Circular Hubs across Europe – what you missed.

Circular Hubs across Europe – what you missed.

On 28.04 Circular Berlin  hosted the event Circular Hubs across Europe. We discussed the need and roles for such regional hubs in the transformation to the circular economy. We had the pleasure of speaking with: Cynthia Reynolds, Founder of Circular Oslo & Circular Regions; Laurène Descamps, Program Coordinator at Circular Economy Transition und Impact HUB Zurich; Sandra Kolodzinskyi, liaison for Holland Circular Hotspot at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency; and our founder Dina Padalkina.

Cynthia Reynolds | Founder of Circular Oslo & Circular Regions

Circular Regions is a newly developed platform that aims to bring more technology driven solutions and  share best practices across cities and regions. The key focus of the platform is to enable a healthy network across different stakeholders. Cynthia is the architect behind the platform. She highlighted that the transition should be an inclusive process, involving diverse stakeholders. The key element of Circular Regions is to work with system entrepreneurs, who understand the local circular economy ecosystem and  work with the public sector.

Laurène Descamps | Program Coordinator Circular Economy Transition

Laurene shared with us interesting insights about the collaboration processes across 5 Swiss Impact Hubs established in the Circular Economy Transition network. The vision is to shift Switzerland to becoming an innovation leader in the Circular economy, considerably reducing the country’s consumption of natural resources and contributing to sustainable development. The focus of their work is structured across  pillars such as: CE Ecosystem building, CE incubators, Circular business labs and CE Policy recommendations.

Sandra Kolodzinskyi | liaison Holland Circular Hotspot at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency

Following the next presentation, Sandra explained the role of Holland Circular Hotspots, which is a public private partnership for companies, knowledge institutions and government cities. Their key focuses are  building their network and knowledge transitions across hotspots.  Sandra shared the path needed for the transition, these are 1) a shared sense of urgency. 2) Implementation occuring in 4 subsequent phases: preparing, building, scaling, mainstreaming. 3) Tasks for the initiatives  becoming similar, but case specific. 4) Building a circular economy as a clear destination but without a predetermined path. The presentation you can find here.

Dina Padalkina | Circular Berlin

The last presentation highlighted the approach Circular Berlin has been taking. Differing to the others, Circular Berlin as an organisation represents the non-profit association, which also enables  transition through knowledge building, sharing and networking. The key learnings were that the role of public-private partnerships is crucial, and that we as an organisation still strive for its establishment. A message for us all: stay patient with  city transformation, as the process requires time. To enable collaboration, which is the core of the circular economy, make sure the goal is clear for all stakeholders and those aligned. The circular economy requires a more inclusive approach aiming at system transformation.

If you also up for the discussion, here you can check the panel: https://youtu.be/7nyEAT7Tk9E