Advancing Change Towards the Circular Behaviours That Really Matter

Looking for new and insightful approaches to enable behaviour change in the circular economy? The CSCP, Sitra and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) have realised this knowledge gap and launched the Consumer Insight Action Panel, in a multi-stakeholder collaboration including business, NGOs and European policy-makers.

EU policies and decision-makers have long recognised the importance of understanding and integrating consumer knowledge and behavioural insights into the circular economy transition. Despite the importance of consumer insights, there is little research and action on behaviour change with specific regard to the circular economy, and the need to consider behavioural and consumption aspects is still largely overlooked within circular strategies.

To address this gap, the CSCP, Sitra and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) have launched the Consumer Insight Action Panel, in partnership with the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. The goal of the Consumer Insight Action Panel is to translate consumer needs and behavioural knowledge, with specific regard to the circular economy in Europe, into impact-oriented and consumer-relevant policy recommendations, business innovations and civil society actions towards the circular economy. In other words, our main objective is to enable change towards circular behaviours that really matter.

This new European initiative is designed to support the transition to the circular economy by generating, applying and testing consumer behavioural insights in circular strategies. Its official launch took place on 18 October 2019 at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), with the participation of over 30 stakeholders among business, NGOs and European policy-makers who are supporters or partners of the initiative. The keynote speakers of the official launch included Mr. Kestutis Sadauskas, Director, Circular Economy and Green Growth, DG ENV, European Commission, and Ms. Marie-Paule Benassi, Acting Director, Consumers, DG JUST, European Commission.

The work will be carried out in clubs, which are exclusive groups of high-level stakeholders committed to leading the work of generating and integrating consumer behavioural insights into successful circular economy strategies. Each club is sector-focused and composed of max. 10 members, who are dedicated to exchange knowledge, benchmark existing solutions, prototype and test innovations and lead the circular consumer interface work. The sectors of focus will be textiles, electronics and plastics. You can find more details about the Consumer Insight Action Panel here or download our Flyer.

Due to the limited number of spaces within the initiative, club members were selected by invitation to trusted partners and through an open Expression of Interest process, to ensure a fair, transparent and high-quality selection procedure. The call for the Expression of Interest is now closed, but get in touch with Mariana Nicolau, project manager of the Consumer Insight Action Panel in case you would like to learn more about it. Are you interested in driving behavioural knowledge and behaviour change towards the circular economy transition in Europe? Are you keen to have access to beyond state-of-the-art knowledge on behavioural insights and behaviour change in view of your concrete circular economy challenges? Interested in contributing to the development and improvement of circular policies, business innovation and CSO initiatives? The Consumer Insight Action Panel is the place for you.

The Consumer Insight Action Panel is a non-profit initiative led by the CSCP and funded by Sitra and DBU, in partnership with the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform.

For more information contact Mariana Nicolau.

Photo Credit: EU2019 – source: EESC