On 10 - 11 December 2020 European Perspectives Foundation and the University of Mining and Geology (UMG) “St. Ivan Rilski” hosted the fourth interregional REDUCES meeting. The event took place online. The meeting was opened by Prof. Dr. Eng. Ivaylo Koprev, Rector of the University of Mining and Geology "St. Ivan Rilski”, who presented the University and its work in the direction of circular economy.
The overall objective of the meeting was to highlight the regional development issue in Bulgaria as reflected in the policy instrument and in the context of the shared platforms business model. In addition all partner regions learned from each other from case studies how shared platform business models are applied, their environmental impacts and their development potential in each region. The online event was attended by more than 40 participants from the partner regions.
The morning session on December 10 was dedicated to the key developments in Bulgaria in the field of circular economy – strategies and national plans. Mr. Anton Peychev from the Ministry of Environment and Water presented the current situation of circular economy and single use plastics challenges in Bulgaria. Tsvetomir Kalchev, Manager Magisterium Ltd in his capacity as beneficiary under OP Environment 2014 – 2021 told the story of a newly awarded pilot project for establishment of shared platform for smart waste management in Bulgaria.
Shared platforms and smart solutions in energy sector were presented by Vesela Malinowska, Vice President of Marketing ADD Bulgaria.
The morning program included also two partner regions shared platforms examples from South West of Finland and Maramures, Romania.
From Finland, Tomi Virtanen, owner of Doerz, presented a platform for offer and purchase of local expertise when traveling. Local guides, local experiences, better visits, this is what the service platform for authentic travel experiences offers.
The afternoon on December 10, 2020 offer the participants in the Sofia Interregional Meeting four more examples showed how shared platform business models can boost the circular economy in the EU regions.
Matmap from Valencia offers decentralized platform for the sale of recovered ceramics for construction. It matches business with ceramics waste & customers to buy it.
Insert - market place for reusable building materials, trees and plants was presented from Utrecht. The sharing platform has great impact reduction of waste.
Sharing Platforms are helping to move us from ownership to usership as demonstrated by @ZoomEV from United Kingdom. The platform is for sharing electrical vehicles through Peer to Peer.
The participants heard also about CozZo App, an innovation from Bulgaria to help with food waste. CozZo provides a food, home and personal supplies manager that helps you to avoid food waste by tracking what food you have and when it expires.
The presentations can be found here.
The discussion after the regional knowledge exchanges lead to general learning for action plans to support environmentally sustainable business models and effective policy instruments for each region. An important role was ascribed to for government to create and stimulate the development of shared platforms in their local communities and regions.
On the second day of the Interregional meeting a workshop on development of Action Plans was featured by Euro Perspectives Foundation team.
The main points of discussions were: activation and stakeholder involvement; determination of region’s potential and priorities; definition of the activities in the Action plan.
The session set aside time for each partner to start thinking about their own action plan, to identify possible good practices for transfer so that to improve the progress of circular economy in their regions
Vihra Andonova
EPF
[email protected]
