Circular economy practices are being adopted across many value chains. Three recent reports by the European Environment Agency Topic Centre on Circuar Economy (ETC-CE) examine the textiles and plastics sectors (two of the most polluting industries) and explore how the transition to a circular economy can be achieved in a socially fair way.
Achieving global circular production and consumption will require profound changes across value chains in all industries. These three reports explore what this transformation entails, focusing on sectors where circularity is urgently needed and examining how fairness can guide the shift.
The report “Textiles and the environment – the role of digital technologies in Europe’s circular economy” updates key datasets and insights, including the latest developments in European textile production, consumption patterns, trade flows, exports of used textiles, and related environmental impact estimates. Looking into the future, the authors map current and emerging digital solutions and examine how they could transform the design, production, and servicing of clothing and other textile products.
The report “Reusable takeaway packaging for food and drinks – scalability of systems towards circularity in Europe” analyses a sector where circular practices are already being tested. Focusing on plastics, the report explores how far reusable food and beverage container systems have come, and identifies the main obstacles and possibilities for expanding them. To do so, the ETC-CE researchers located and interviewed businesses and projects in eight European countries whose core activities center on different parts of the reusable packaging value chain.
In the report “A Just Transition to Circular Economy”, the authors bring forward a justice-oriented circular economy framework, emphasizing the need to consider participation, fairness, and the distribution of benefits and burdens in a circular economy. The report also examines the justice aspects of transitioning to a circular economy across the battery, textile, and plastics value chains.
Got to our library to download all three reports!
For further questions, please contact Livia El-Khawad.
Transformation needs images that we can not only understand, but also feel deeply. This was exactly the starting point of the transform.NRW symposium held in November 2025 in Bonn, Germany.
‘Where are we now? Where do we want to go? What are we prepared to dare?’ – these questions opened the symposium at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, kicking off two days of exchange, inspiration and bold visions for the future.
Practitioners from design, research, politics, business and civil society came together to rethink social-ecological transformation through art, culture and design.
For the co-do lab, this was a special space: filled with people who translate complexity into images, stories and emotions, and who can therefore offer exactly what transformation needs most.
Head, heart and hands
Eva Rudolf, Senior Designer and Stephan Schaller, Senior Expert joined the panel “Networks, Accomplices and Other Allies” to introduce the co-do lab and talk about why transformation only succeeds when head, heart and hands work together.
The co-do lab work is rooted in nature-based experiences, because connection and shared experiences create the foundation that enables people to move from intention to action. That’s why the events was a great opportunity to meet likeminded people, who turn data and facts into meaningful narratives and use creativity to offer orientation and courage.
Transformation needs images that move us
Prof. Manfred Fischedick from the Wuppertal Institute emphasised in his remarks that we are facing an action gap—one that requires collective strength and the courage to take a significant leap forward. It was a reminder of what this moment calls for: transforming complexity into momentum, uncertainty into curiosity, and intentions into shared action.
How art can translate issues such as, for example, the overproduction of the textile industry into emotional experiences became clear at the end of the event, through the powerful dance performance “Tree Tree” by Japanese dancer and choreographer Kenji Shinohe, who got entangled in a large amount of textiles he was moving through and interacting with.
What the co-do lab can contribute
The co-do lab aims to create experiences that touch people and spark inspiration and momentum for the next steps of their transformation journey. At Gut Einern in Wuppertal, the co-do lab experts enable teams to shape their future actively – through deep, shared experiences with others and nature.
Whether in the co-creation kitchen, around the campfire, in the co-do mobile or in the permaculture garden: at Gut Einern, teams find spaces to think differently, decide more clearly, and move from intention to action. Conversations turn into ideas. Ideas turn into impact – curious, bold, effective.
Ready for co-creation?
Do you want to experience transformation instead of merely discussing it? Are you looking for formats that connect people and spark real innovation? Do you want to prototype, explore and prepare your organisation for a future that lasts?
Then let’s explore what you’re ready to dare and how we can work together.
The co-do lab team is excited to co-create formats tailored to your team, your organisation or your city. From team days to strategy and storytelling workshops to multi-stakeholder sessions with partners or clients.
For further questions, please contact Eva Rudolf.
Read more at the co-do lab website or reach out to the team.
How can Central and Eastern Europe lead the way toward a circular bioeconomy and a more sustainable future? At the opening day of the Circular Week 2025 in Warsaw, Poland, our CEE2ACT project team showcased how collaboration, local empowerment, and innovation can turn the circular bioeconomy from vision to action.
The Circular Week 2025, which is hosted by the Institute of Innovation and Responsible Development— INNOWO, brought together high-level representatives from the European Commission, national governments, and international organisations including EIT Food, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Circle Economy.
This first day, themed “Circular Bioeconomy as Key for Biodiversity and Resilience”, set the agenda for the week. Our CEE2ACT project, which supports ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in building national bioeconomy strategies through stakeholder engagement and evidence-based processes, was presented as an example of cross-country and multi-level actor collaboration.
In the session “The CEE2ACT Project and its Bottom-Up Approach to Promote the Bioeconomy Development in the CEE Countries,” CSCP Project Manager Kartika Anggraeni and the coordinator of the CEE2ACT Polish National Bioeconomy Hub, Piotr Jurga (IUNG-PIB) showcased how the project mobilises ministries, research institutions, businesses and communities to co-create bioeconomy roadmaps at national and regional levels.
The Polish National Bioeconomy Hub, represented by Piotr Jurga, shared insights into the ongoing work on a Circular Bioeconomy Roadmap, which will underpin Poland’s future National Bioeconomy Strategy.
A key milestone achieved by the Polish Hub during the day was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among several organisations — marking a formal step in strengthening cross-sector cooperation and driving toward a circular, bio-based economy.
As the panels of the day explored topics such as bioremediation, national strategy formation, materials transition and biodiversity reporting, CEE2ACT stood out as an operational example of bottom-up implementation. By strengthening national capacities and promoting peer-learning across CEE countries, the project shows how regional collaboration can accelerate meaningful change.
You can read more about the work of CEE2ACT in supporting 10 Central and Easter European countries to shape their national bioeconomy strategies here.
Within the framework of the Circular Week 2025, the student competition “The Circular Shift: Business Reinvented” held its grand final at Kozminski University, Warsaw, on November 4, where six student teams from across Poland presented circular business solutions to sustainability challenges. CSCP’s Kartika Anggraeni was part of the jury alongside over ten European organisations, supporting initiatives that engage the next generation in shaping a circular bioeconomy.
In 2026, the CSCP will join Circular Week as a co-organiser, bringing the initiative to Germany and highlighting the role of cities in driving the circular transition with a combination of online and in-person events. Would you like to engage with us and be actively involved in Circular Week 2026? Reach out to Mike Tabel!
The CEE2ACT project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme and will run for three years (2022-2025), led by a consortium of 17 European partners.
For further questions, please contact Kartika Anggraeni.
How can sustainability policies truly serve everyone and ensure that no one—especially people experiencing poverty—is left behind? This guiding question lies at the heart of our project on Poverty Reduction and Sustainability, in which we are applying a system mapping approach to analyse North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) sustainability strategy.
“Can you say what will happen with the final results of your research once the ministry has received them? What will they change?” – this was one of key questions raised by a citizen affected by poverty, who took part in our first participatory workshop held within the Climate & Poverty research project.
This simple question was a clear indicator to us that participatory processes are meaningful only when the created knowledge is fed into and guides the implementation processes.
Combining scientific expertise with lived experiences
The transdisciplinary approach at the heart of the project combines scientific expertise with insights drawn from the lived experiences of people affected by poverty. As part of this research project, participatory workshops were held to co-create the initial systems map of poverty and validate research results.
System mapping allows to visualise not only direct but also indirect connections and interdependencies (e.g. intensifying feedback loops) between, for example, political strategies, societal and individual settings and a certain phenomenon, such as poverty in this case.
For example, child care availability influences labour division in households, as a result of which women’s availability on the labour market and the continuity of their employment is affected. Discriminiation based on gender is an intensifying feedback loop here. The type and continuity of employment influences women’s financial status as well as their future pensions, which in case of low and interrupted employment may eventually lead to poverty among elderly women.
Participatory workshop series
Two workshops took place at the Citizen Centre in the Nippes quarter in Cologne, Germany in collaboration with Zug um Zug e.V., with a strong focus on the perspectives of people directly affected by poverty. An additional two workshops were held at the CSCP offices in Wuppertal, Germany in collaboration with the Neighbourhood Centre, bringing together a mixed group of participants from academia, policy, and poverty-affected groups.
Participants identified key factors that influence poverty and began connecting these elements to visualise their interrelations. These insights have informed the next project phase, which focused on analysing risks and risk reduction potentials within NRW’s sustainability strategy and climate adaptation strategy. The workshop series served as an important platform for formulating policy recommendations that are both socially just and grounded in real-life conditions, ensuring that sustainability strategies leave no one behind.
Key analytical results of both strategies, the sustainability strategy, which is currently under revision, and the climate adaptation strategy, show an ambiguous picture. Despite including activities that potentially reduce poverty (such as education, employment opportunities, health prevention), the strategies have blind spots in terms of poverty reduction that could lead to an intensification of poverty. Major gaps are the increasing costs of housing and energy, youth unemployment, training programmes for unemployed, and unequal access to digital infrastructure.
Citizens both in Cologne as well as in Wuppertal valued the opportunity to contribute their experiences and perspectives, noting that they often lack representation in sustainability policy discussions and decision-making processes. At the same time, representatives from ministries emphasised the benefit of direct dialogues with poverty affected citizens and considered to have such dialogue forums with vulnerable groups more frequently, especially in the drafting phase of new political strategies.
Expected outcomes
Until the end of 2025, the project aims to analyse NRW’s sustainability strategy and climate adaptation strategy from a social perspective in order to identify potential risks that sustainability measures pose to people affected by poverty. Furthermore, it aims to determine risk reduction potentials already embedded within existing policy measures, and develop further policy recommendations to enhance the social equity of the strategy and ensure a just transition.
The project is funded by the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and runs from August to December 2025 with the CSCP as project lead.
The research results will be published at the end of 2025 on our CSCP website library.
To learn more about this project or engage with us on the interrelation between sustainability policies and poverty, please reach out to Alexandra Kessler.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment and the European Economic and Social Committee have selected the CSCP, among 23 other organisations, for the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) Coordination Group for the 2025-2028 mandate.
The ECESP, a flagship initiative of the European Commission, plays a key role in connecting stakeholders from industry, civil society, academia, and policy, all united in driving forward the transition to a circular economy.
As a Coordination Group member, the CSCP will work alongside key actors in shaping the future direction of the Platform, facilitating dialogue, and enhancing collaboration between diverse stakeholders.
“Being reappointed as a Coordination Group member represents another opportunity for the CSCP to continue bridging the topics of circularity and bioeconomy with society, cities, and citizens’ behaviour. It is also a chance to build strong synergies for a just circular (and sustainable) transition, grounded in a deep understanding of real needs and inclusive of all those affected by the solutions.”, notes Michael Kuhndt, CSCP Executive Director.
This is the third term of the CSCP as a Coordination Group member. In the past, the CSCP has co-led the Leadership Group on Citizen Engagement & Citizen Behaviour as part of the ECESP.
For more information on the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform and its activities, visit the official ECESP website.
For further questions on CSCP’s engagement as part of the ECESP, please reach out to Dr. Flandra Syla-Beqiri.
As we begin our 20th anniversary year at the CSCP, we reflect on a journey shaped by collaboration, learning, transformation, and impact.
In this first look back, we asked Executive Director, Michael Kuhndt to share his insights on how sustainability has evolved, the breakthroughs that transformed our work, and the wisdom gained from two decades of driving positive change.
An “aha” moment that redefined the sustainability narrative?
20 years ago, sustainability was mainly thought of in terms of the image of the polar bear on melting ice. This was a problem, but it failed to communicate the profound impact climate change would have on our lives. Step by step, we began translating sustainability into tangible actions and relatable messages. We believed then, as we do now, that sustainability should speak to what truly matters: a good life for all!
A breakthrough approach that changed things for real?
Two decades ago the focus was either on production or on consumption. CSCP’s breakthrough was to frame production and consumption as part of a cycle—think of circular economy before the term came into widespread use.
CSCP’s superpower?
Acknowledging it doesn’t have one! Positive change never happens alone—whether with governments, corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, labour unions, civil society, or citizens, our role is often to sit at the table and build trust, bridge perspectives, and facilitate action.
Local roots and a global scope, how is that a match?
We are deeply rooted in Wuppertal, Germany, where we are based, but have led and participated in projects and initiatives across continents and in over 30 countries. This global-local dynamic allows us to stay both grounded and visionary, while cross-pollinating ideas and approaches that strengthen one another.
Milestones that moved the needle?
Every time we managed to build trust and align diverse actors around shared goals stands out—from influencing major global policy frameworks and action plans to co-developing tools and innovations that have been adopted by local governments, businesses, civil society, industry associations, or communities worldwide.
Hard-earned wisdom?
The road hasn’t always been smooth: some partnerships didn’t work right from the start and some innovations didn’t land or scale as intended. Change takes time, persistence, trust-building, and adaptability.
Curious to dive deeper into these reflections or explore ways to collaborate? Reach out directly to Michael Kuhndt to start a conversation!
What does fair trade look like in Mongolia’s cashmere sector and how can processors and herders shape it together? The STeP EcoLab Mongolia 2 project has initiated a multi-year process to answer exactly this question.
To kick things off, project team travelled to Ulaanbaatar to launch a structured dialogue that will, over the coming years, bring together processors, herders, cooperatives, and policymakers to jointly define what “fair trade” should mean in the Mongolian context.
The first milestone was a full-day workshop with representatives from cashmere processing companies—covering the entire value chain from de-hairing to garment manufacturing. Together, participants explored how fair trade principles could strengthen supply chain relationships, improve raw material quality, and open doors to sustainable markets.
A shared vision emerged: fairer cooperation along the value chain could support herders in stabilising their income while reducing herd sizes, contributing directly to Mongolia’s urgent pastureland and overgrazing challenges. These insights build on the project’s broader mission to create economically viable and environmentally responsible pathways for the sector.
As part of the visit, Dr. Britta Holzberg and Pawel Zylka from the CSCP together with our partners from the Agronomes & Vétérinaires Sans Frontiers (AVSF) visited several processing factories in and around Ulaanbaatar.
Seeing the production processes firsthand helped deepen the understanding of the industry’s pressures, ranging from quality fluctuations to global competition. It also underscored a key finding: processors are highly motivated to engage in sustainability and fair trade discussions, recognising them as strategic necessities rather than optional add-ons.
The next phase will turn the focus toward herders and cooperatives. To prepare, the CSCP has conducted two “train-the-trainer” workshops with local partners, enabling them to run three regional workshops with herders between December 2025 and January 2026. These workshops will introduce the same core concepts but explore them from the perspective of primary producers—ensuring that their needs and realities shape the emerging fair trade model.
In 2026, STeP EcoLab Mongolia II will bring selected herders, cooperatives, processors, and policymakers together in a co-creation process to refine stakeholder inputs into a shared set of fair trade practices tailored to Mongolia’s cashmere sector.
Finally, in 2027, all relevant national stakeholders will be invited to a Fair Trade Dialogue, an industry-wide workshop where Mongolia’s first co-created fair trade reference practices will be discussed, aligned, and jointly agreed.
For further questions, please contact Pawel Zylka.
The circular economy took the spotlight at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan attracting nearly 30 million visitors over the course of six months. Within the framework of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP), Rosa Strube, Head of Sustainable Lifestyles at the CSCP, took part, focusing on sharing insights and exchanging ideas on how to empower consumers for circular living.
To highlight the global importance of the circular economy, the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) curated an inspiring programme for the Circular Economy Days in Osaka, bringing together experts from Europe, Japan, and beyond. Strube’s contribution drew on insights gathered over more than a decade of work at the intersection of business innovation and sustainable lifestyles.
She played an active role in two sessions, both showcasing the human side of circularity. In the session Scaling Circularity: Empowering SMEs for a Sustainable Future, she emphasised the key role of consumers in the success of circular business models, particularly those relying on daily choices, convenience, and trust.
She highlighted the need to actively involve consumers in developing sustainable models such as, return, repair, and product-as-a-service, to ensure they align with real consumer needs.
In the session It Starts with Us: How Everyday Choices Build Circular Economies, Strube guided the discussion toward citizens’ everyday decisions, shedding light on different good practices from Japan and Europe, based on their respective cultural backgrounds, on waste recycling, upcycling, and giving a voice to citizens for the circular transition.
Across several sessions, one message was clear: Japan and Europe face remarkably similar challenges and opportunities on their circular journey — from empowering SMEs to designing consumer experiences that make sustainable choices easy and desirable.
Both regions can learn from each other’s approaches, be it Japan’s strong community-based repair culture or Europe’s growing ecosystem of circular start-ups. The exchanges in Osaka demonstrated that the path toward circularity is shared — and that collaboration across cultures and continents will be vital for scaling change.
More insights and highlights from the Circular Economy Days are available on the ECESP website.
Building on these themes, two new episodes of the Let’s Talk – the ECESP Podcast explore how to know your audience and the power of reusable packaging:
Tune in for the two lively, thought-provoking conversations packed with real-world insights, circular solutions, and a touch of humour – download the podcasts here!
For further questions and to explore new collaborations, please reach out to Rosa Strube.
Over the past two years, bioSOILUTIONS partners have worked toward a shared ambition: creating circular, biowaste-based soil improvers to help stop the ongoing degradation of soils in Europe.
Through regular exchanges in the Living Labs in Valencia and Murcia in Spain and Flanders in the Netherlands, farmers, local administrators, researchers and other stakeholders have openly shared their needs, hopes, concerns, and insights that have guided the development process from day one.
These joint efforts have resulted in five promising soil improvers ready for real-world testing. At the second bioSOILUTIONS impact board meeting in November 2025, project partners from all three Living Labs came together to discuss the validation processes with farmers.
To build trust and foster strong collaboration with farmers, participants emphasised the importance of involving them early on and continuously in the design of field validation processes, providing sufficient information about the soil improvers, and offering compensation whenever possible.
Building on these discussions about farmer engagement, the project also presented a questionnaire designed to capture farmers’ feedback and perceptions of the soil improvers after field testing. Living Lab actors stressed a solid trust-based relationship with farmers is a prerequisite to collecting meaningful feedback. For this reason, they recommended keeping the questionnaire anonymous and straightforward to encourage full and honest participation.
As bioSOILUTIONS enters this exciting next phase, the real-world field tests will reveal how the soil improvers perform under everyday farming conditions, bringing the project one step closer to supporting healthier soils across Europe.
For additional information on the bioSOILUTIONS project, please visit the project website.
How can rural communities drive innovations to increase sustainability?
In October 2025, the CSCP joined European and Chinese partners in Xiamen, China for the launch the NEXRUR project, which aims to o-develop business models that are next generation and community led. The goal: to empower farmers and rural stakeholders across Europe and China to build resilience and drive greener local economies.
NEXRUR’s main objective is to explore innovation dynamics and strategies for change in rural areas in the Europe and China. The project enables farmers and their communities to develop, select, and scale next-generation sustainable, community-led business models and monitor their economic, social, and environmental impact on rural resilience.
The “next-generation sustainable community-led business models” NEXRUR refers to approaches that:
Bringing together a multidisciplinary consortium from nine European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands) alongside leading Chinese institutions, the project will foster EU–China collaboration for inclusive and sustainable rural transformation.
The CSCP plays a central role in developing and implementing stakeholder engagement methodologies. Under its coordination, National Stakeholder Panels (NSPs) will be established in participating countries and China to bring together farmers, policymakers, businesses, and community representatives. These panels will help refine project outcomes such as local measures, policy recommendations, and strategies for scaling successful community-led business models.
The CSCP will also monitor performance and lessons learned from these panels, ensuring effective implementation and knowledge transfer across the project. Additionally, through the creation of a European Stakeholder Panel, the project will connect diverse experiences, promote best practices, and foster dialogue between European and Chinese partners on sustainable rural business models.
The project will run for four years, from 2026 to 2029. It is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme.
For further questions, please contact Ahmad ur Hafiz