Insights

Are Universities Ready for the Circular Economy?

Are Universities Ready for the Circular Economy?

University of Bradford. ©Tim Green aka atouch/Wikimedia Commons/cc-by-2.0   Looking at the numbers and expectations regarding the development of a circular economy ...

Sustainable and Circular: This is How Brussels Envisions the Bioeconomy

Sustainable and Circular: This is How Brussels Envisions the Bioeconomy

Phil Hogan   Carlos Moedas   “A turning point, a milestone.” This is how Carlos Moedas and Phil Hogan – respectively Europ...

Regenerating Local Territories with the Bioeconomy

Regenerating Local Territories with the Bioeconomy

The new European Strategy for the bioeconomy places emphasis on the territorial dimension: rapidly developing local “bioeconomies” throughout the continent. The geographical focal points...

A Way Out of the Crisis

A Way Out of the Crisis

Greece’s rescue package amounts to €290 billion over the last eight years. However, for Athens it mainly boils down to blood and tears. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperat...

The Chemical Industry Says Goodbye to Fossil Fuels

The Chemical Industry Says Goodbye to Fossil Fuels

Michael Carus, in his latest paper on the process of industrial change from a fossil-fuel-based system to one founded on renewable energy, cites the concept of “creative destruction,” ta...

Keeping CO2 Underground. Naturally

Keeping CO2 Underground. Naturally

Two pieces of news – and not just one as the media have chosen to focus on – emerged from the latest IPCC report published last October. Indeed, everybody concentrated on the 1.5 °C ...

Carbon Smart Circular Economy

Carbon Smart Circular Economy

A carbon-proof circular economy? For Dr. Jennifer Holmgren this is not an impossible task. LanzaTech is working to create a large scale industrial Carbon Capture and Usage project (CCU). With two go...

How to Redirect Capital Towards Circularity

How to Redirect Capital Towards Circularity

The potential role of sustainable investments in the transition to a circular economy is the focus of a study undertaken in 2018 by the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum and CONAI, the Italian Na...

France Turns Towards the Circular Economy

France Turns Towards the Circular Economy

Following an intense consultation phase with stakeholders (businesses, councils and citizens), in April 2018 the French government licenced the roadmap that will guide the country’s transition...

Occitania, a Positive Energy Region

Occitania, a Positive Energy Region

Toulouse – the Occitania region’s capital – is a lively and historically rich city that has developed along the Garonne river. Known for being home to the Airbus headquarters and t...

The Life of Mines After Mining

The Life of Mines After Mining

Mining is an increasingly hot topic in the global community. Germany, a country traditionally considered to be a green leader, is just one example of the struggles faced when enacting a rapid and fa...

Being Sustainable in the Coloured Gemstone Business

Being Sustainable in the Coloured Gemstone Business

The multibillion-dollar coloured gemstone industry is active in nearly 50 countries; contributing to the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Although it is difficult to obtain the exact num...

Cobalt Shortages Ahead

Cobalt Shortages Ahead

The rapid growth in electric vehicles is creating an enormous demand for cobalt, causing high prices and supply chain issues for this critical material. Cobalt is a ferromagnetic metal and one of t...

Solaris Tobacco Crop, a New Hope to Power Africa's Biofuel Jetliners

Solaris Tobacco Crop, a New Hope to Power Africa's Biofuel Jetliners

Solaris is a humble crop, largely ignored by farmers across Africa because it contains none of the lucrative nicotine found in other tobacco varieties. Solaris is a non-GMO rop that is harvested yea...

Fighting Cholera with Waste

Fighting Cholera with Waste

Yemen is suffering from a devastating humanitarian crisis. In the midst of civil war, most people no longer have access to energy and organic waste piles up in the streets. This allows fatal disease...

A Strategy for the Environment

A Strategy for the Environment

  Sergio Costa is the new Italian Minister of the Environment; he was nominated on the 1st of June of this year. He is considered one of the technical ministers of the 65th Italian governmen...

(Circular) Italy: Top of the Class

(Circular) Italy: Top of the Class

How is Italy doing in the huge circular economy challenge? The answer: not bad. This might come as a surpirse to some, but Italy is actually doing just fine. Better than many other EU countries. Per...

Bioeconomy in Italy: Adelante con Juicio

Bioeconomy in Italy: Adelante con Juicio

Adelante con juicio (Proceed with caution). Perhaps, the Italian Government draws inspiration from the 19th century writer Alessandro Manzoni’s famous novel “I Promessi Sposi” (The...

Capillary Circularity

Capillary Circularity

Producing renewable energy automatically allows a company to be considered as a circular enterprise. What happens, however, when a large holding company in the energy sector, which has decided not t...

The Novamont Recipe

The Novamont Recipe

Circular economy, innovation, regeneration of territories. The Novamont recipe remains the same, but the scope widens. The company from Novara has created Celus-Bi from Mater-Bi, the mother of all b...

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