Project description
Circular Economy (CE) solutions are becoming more relevant than ever and gaining momentum in industrial practice. In order to assess the transition towards CE-based industrial systems, numerous indicators have emerged. However, there is a research gap when it comes to the integration of these indicators across different system levels, namely micro (product/process), meso (eco-industrial parks and industrial symbiosis districts) and macro (national/regional) levels. The ability of these indicators to adequately assess and track CE performance is also very much dependent on their placement within a suitable monitoring framework. However, the predominance of environmental indicators, the lack of consideration for the social dimension, and the absence of meso-level indicators make up for ineffective frameworks. A critical component of CE-systems, the meso-level incorporates an understanding of supply chains and the relationships between organisations. Measurement of CE performance at the meso-level aids the formation of more efficient arrangements between micro and macro system levels in which resource use is optimised. Yet this link is widely overlooked in contemporary frameworks yielding suboptimal results, with high risks of rebound effects. RECaST aims to work on this gap by devising a novel monitoring framework that will offer a promising meso-level link, bridging micro and macro-level indicators. The study would apply a structured methodological approach, scoping the existing indicators and assessing them against a set of criteria defined by employing participatory research methods for stakeholder engagement, and identifying trajectories for CE transition using a hybrid approach leveraging on both top-down public institutions’ interventions and bottom-up industry activities.
International collaborator(s)
Based in St. Gallen (Switzerland), the World Resources Forum (WRF) is an international non-profit organisation mobilizing concerted action to promote sustainability and fairness in the global use of natural resources. WRF has taken part and coordinated several international research projects, mainly funded by the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe initiatives.
WRF has worldwide contacts and partnerships with international stakeholders to collaborate for the co-creation of practical sustainability solutions with a particular focus on resource circularity. They will be providing access to these different stakeholders from the industry and policy-making organisations, providing an ideal platform to help drive the research forward. WRF will provide secondment opportunities for the PhD candidate. The partnership will also bolster the project through the provision of industry-oriented training for the PhD student. Secondments will offer opportunities for the student to acquire real-world data to conceptualise, formulate and validate the model and methods developed throughout the different stages of the project. The conceptual framework developed as part of the study will be tested and validated with the help of WRF for its policy and industrial implementation. WRF will facilitate the arrangements for interviews with the different stakeholders from the industry/policy organisation(s) to be targeted within the scope of the study for the participatory phase.
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