Netherlands leading Europe in circularity

The Netherlands has definitely become a guide country in Europe in changing companies to circular business. This became clear on Tuesday at the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2023 ceremony, where CIRCO made it to the top three best sustainable transition programs. The CIRCO approach enables companies and designers to (re)design their products, services and business models to be circular businesses.

The nomination for the award, an initiative of the European Commission, recognizes the growth CIRCO achieved with 2,000 companies and 800 creative sector professionals following the program. Since 2015, a growing group of companies have been trained through the CIRCO method to become circular businesses. In a few weeks, they learn from CIRCO trainers how to make big steps with their product, service or business model. This happens in three half-day workshops. In this creative pressure cooker, they are given circular design knowledge that is applied immediately. They also discuss it with other participants from their own production chain.

Urgency
Even though more and more companies are interested in the circular economy, for many it is difficult to get started concretely. Again, the topic is snowed under in day-to-day reality. The focus of change is on the design phase, because more than 80 percent of all product-related environmental impacts are determined therein. It often requires new knowledge and a critical look at the entire organization and its own production chain. At the same time, the urgency is there because of social issues such as resource scarcity, climate crisis and generally rising costs. And not only that. Circular design helps the company innovate, lower its footprint and become future-proof at the same time.

Hopefully, more and more companies will see that reducing their footprint and increasing their competitiveness go hand in hand

Sustainable growth
The fact that the CIRCO approach is now appreciated in Europe is partly due to the growth in the number of partners in several other European countries. Awareness of the approach and its results are increasing. "We are very happy with this recognition from the European Commission because it will hopefully help even more companies see that reducing their footprint and increasing their competitiveness go hand in hand. That is exactly what we are trying to bring together from the start of the program,'' said Pieter van Os, Program Manager CIRCO International in a comment.

In doing so, the Netherlands is showing itself to be a circular guiding country in which the creative sector is fulfilling its ambition to initiate social transitions. Meanwhile, companies in more than 20 countries are working with this Dutch method. In Portugal, it is even included in the national Circular Economy Action Program. In Germany's Nordrhein Westfalen, partner EFA is going to train a good portion of all manufacturing companies with the CIRCO method over the next 5 years. The budget for this has even been tripled by Land Minister Oliver Krischer, of Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport.

CIRCO (circular business and design) is a program of CLICKNL