builtenvironment

built envHow a city is built can have a massive impact on environment and climate change effects. The topic of built environment is key in the framework of a circular transition. Adopting circular solutions and strategies on built environment can produce benefits in terms of reduction of GHGs emissions, land use, energy consumption and even on the level of happiness of citizens.

 This topic within the ACR+ Thematic area is strictly related to sectors such as urban planning and design, architecture, referring to buildings, public spaces and infrastructures, and, in general, construction and demolition value chains. Public authorities can play a key role in promoting and supporting circularity in the built environment by implementing policies and actions that:

  • Make secondary materials competitively priced through green taxes
  • Promote standardisation of secondary raw materials at national level
  • Facilitate selective demolition, renovation, retrofitting, and materials’ reuse
  • Support research on and implementation of circular construction solutions (such as Nature Based Solutions) 

Work in progress

ACR+ is currently working on this area through:

  • Inertwaste: an Interreg Europe project that aims to valorise inert waste from industrial and construction processes and extend their life cycle. The project is based on the exchange of European regional experiences and the discussion of ideas for resolving current policy challenges. ACR+ is involved in the project as a partner under the lead of its member the Navarre region.

Have a look at

Interested in the topic? You can have a look at the following resources:

  • Pilot Actions of the ProCirc project: a project that demonstrates circular procurement opportunities in the construction sector, with a focus on different types of buildings such as temporary structures, reused office buildings, social housing, public administration office buildings.
  • Sustainable construction guidelines for public authorities: a document that provides guidance on how to encourage circularity and material resources efficiency in the construction sector. The guidelines focus on circularity instead of covering only energy efficiency extensively, and go beyond waste to integrate the whole value chain of the construction sector.

Relevant projects and initiatives

INERTWASTE Logo1WES MED 80px ProCirc RGB 02 A colour  RE4 small APRICOD logo campaign

If you want to get involved with our work on the Thematic Area or you have any questions please contact Serena Lisai (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

 

builtenvironment

 Picture2This Thematic Area is about connecting the dots of circularity on your territory by making citizens, consumers, and producers care and be involved to boost a local sustainable consumption and production. From supporting stakeholders to instigate new models based on maximising the potential of resources and designing out of waste to using a wide array of drivers such as tourism, sport and cultural events to steer a green transition, this thematic area encompasses a wide diversity of initiatives and projects. Define your role as a game changer to speed up the transition while maintaining a holistic approach balancing economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion.

Initiatives and projects that contribute to this area and portfolio want to examine behaviour, assess consumption patterns and challenge the status quo and provoke behavioural change. A cross-sectoral cooperation is needed in order to allow them to do so.

 

Work in progress

ACR+ latest involvement was in capacity building activities among SMEs in the sector. Similar baseline scenario and behaviour assessment as well as complex screening and mapping exercises were carried out in the field of sports and event management in general. ACR+ is now combining all the acquired intelligence and its expertise to help public authorities tapping into this area to reinforce the implementation of their strategies among the less-obvious industries and occurrences on their territories.project is based on the exchange of European regional experiences and the discussion of ideas for resolving current policy challenges. ACR+ is involved in the project as a partner under the lead of its member the Navarre region.

Have a look at

Interested in the topic? You can have a look at the following resources:

Relevant projects and initiatives

INERTWASTE Logo1  TACKLE small  IMG 4510  Picture3 

MINEV Logo          GSH logo couleur   ACCES A Logo   tourisme project

If you want to get involved with our work on the Thematic Area or you have any questions please contact Ernest Kovács (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

 

builtenvironment

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This thematic area mostly focuses on the implementation of the waste hierarchy, also taking the larger perspective of material resource flows. To address the many challenges linked with material resource and waste management, it is important to understand what the best practices leading to high performances are. A better understanding of how different policies and local instruments impacts local performances can contribute to identify key recommendations, by conducting consistent comparisons and benchmarks. It is also important to connect these topics with more transversal topic such as climate change, to better identify key priorities.


Despite some progress made in the past 20 years, material resource and waste management is still underperforming in Europe. While the domestic material consumption decreased since the start of the millennium, also because of the economic crisis of 2008, it has remained quite stable for the past 10 years. There are still significant differences among and within Member State regarding the performances of waste management systems. It is unclear how much the prevention strategies and actions led in Europe for the past decades had an impact on waste generation, when they should be the priority of material resource strategies, considering that the benefits yielded from waste recycling on climate change hardly compensates the impact linked with the extraction of resources and the manufacturing of products.

Work in progress

ACR+ launched the European Waste Observatory in 2010, employing working groups to compare and cross-analyse local waste management data, with the aim of understanding variations and identifying best practices, subsequently leading to the adoption of its approach by various EU projects like Regions for Recycling in 2012 and COLLECTORS in 2017, all dedicated to enhancing data comparison and outlining essential guidelines for municipal waste management.

Have a look at

Interested in the topic? You can have a look at the following resources:

Relevant projects and initiatives

 Observatory logo    WINPOL Full MediumLCA4Regions EU FLAG  SMART WASTE EU FLAG 80px WINPOL Full Medium

Biocircularcities logo small  BIOBEST LOGO 2  hoopCISUTAC logo colours  logo vertical

 

If you want to get involved with our work on the Thematic Area or you have any questions please contact Jean-Benoît Bel (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

 

builtenvironment

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This is ACR+ cross-cutting Thematic Area, given its interlinkages with all other themes. As the name suggests, there are two main pillars:

      • The first revolves around the various instruments that local and regional authorities have at their disposal to foster the circular economy. These tools encompass a wide array of competences, ranging from land use planning to waste management. We also promote soft measures, such as empowering local sustainable businesses and engaging with citizens to raise awareness on critical topics.
      • The second refers to the different governance levels working together for better policy making. Thus, it refers to the work needed to empower local and regional authorities vis a vis national and EU level, matching their responsibilities with their resources already from the policy design stage.

 

Work in progress

ACR+ is currently working on this area through:

  • The EPR Club where ACR+ is connecting the EU level policy makers and local authorities to explore relevant issues, peer learning opportunities for better policy and participating to numerous projects that developed policy recommendations pertinent for local, regional as well as EU level policy makers.
  • As part of our services, we review regional waste management plans for interested members (Brussels, Dublin as an example).
  • Our benchmarking and technical studies are about common challenges that policy makers have to face in different fields (e.g textiles, waste collection, pay-as-you-throw) and they aim to support LRAs in better policy making.
  • ACR+ is also monitoring EU level developments and prepares accessible short pieces of information through its EU Digest on a regular basis.

Have a look at

Interested in the topic? You can have a look at the following resources:

Relevant projects and initiatives

 Logo EPR Club small 100x195 Logo CCRI CRIC BiotransformMastery logo

If you want to get involved with our work on the Thematic Area or you have any questions please contact Tugce Tugran (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

 
The Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (“ESPR”) is part of the European Green Deal and aims to set new sustainability requirements across all industries. The objective is to make sustainable products the norm on the internal market, focusing not only on energy efficiency, but also on durability, repairability, and recyclability, enforcing a life-cycle approach for products to be put on the European market. The regulation is to be voted next July and will introduce key concepts for circularity, such as the digital product passport or the ban on the destruction of unsold goods. 
  
To discuss the implications of this new regulation, a workshop was organised by the European Parliament Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development and hosted by MEP Maria Spyraki. ACR+ joined a panel discussion bringing together the European Commission as well as representatives from different industries and NGOs. They discussed the current challenges linked with the lack of eco-design of products for local and regional circular economy strategies, as well as the opportunity of the upcoming ESPR. ACR+ recalled the need to shift the efforts from the sole “end-of-life” approach to more upstream actions to effectively tackle the carbon impact of material resources and products, the relevance of the ESPR for helping SMEs and consumers toward more circular choices, and the need of better eco-designed products to support the generalisation of Circular Public Procurement. 
  
The recording is available here. 

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