On 12 May 2021 we organized our sixth key stakeholder meeting in the region of Utrecht (NL). Due to the everlasting COVID-19 restrictions we again met, presented and discussed online.
Researchers from HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht started the meeting by informing the key stakeholders about the project’s progress. We mentioned the good practices on ‘Resource efficiency and recycling’ that were presented during the online 5th interregional meeting on 20 and 21 April , organized from Maramures (Romania).
We explained this was the last meeting for sharing good practices and summarized a selection of interesting lessons that were identified in the study reports thus far. In addition to the former success factors (Company cultures/values; Leadership/individuals within the company; Customer Green consumer preferences/customer base/customer profile; and Availability of relevant CE funding/local green award schemes/grants), we gave some insight in initiatives from other regions, such as: the role of public partnership in private initiatives in Finland; Science park start-ups + partnerships in Spain; and the strong network and stakeholder collaboration in Romania and Bulgaria.
The core of the meeting was organized around discussing the first version of a Regional Action Plan ‘Circular Economy (CE) in Utrecht’. In the end, the aim is to promote and integrate circular business models in the region’s CE policy. This will lead to a draft plan by the summer of 2021, that will be finalized after a peer review process by other regions involved in the Reduces project. On this day (12 May) we invited a broader stakeholder group as an expert panel on relevant action concerning stimulating circularity in Utrecht.
We consecutively discussed the three action themes suggested in the first draft of the Action Plan. For each theme we gave a short introduction, presented main initiatives and discussed what further actions could be relevant. The three themes are:
- A Climate for Circular Business
- Circular Hub Utrecht
- Implementing circularity in education porgrammes
The output from the expert panel from regional stakeholders is valuable in developing our draft Action Plan ’Circular Economy in Utrecht’. This will be used in a peer review process with other stakeholders from the Reduces project, and will be developed in a final Action Plan.
Evert-Jan Velzing
University of Applied Sciences Utrecht
[email protected]
0031614635718
