Circular Economy promises a lower resource and energy use, new employment sector and economic growth. However, can an European circular economy fulfill these expectations and what environmental, social and economic impact does a transition to such an economy bear? The project CIRCULAR IMPACTS will answer these questions by collecting and assessing the existent knowledge base. On 27 October 2016, Lucas Porsch from Ecologic Institute presented the goals of the project. The slides are available for download.

It seems like everybody is talking about circular economy. The scientific approach, where waste and byproducts are used as resources, promises a lot: lower energy and resource consumption, new employment sectors and economic growth within the planetary boundaries.

The question remains, up to which degree a European circular economy can fulfill these expectations and what environmental, social and economic impact a transition to such an economy bear? The project CIRCULAR IMPACTS will answer these questions by collecting and assessing the existent knowledge base. Additionally, several case studies, which illustrate the potential of the circular economy exemplarily, will be provided.

The expectations of the project CIRCULAR ECONOMY are as wide-ranging as the expectations regarding the circular economy . Thus, a high number of interested parties and people attended the kick-off meeting. This does not only include the advisory board, but also members of the EU commission, the European Environmental Agency and Eurostat. The variety of actors presented different requirements of several comprehensive European policy processes, including the European Semester and Circular Economy Action Plan.

Members from several director-generals of the European Commission attended, including some heads of unit. These employees from Directorate-General for the Environment; Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) (which is leading the project) commented on plans of the project consortium and presented own ideas.

While the backgrounds of the attendees were highly heterogeneous, their expectations and pro-posals were very disparate. Data and information of different scopes were required- from different sectors, and on a regional to national level. Now, the project consortium will develop and implement the project, while consulting the advisory board and EU commission.