Press release 10/03/2020
On 10 and 11 March, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) hosts the second interregional meeting of the project “REthinking Sustainable Development in European Regions by Using Circular Economy Business ModelS” (REDUCES, Rethinking sustainable development in European regions by using of circular economy business models).
Financed by Interreg Europe, REDUCES aims to identify the best business models in 6 European regions - Southwest Finland, Valencia (Spain), Manchester (United Kingdom), Utrecht (Netherlands), Maramures (Romania) and Bulgaria - and to investigate and critically assess its climate impacts and sustainability.
Javier Orozco, researcher at the Institute of Materials Technology (ITM-UPV) and manager at UPV for the project, states that it “addresses a transcendental issue for the fight against climate change, which will take shape in Valencia with a new regulation in the construction that will reduce the carbon footprint in the sector between 10 and 20% ”.
Share, lease and reuse
Circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Consumption is based on the use of services: sharing, leasing and reusing. The new system challenges countries and regions to develop and build new business models that can be used to respond, among other things, to the global climate crisis.
The objective of REDUCES, which will continue until January 2023, is to find suggestions to guide each city or region towards sustainable circular economy businesses.
