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sustainable built environment

: Published: 16 March 2018

The HOOP project – Hub of circular cities bOOsting Platform to foster investments for the valorisation of urban biowaste and wastewater – is about investing in local initiatives to extract valuable resources from urban biowaste and wastewater in order to make innovative bio-based products.

Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, 2020 - 2024

Highlights

The HOOP Network of Cities and Regions counts more than 100 members that, in this last part of the project, will be involved in many exchange activities such as monthly online webinars, national workshops in the Lighthouses territories, one-to-one meetings with the HOOP technical experts and especially the HOOP Cities and Policy Conference, which will be held in Brussels on 4^th - 5^th June 2024. It's not too late to be part of the Network and have access to all the services designed for the HOOP members. All the information about the HOOP Network is available here.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

The HOOP Project will help to unlock bio-based investments and deploy local bio economies in Europe through a systemic and cross-cutting approach. It will offer Project Development Assistance to a group of 8 lighthouse cities and city clusters - with a variety of sizes, geographical distribution throughout Europe and socio-economic contexts - to build the technical, economic, financial and legal expertise needed to develop concrete investments to valorise Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste or Urban Wastewater Sludge with the aim of obtaining safe and sustainable bio-based products.

The project’s key objectives are:

Develop PDA for 8 European cities focusing on biowaste and/or sludge;
Involve local stakeholders for each lighthouse city;
Create a network of « follower cities » that can benefit from targeted information and peer-review processes.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

The HOOP project will focus on developing Project Development Assistance to 8 lighthouse cities and regions, to help them unlock biobased investments and deply their local bioeconomies. Each lighthouse will develop and implement these plans by involving local stakeholders. Besides, the HOOP Project will feature the HOOP Urban Circular Bioeconomy Hub, an online platform to foster knowledge exchange and replication in cities across Europe.

ACR+ will develop a network of follower cities and regions interested in moving forward with their local bioeconomy and biowaste strategy. Follower cities will be able to interact with each other and with the lighthouse cities and regions, taking advantage of the Urban Circular Bioeconomy Hub. Follower cities will also be invited to share their perspective and experience, and engage in workshops and local events, so that they can benefit from the project’s finding and replicate the successful practices.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

HOOP´s project leader is CETENMA, Asociación Empresarial Centro Tecnológico de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente de la Región de Murcia (ES) and its project partners are:

ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (BE)
ITENE, Instituto Tecnológico del Embalaje, Transporte y Logística (ES)
SAV, S.A. Agricultores de la Vega de Valencia (ES)
Draxis, Draxis Environmental S.A. (GR)
Nafigate, Nafigate Corporation, A.S. (CZ)
CETAQUA, Fundación Centro Gallego de Investigaciones del Agua (ES)
R4L, Research4Life B.V. (NL)
G!E, Greenovate Europe (BE)
SfC, Science for Change, S.L. (ES)
2GOOUT, Sustentepopeia Unipessoal, Lda (PT)
CSCP, Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production gGmbH (GE)
RdA, RdA Climate Solutions Unipessoal Lda (PT)
BaxCo, Bax & Company (NL)
SBE, Sara Bedin (IT)
SAVONIA UAS, SavoniaRammattikorkeakoulu oy (Kuopio) (FI)
BIR, BIR AS (Bergen) (NO)
Almere, Municipality of Almere (NL)
Lazio, Associazione Regionale dei Comuni del Lazio (IT)
LIPOR*, Servicio Intermunicipalizado Gestao Residuos do Grande Porto (PT)
CluBE, Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia (GR)
Murcia, Ayuntamiento de Murcia (ES)
AWM, Abfallwirtschaftsbetriebe Münster (waste management department of the city of Münster) (GE)

* ACR+ member

More information:
Jean-Benoît Bel
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: Published: 16 March 2018

foodrus The FOODRUS project – an innovative collaborative circular food system to reduce food waste and losses in the agri-food chain – aims to develop and implement a circular food approach through a collaborative network based on the use of the ICT technologies to reduce food losses and waste along the agri-food value chain.

Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, 2020 - 2024

Highlights

The partners of the FOODRUS and CO-FRESH projects held their final events in Brussels this week, exploring and discussing their results, innovative solutions, and collaborative efforts that will shape the future of food systems. The Final Conference was livestreamed on the FOODRUS YouTube Channel and can be watched back here. All the slides from the event will be made available on the project website.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

FOODRUS strategy has been built on the basis of the three fundamental pillars of food sovereignty (Democracy, Health & Culture and Empowerment) to undertake Food Waste Prevention challenge being Circular Economy a mandatory model from which to generate, implement and replicate subsequent solutions of any type, in different value chains and at different scales. The reasoned application of these basic principles where FoodRUs strategy is applied, will assure resilient and sustainable local and regional Bioecosystems thanks to a multi-actor and multidisciplinary approach.

FOODRUS will deploy 23 technological, social, financial, ethical, educational, political, labelling and organizational innovative solutions involving the mobilization and active participation of more than 40 actors to overcome the specific challenges of the selected Value Chains and follower regions consisting on: experts on agro-industry, LCA , social innovation and economy, sensitisation , culinary arts, nutrition, labelling, fiscality and ICT tools; municipalities; policy makers; ethical finance organizations, stakeholders of the entire food value chains (producers, farmers, retailers, packaging and logistics services, HORECA, consumers associations and communities); waste managers; entrepreneurs; ONGs; Food Banks; social kitchens; educational centres and civil associations. FoodRUs will screen 3 value chains focused in 3 specific types of food in Europe:

Cross-regional Spanish pilot focused on vegetables and IV range salads
Danish pilot analysing the value chain for meat and fish
Slovak pilot analysing the bread value chain

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

ACR+ will define a strategy to engage with Follower Regions that will replicate some features and outputs of the project. Six follower regions are already included in the project 5 as partner and 1 as support letter. In order to ensure the effective engagement of local stakeholders, two types of replication events will be implemented. The objective is to engage regional stakeholders to propose and discuss local solutions, and to co-construct a roadmap for the implementation of the FoodRUs approaches and solutions in the medium-term after the end of the project.

ACR+ will set up, manage and convene the Advisory Board and Policy Board, drawn from relevant organisations active /expert in the agri-food value chain interested in the project, with the aim of providing feedback on the project main features and recommendations.

ACR+ will gather information from all consortium partners and other experts to develop a set of policy recommendations addressing EU/national levels. ACR+ will capitalise on exchanges with follower regions to highlight the current legal and economic barriers preventing local and regional stakeholders from improving or implementing innovative solutions regarding food waste, as well as how policy change could help address them.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

FOODRUS´ project leader is UD*, Universidad de la Iglesia de Deusto Entidad Religiosa (ES) and its project partners are:

ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (BE)
GEO, Geonardo Environmental Technologiesltd (HU)
ENG, Engineering - ingegneria informatica SPA (IT)
AIN, Asociacion de la Industria Navarra (ES)
AU, Aarhus Universitet (DK)
FEBEA, Federation Europeenne de Finances et Banques Ethiques et Alternatives (BE)
BCC, Basque Culinary Center Fundazioa (ES)
G!E, Greenovate Europe (BE)
HAZI, Fundacion Hazi Fundazioa (ES)
Florette, Florette Iberica SL (ES)
EROSKI, EROSKI Scoop (ES)
CORREOS, Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telegrafos SA SME (ES)
Zamudio, Ayuntamiento de Zamudio (NL)
ELIKA, Elika Nekazaritzako Elikagaien Segurtasunarako Euskal Fundazioa (ES)
EDER, Consorcio para las Estrategias de Desarrollo de la Ribera de Navarra (ES)
Jespers,Jespers Torvekokken APS (DK)
FRISKE FISK, FRISKE FISK A/S (DK)
ÖX, OXNEHOLM A/S (DK)
Hørkram, Horkram Foodservice A/S (DK)
SUA, Slovenska Polnohospodarska Univerzita V Nitre (SK)
NEDU, NEW EDU NO (SK)
TBS, TBS AS (SK)
Free Food, Free Food Jedlo Pre Vsetkych (SK)
ADRVEST, Regional Development Agency of the West Region Romania (RO)
PCCI, Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BG)
TMG, Business Upper Austria - oo Wirtschaftsagentur Gmbh (AT)
NFCSO, Nemzeti Elelmiszerlancbiztonsagi Hivatal (HU)
HALANDRI, Dimos Chalandriou (GR)

* ACR+ member

More information:

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: Published: 06 March 2018

Press contact

Gaëlle Colas, Communications manager

gc-at-acrplus.org
tel +32 (0)2 234 65 00

Download ACR+ logo here:

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: Published: 16 March 2018

ACR+ is part of a consortium working for ESPON (European Territorial Observatory Network, aiming to inspire policy-making with territorial evidence) on a new study named CIRCTER — Circular Economy and Territorial Consequence.

Project co-funded by the European Commission under the EPSON 2020 Cooperation Programme, 2017 - 2019.

Highlights

The consortium published its final report presenting extensive information about: a territorial definition of the circular economy; the monitoring of circular economy at sub-national levels; evidence from six CIRCTER case studies including three ACR+ members: Zero Waste Scotland, Maribor and Brussels Environment; and adapted policy recommendations. A series of maps illustrating the territorial dimension of the circular economy is also enclosed.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

The main objective of this service on Circular Economy is to provide evidence on the territorial dimension of the transition towards a Circular Economy and to provide evidence on local and regional patterns and flows of materials, including resources and waste. The analysis of the territorial dimension aims to cover changes in resource use, design, production, distribution, consumption and waste management. In addition, it aims to provide input to European regions and cities on their potential for implementing steps towards a circular economy.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

ACR+ mainly worked on a relatively comprehensive but not exhaustive review of policies that had been contributing to the transition towards a circular economy on different administrative levels: EU, national, regional and local. The second main task of ACR+ is to collaborate on the CIRCTER Case Studies that are aimed at taking stock and grasping what has been done and what can be done in relation to implementing a circular economy in European regions, cities and metropolitan areas. Three out of the six cases analysed are taken from ACR+ members: Scotland (UK), Brussels-Capital Region (BE) and Maribor (SL).

FINAL REPORT

FINAL REPORT

The CIRCTER Final Report is delivered as a set of 13 documents, all of which are available for download from the project website. The Main Report provides an overview of the main findings from the different research tasks in the CIRCTER project and delivers selected policy messages with European coverage. The report offers a territorial definition of the circular economy; insights into the available statistics on material and waste patterns and flows and their interpretation, alongside new territorial evidence on both aspects; a sectoral characterisation of the circular economy at regional level (NUTS-2), including data on turnover and jobs; key findings from the CIRCTER case studies; a systemic interpretation of the circular economy that works as a knowledge-integration mechanism for the entire report; an analysis of the most relevant circular economy policies and strategies at various territorial levels; a subset of policy recommendations focusing in particular on territorial and cohesion policies; and suggestions for further research.

The Final Report also delivered 11 annexes:

A territorial definition of the circular economy;
Material and waste patterns and flows in Europe: Data regionalization; and Territorial analysis;
A sectoral characterization of regional circular economies in Europe;
Case Study synthesis report;
Individual case study reports;
A system’s perspective on the circular economy;
Towards place-sensitive policies for circular economy development;
Policy fiches;
Measuring urban circularity based on a territorial perspective;
CIRCTER Policy Guide.

In addition, the project made available on the ESPON Database Portal (https://www.espon.eu/espon-database) the CIRCTER dataset composed of a set of nine territorial indicators computed at two different time cuts.

PARTNERS INVOLVED