ProCirc

ProCirc – Circular Procurement: Accelerate circular economy through procurement power, alliance- and capacity building – is a 3.5 year Interreg North Sea Region project that started in 2018, co-funded by the Regional Development Fund of the European Union. It is led by a consortium of 11 partners, including ACR+, representing both public authorities and research institutes.

Project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, 2018 - 2022.

Highlights

Led by Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Waterworks) and involving ACR+ and its members Zero Waste Scotland, OVAM, and Aalborg, the ProCirc project had its kick-off meeting in May 2019. ACR+’ role is to support the other partners’ activities, in particular: gathering and developing criteria and monitoring instruments to facilitate the tendering of circular solutions; training of public procurers to include circularity in their procurement; establishing Communities of Practice gathering experts on circular procurement as well as creating and supporting opportunities for buyers and suppliers to dialogue regarding circular solutions; implementing pilot procurement actions aiming to reduce CO2 emissions, the need for virgin material and waste generation; developing roadmaps for circular procurement and networking of circular procurement initiatives to upscale the procurement process.

ACR+ started to gather information from its members about circular procurement strategies and practices and to inform them about the possibility to follow the project and participate as observers in ProCirc’s activities.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

ProCirc is a transnational project in the North Sea region set up to experiment, implement and learn how circular economy and procurement can benefit the region. Procuring organisations can stimulate circular economy using their demand to change markets. This will not only have a direct impact on the business models; innovation and economic opportunities that suppliers will create, but also on decreasing carbon emissions and the use of resources and closing product and material loops.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

To fully benefit from circular opportunities and to contribute to the international development of circular economy, ProCirc will conduct 30 pilots to demonstrate procurement opportunities. Each pilot aims to reduce 20-25% raw materials, waste and CO2 emissions. Insights and tools regarding specific sectors like construction, furniture and ICT will be disseminated in the North Sea region by creating an active transnational network on the topic.

ACR+ members are encouraged to express their interest in the project if they wish to be informed about its developments and if they want to be associated with some of the project activities.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

ProCirc’s project coordinator is Rijkswaterstaat (Ministry of Infrastructure and waterworks, NL) and its project partners are:

OVAM*, Public Waste Agency of Flanders – Circular Flanders (BE)
Business in the Community (UK)
ZWS*, Zero Waste Scotland (UK)
Netværk for Bæredygtig Erhvervsudvikling NordDanmark (Network for Sustainability Business Development Northern Denmark) (DK)
Kamp C (BE)
Direktoratet for forvaltning og ikt (Agency for public management and egovernment) (NO)
Kolding Municipality (DK)
ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
CLEAN (DK)
City of Malmo (SV)

* ACR+ member

More information:
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