embrace Newsletter #01

A "first taste" of the embrace Project

Since February 2018, the embrace project is working on tackling common territorial challenges, faced in the MED area, such as: lag in the transition process to a green and competitive circular economy; limited efficieny of policies on promoting resource efficiency and eco-Innovation for a smart and sustainable growth; clusterization of the EU economy.

Recognising that what missing is a mix of tools and services to align the environmental burden and the generation of economic value, embrace contributes to overcome these barriers by introducing and testing a unique hybridation between the eco-design, the resource efficiency innovation and the economic value creation able to generate innovative and viable “circular business models".

To strengthen the impact of the circular economy, viable business models for SMEs in the field of eco-innovation, large projects and related financing schemes/instruments are developed during the piloting phase and then disseminated during the transferring phase. The tested models and instruments will be disseminated in other areas and sectors, with the purpose of spreading the benefit of Circular Economy and promoting its sustainability through the adoption of ad hoc financial instruments.

The main objective of the EMBRACE project is to support innovation processes in MED area according to the principle of Circular Economy; with the capitalization of methods and instruments within an innovative toolkit available through the project platform and with the competent assistance of service-providers (Nodes) trained and prepared according to common methods and contents. For this reason a strong consortium with high expertize and deep knowledge, covering the whole Interreg MED area has come together. Find out who we are here.

SMEs operating in the wine and agro-food sectors and coming from the 9 project areas will be assisted for a widespread and conscious approach to the principle of Circular Economy. Nodes will assist SMEs at local level to support their gathering into 2 MED transnational clusters dealing with the above mentioned sectors aiming at strengthening the internationalisation and the cooperation processes.

In line with the state of art of the EU initiatives on circular economy

Just recently the European Commission has adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan - one of the main blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth.

The new Circular Economy Action presents measures to:

Make sustainable products the norm in the EU;
Empower consumers and public buyers;
Focus on the sectors that use most resources and where the potential for circularity is high such as: electronics and ICT; batteries and vehicles; packaging; plastics; textiles; construction and buildings; food; water and nutrients;
Ensure less waste;
Make circularity work for people, regions and cities,
Lead global efforts on circular economy.

Within the framework of the Interreg MED Programme, Green Growth is a thematic community promoting sustainable development in the Mediterranean, based on the sound management of natural resources by enhancing cross-sectoral innovation practices through an integrated and territorially-based cooperation approach.

The community consists of 14 projects connecting 165 partners from 13 countries in the Mediterranean, with a total budget of around €30M. These projects tackle topics from agrofood, eco-innovation, smart cities, waste management to green growth financing.

The community supports projects in their communication and capitalisation efforts, thus increasing their impact at the policy level and ensuring their potential transfer and replication of their results into other territories.

Find out more on the Green Growth Community here.

In line with the above, the embrace project works towards mobilizing the actors of the quadraple helix (public authorities, industry, university and civil society) towards engaging with the principles of Circular Economy (CE) in order to contribute to EU strategies aiming at transforming the EU into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.

Taking into account that the EU is aiming to transform Europe into a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy, the Environment Directorate General of the European Commission (‘DG Environment’) has an Eco-innovation Action Plan (EcoAP) which recent goals have come closer to the concept of Circular Economy. In order to evaluate the eco-innovation performance across all EU Member States, a composite index has been developed by the Eco-Innovation Observatory. The aim of the index is to capture the different aspects of eco-innovation by applying 16 indicators grouped into five dimensions: eco-innovation inputs, eco-innovation activities, eco-innovation outputs, resource efficiency and socio-economic outcomes.

The embrace project includes seven different European Mediterranean countries: Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and Slovenia with significant needs and differences. The Eco-innovation performance was rated within the embrace project. A snap-shot of the strategies in each country/region is reflected in the tabel below;

Country	General landscape	Strategies / action plans / steps toward CE[1]
Slovenia	In the last two years the Slovenian Government significantly strengthened its support and activities related with circular change.	- Roadmap towards the Circular Economy in Slovenia (2018).
Italy	Within its best practices, Italy is pioneering voluntary agreements, and has one of the highest levels of EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) and Eco-labels in the EU. Other areas where eco-innovations are progressing well include recycling and bioeconomy, in particularly in food and beverages industries.	- Towards a Model of Circular Economy for Italy - Overview and Strategic Framework (2017). - Law n. 221 of 28 December 2015 “Collegato Ambientale”.
Spain	Public policy support for eco-innovation consists of a mix of first and second-generation policies and measures addressing technologies and resources for pollution control and energy efficiency. Eco-innovation is generally embedded in national and regional policies targeting resource efficiency, environmental innovations, clean technologies and sustainable development.	- Public consultation on a draft Circular Economy Strategy (2018). - Spanish Bioeconomy strategy – 2030 Horizon. - National Waste Plan (PEMAR) (2016-2022). - Aragon: Plan GIRA (2018-2022) Road map on Waste management. - Aragon: Strategy for Climate Change and Clean Energy (EACCEL).
Portugal	The years 2016 and 2017 represent a breakthrough in the Portuguese Circular Economy landscape. The Portuguese Government launched several instruments to support the transition to the Circular Economy, namely open calls supported by the Fundo Ambiental and the Plano de Ação para a Economia Circular em Portugal 2017-2020 (Action Plan for the Circular Economy in Portugal 2014-2020).	- Leading the transition: a Circular Economy action plan for Portugal (2017).
France	Numerous laws and initiatives in France, such as the roadmap for Circular Economy (2018), the Law for the Social and Solidarity Economy (2014) and the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act (2015) have strengthened the organizations involved in the Circular Economy and the solidarity and social economy.	- 2015-2020 national strategy for ecological transition to sustainable development that supports knowledge production, research and innovation.
Greece	Environmental policy in Greece focuses on the promotion of renewable energies and energy efficiency measures that can promote eco-innovations. The country benefits from its significant natural capital in renewable energies (solar, wind, tidal), growth in green and alternative tourism and innovation in agriculture and the food industry.	On February 2018 the Greek Government issued the plan of the National Strategy on Circular Economy, which was set on public consultation. This process concluded on June 2018 and the National Strategy on Circular Economy will be submitted to the European Commission by the end of 2018.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Do not have any Strategy on Circular Economy yet.	An integrated policy framework to promote Circular Economy does not exist.

This provided the overall base in order to start drawing the Projects tools, methods and ways of integration into regional, national and med-area level. The main tool utilised is the embrace toolkit, which consists of 18 tools. Here's an overview;

Circle the Knowledge

Among the main outcomes of embrace prosject is to familiarize, raise awareness, train and support SMEs and other qudraple-helix stakeholders in ways to move towards cirular economy. An wide range of events is implemented, varying from introductory sessions to circlar economy to circular business plan development. So far, more than 35 events were held on the MED area.

The main reason is that due to the so many things going around the circular economy, many of us feel confused about the issue of circular economy. This is why we say;