BELT has the objective to facilitate the transition period of the energy efficiency label (Regulation (EU) 2017/1369) informing and supporting all stakeholders and to reduce to a minimum errors at all levels of the value chain from manufacturer to consumer. Furthermore BELT aims to promote the new label on two key levels: Primarily raising awareness and informing consumers (citizens but also public and business procurement staff) thus allowing them to make better and more informed choices; and secondly helping manufacturers, distributors and retailers to adapt their practices and use the rescaled labels to push innovation in designing energy efficiency products.

Public procurement can be a key tool in driving the development of innovative goods and services on the European market. The European Commission has decided to launch the “Big Buyers Working Together” project to support collaboration between public buyers with strong purchasing power and promote the wider use of strategic public procurement for innovative and sustainable solutions. By working together and pooling their resources, cities, central purchasing bodies, and other major public buyers can maximise their market power and impact. Under the Big Buyers Working Together project ten communities of practice will be created. Each community of practice will be devoted to the purchase of a specific product, work or service where European collaboration is needed. To support the process of developing more strategic procurement approaches, public buyers will meet regularly online and in person.

ICLEI and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) will be organising, on behalf of the European Commission Green Public Procurement workshops in each Member State to provide dialogue between stakeholders on the use of public policy development as a strategic lever for innovative and sustainable public policy development and support the development of a roadmap.

The SYMSITES project aims at developing new technologies and solutions based on the Industrial and Urban symbiosis (I-US) concept, for local and regional collaborations among diverse actors (Citizens, Municipalities and Entreprises) and sectors improving the sustainability of the use of industrial and societal resources starting from wastewater and waste materials.

P2GreeN aims to develop, test and adapt the use of human sanitary waste to produce safe, bio-based fertilizers for agriculture. Vast amounts of wastewater with a high nutrient content disappear daily into the sewers of large cities. On the other hand, agriculture, using conventional fertilizers, struggles to produce good yields in the fields to feed the growing world population. What some have too much of, others have too little of. There must be a solution to this.

The H4C ECoP is co-leading and supporting the establishment and growth of the European Community of Practice for Hubs4Circularity together with the project H4C Europe. The consortium is helping identify and connect all the interested parties (starting with existing local Hubs, as well as industries, regions and cities, policymakers and standardisation bodies), enabling them to take action through an information and knowledge platform.

By fostering knowledge sharing between regions, cities and their industries, the knowledge platform provides the tools and the scientific evidence for this approach to be adopted widely across Europe. All the materials collected and developed throughout the project will continue to be available after its end, to keep supporting the community in the transition to a net-zero, circular economy.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is part of the European Commission's effort to give innovative companies better opportunities to become world-leading enterprises. ICLEI supports partnership building between the EIC Community members and public procurers interested in working with EIC SME’s; and manages the onboarding of private and public procurers interested in working with innovators on the EIC Community Platform and motivate their active participation in the EIC Community.

The Business Acceleration Services (BAS), is a box full of exciting business acceleration services and an extensive innovation network for EIC beneficiaries. Its aim is to boost connections and foster communication by creating a shared knowledge base and a virtual meeting-place where innovative and business partners can connect and leverage new partnerships.

REDOL will foster industrial-urban symbiosis, transforming cities into hubs for circularity. It will redesign five value chains for solid urban waste (packaging, plastics, construction and demolition waste, textiles, and waste from electrical and electronic equipment) to produce 12 circular products.

Over four years of activity, REDOL will upgrade waste management technologies for the collection, sorting and classification of materials, enhance the processing routes of sorted materials to avoid landfilling and facilitate the uptake of digital tools to optimise value chains and promote the interaction among key players.

Among its results, the project will develop guidelines and recommendations for decision makers and will improve citizens’ perception on solid urban waste and recycled products, thus increasing their participation in collection schemes.

REDOL will support the transition of Zaragoza towards a zero-residues city by 2040, allowing 144.720 tons of solid urban waste being reused, valorised or transformed into secondary raw materials. This will contribute to saving over 14B€ and 280 ktCO2 per year.

Effective investment and financing opportunities for circular economy projects in Europe are still few and far between. Investors need to gain trust in circular economy projects, while projects need to become less risky and bankable.

The DEFINITE-CCRI project establishes a “deal engine mechanism” – an assistance programme to help make circular economy projects bankable – to provide cities, regions and project developers with technical and financial expertise in an unprecedented and streamlined process. The deal engine will be built with investors and finance partners with the goal to secure investments in four circular economy projects of up to €20 million each.

DEFINITE-CCRI will demonstrate the bankability of high-impact circularity projects and increase investors’ trust in circular economy innovation. The project is expected to close the gap between project developers and investors and ultimately contribute to lower the use of virgin non-renewable material, reduce emissions and foster a more just and inclusive circular employment in line with the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Bioeconomy Strategy.