Closing the Gap Between Circularity and Sustainability with Our ‘sustainable.circular’ Programme Think of the following: a product might be made of 100 % recycled materials, but if its production was energy intensive, the social aspects were neglected in the value chain, and the product itself has a high carbon emission during the use phase, it will inevitably fall short of being sustainable as well. The Circular Economy is not sustainable by default. CSCP’s new sustainable.circular programme was developed with this core idea in mind: to ensure that circular economy efforts are guided by a clear objective to achieve greater sustainability. We are proud to have our first round of the programme supported and funded by the German Federal Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt – DBU) and in cooperation with the Federal Association for Sustainable Economy (Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft – BNW e.V.) with the aim to identify activities and instruments that bridge the differences between sustainability and Circular Economy for German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As the backbone of the economy, SMEs need to rethink the way they do business in order to remain competitive. Such change requires implementation capacity. In this DBU-funded round of sustainable.circular, practice-relevant action catalogues and checklists for management tools, competence-oriented training formats and organisational prerequisites for change processes will be developed. As a first step, a survey will be conducted to gather information regarding the importance, strategic approaches as well as needs within the companies when it comes to closing the gap between circular and sustainable. This will be enhanced by desk research to identify existing tools and concepts that are successfully used in similar contexts and complemented by expert interviews. As a second step, the project will work on three company case studies, focussing on skills, management tools, pre-conditions as well as potential barriers for capacity building when it comes to achieving more sustainability through circular approaches. Based on the case studies and the baseline insights, a workshop concept will be developed, tested, and evaluated with the participating companies. As a final result, the project team will develop a recommendation toolkit for future uptake from other companies. For further questions, please contact Mike Tabel.