| Posted November 27, 2025

20 Years of CSCP: An Interview with Michael Kuhndt, CSCP Executive Director

On our 20th anniversary year at the CSCP, we reflect on a journey shaped by collaboration, learning, transformation, and impact. In a quick 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 […]

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Setting the Groundwork for Fair Trade in Mongolia’s Cashmere Sector

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 […]

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Spotlighting Circular Solutions at the Osaka World Expo 2025 and Beyond!

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 […]

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From Lab to Field: bioSOILUTIONS Circular Soil Improvers Ready to Be Tested in Real Life Conditions

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 […]

| Posted November 26, 2025

Rural Leadership in Action: How European and Chinese Partners Are Collaborating for Sustainable Innovation

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 […]

| Posted November 25, 2025

The CSCP Launches the iCOSHINE Platform to Advance Soil Health Collaboration

Around 60% of EU soils are considered unhealthy, threatening our food and water security, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Boosting and scaling hands-on innovations will be essential to addressing this challenge. To enhance knowledge sharing and accelerate innovation, the CSCP, together with its consortium partners from iCOSHELLs, launched iCOSHINE, a Europe-wide platform that provides spaces (both online and in person) for practitioners to exchange knowledge, challenges, and good practices. The goal is to promote continuous learning and collaboration across Soil Health Living Labs, enabling the identification of synergies and trade-offs at both the lab and solution levels from a broad, Europe-wide […]

| Posted November 24, 2025

Democracy as the Backbone of Sustainability: Insights from Our CSCP Team Day 2025

In times of increasing polarisation, shifting power dynamics, and accelerating digital change, the links between democracy and sustainability are being tested more than ever. At the CSCP, we believe that tackling these complex challenges begins with dialogue—connecting across perspectives, challenging our own assumptions, and building bridges where gaps exist. CSCP Team Day: An Open Space for Discussion At this year’s CSCP Team Day in Wuppertal, more than 50 team members joined a dynamic fishbowl discussion on emerging social and political trends shaping our work. Guest speakers, Mr. Helge Lindh, Member of the German Parliament (SPD), and Ms. Selly Wane, entrepreneur […]

| Posted November 23, 2025

Cutting Food Waste Together: Action Tips from Across the Value Chain

Food waste is one of the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, resource loss, and ecosystem strain. Tackling it is complex and often challenging, but when each part of the food system takes action, the collective impact can be transformative. At the CSCP, we’ve been working on food waste reduction for years—from a voluntary agreement in retail to co-creation in schools, from behaviour change to digital innovation. Across EU-funded projects and multi-stakeholder dialogues, we’ve seen one thing clearly: everyone has a role to play, and each action matters! To make these actions—and the roles different actors can play—more tangible, we launched a […]

| Posted November 13, 2025

Driving Circular Cities Forward: The CSCP at the European Week of Regions and Cities 2025

Hundreds of experts, city representatives, and pioneers gathered for in-depth exchanges on the future of circular cities at the European Week of Regions and Cities hosted in October 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. CSCP’s Dr. Shirin Betzler and Dr. Johannes Klement contributed by sharing our experiences and insights on circular cities and regions and by engaging with peers on how we can collectively accelerate progress toward more sustainable urban futures. The event was a marathon of ideas: three days packed with seminars, high-level panels, and networking on a shared commitment to drive circular economy in cities at the European Week of […]

| Posted November 12, 2025

Discover Our 8-Step Approach to Integrating Social Norms into Food Waste Interventions

How do social norms shape our everyday decisions about food waste? The EU-funded project, CHORIZO set out to understand the role of social norms in food loss and waste (FLW). While the project did not test norm-shifting interventions in the field, it achieved something both concrete and useful: it identified which norms matter in different contexts and built this understanding into a practical design process that practitioners can start using right away. The EU wastes over 58 million tonnes of food every year—that’s about 130 kilograms per person. Reducing this waste is one of the quickest ways for Europe to […]

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