAT directive amendment Research: fundamental lack of access and attractiveness for SMEs, lack of systemic policy research Still EU funding for incineration plants Positive: Procurement, Extended Producer Responsibility, Ecodesign directive, Quality standards for secondary resource materials, European Resource Efficiency Excellence Centre, link with GAP for SMEs, developing Monitoring KPIs

Our member companies suggest to… Strengthen the Package with ambitious targets and implementation covering the full circle. Keep monitoring resource efficiency as an overarching Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Give clear price signals to consumers and producers Enforce regulations. Demand separate collection of biowaste Introduce quality criteria for other secondary raw materials besides plastics Introduce an attractive research programme. Extend European Resource Efficiency Centre to cover research on circular economy, system change, business models and government policies

…and green companies need meaningful actions on… Creating clean material cycles Making Green Public Procurement criteria mandatory Moving Ecodesign towards non-energy related products >> Differentiation down to product and company level is needed to incentivise companies to become frontrunners.

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