Resource Conservation + Circular Economy
Raw materials form the backbone of modern economies and are key ingredients for future development. Their use has severe environmental and social impacts, from extraction to disposal. Therefore, resource conservation aims at establishing a circular economy, which keeps products and raw materials in economically valuable loops, shifting from waste to resources.
Ecologic Institute's inter- and transdisciplinary research on resource conservation and the circular economy covers areas such as resource efficiency and productivity; sustainable production and consumption; raw materials management; waste prevention, reuse and recycling; and decoupling resource use and waste generation from socioeconomic development.
Our work builds on methods from empirical social research, action research, and transformation research. The team undertakes indicator-based qualitative and quantitative assessments of policy instruments and policy mixes on resource use. Furthermore, the team investigates trends, dynamics, and processes of change that could foster reductions in resource use. Closely involving stakeholders via participatory processes, the team identifies and co-designs policy and societal options to act.
Our team works with partners from academia, industry, civil society, and governments, from the municipal to the European level. We believe that cooperation is central to deriving societally relevant and robust findings to help drive forward resource conservation and the circular economy.
Resource use is growing worldwide and expected to continue to rise. Waste generation as well as environmental impacts associated with resource extraction, in particular emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), biodiversity loss and water stress, are also set to increase.
Key drivers for skyrocketing resource extraction encompass a growing world population with increasing income and changing consumption patterns. Further, infrastructures, value chains, institutions and governance systems rooted in linear thinking produce path dependencies. For example, a continued increase in natural resource use and its associated environmental impacts put at risk reaching both the Paris climate target and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is not compatible with planetary space.
Therefore, action on reducing humankind's resource use and the associated ecological footprint is paramount. The Circular Economy constitutes a promising avenue for such a needed reduction.
The circular economy (CE) stands for an economy, which maintains the value of materials for as long as possible while minimising waste generation and emissions as well as generating employment by closing material loops along life cycles of products and services. The CE concept's life-cycle thinking helps to implement the waste hierarchy laid down in the European Waste Framework Directive by focusing on waste prevention (e.g. by designing out waste) as well as re-use and repair, and subsequently also recycling. For the CE to work, it needs to integrate actors and value chains from design to processing and production to consumption and after-use. Only then, can the CE exploit its potential to reduce the quantities of natural resources used and associated environmental impacts while maximizing well-being and utility. The CE holds promising potential to help achieve international climate targets in a cost-efficient way. Around one quarter of global GHG emissions are directly linked to industrial production of materials, with production of steel, cement, aluminum and plastics constituting the main source of industrial GHG emissions. Here, CE approaches can support decarburization via dematerialization. For instance, using secondary materials and designing products with alternative, low-carbon or renewable feedstock materials could reduce global CO2 emissions. Hence, the CE can be considered a key strategy to help achieving climate targets and the SDGs.
Overall, there is progress towards the CE. There are trends of diverting waste from incineration and landfilling, as the least circular and bottom-most approaches of the waste hierarchy to recycling. However, only a small fraction of material use in the European economy is sourced from secondary materials. Hence, in order to stay within planetary boundaries a system transition to mainstream and scale-up CE approaches is needed.
Implementing the CE concept systemically requires a shift from linear to circular systems, thus calling for system transformation in production, consumption and governance systems as well as in society. Hence, transitioning to the CE necessitates institutional, organizational, policy, social and technological innovation to go hand-in-hand. This presents a formidable challenge to existing systems and their (re-)design for transformation. Therefore, we need to improve our understanding of the potential economic, environmental and social (co-)benefits and impacts of such a transition. It is necessary to develop promising interventions in order to facilitate and trigger this transformation.
On the European level, and on the level of most of the EU member states, there exists a well-established and partly long-standing landscape of policies and legislation that aims at fostering the CE. However, a systemic, integrating and coherent policy seems lacking and horizontal policy integration between different policy areas is in its infancy.
Ecologic Institute focuses on analyzing trends, drivers and policies affecting the transition to a circular economy.
Contact
Related Topics
Selected Projects for Resource Conservation + Circular Economy
Trend Analysis Resource Policy
- Duration
-
Sep 2017 - Feb 2021
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Identifying and Assessing Interactions between International Climate and Resource Policy (ICARE)
- Duration
-
Oct 2018 - Oct 2021
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Decarbonisation Benefits of Sectoral Circular Economy Actions
- Duration
-
Aug 2019 - Feb 2020
- Funding
-
European Environment Agency (EEA), international
Global Material Flows and Demand-supply Forecasting for Mineral Strategies (MinFuture)
- Duration
-
Dec 2016 - Nov 2018
- Funding
-
European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), international
Measuring the IMPACTS of the Transition to the CIRCULAR Economy (CIRCULAR IMPACTS)
- Duration
-
Oct 2016 - Sep 2018
- Funding
-
European Commission, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), international
Models, Potentials and Long-Term Scenarios for Resource Efficiency (SimRess)
- Duration
-
Sep 2013 - Mar 2017
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Policies Supporting the German Resource Efficiency Programme ProgRess
- Duration
-
Jan 2016 - May 2019
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Activities and Measures to Foster Re-use of Used Goods in Berlin (Re-Use Berlin 2019)
- Duration
-
Feb - Dec 2019
- Funding
Transformation to Climate Resilient and Resource-conserving Infrastructure (TRAFIS)
- Duration
-
Jan 2016 - Nov 2019
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Transformation Towards Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructures (TRAFIS II)
- Duration
-
Oct 2019 - Nov 2022
- Funding
-
Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Scientific Coordination of Research Projects on a Sustainable Economy
- Duration
-
Oct 2015 - Dec 2019
- Funding
-
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany German Aerospace Center, DLR Bonn (DLR), Germany
DYNAmic policy MIXes for Absolute Decoupling of Environmental Impact of EU Resource Use from Economic Growth (DYNAMIX)
- Duration
-
Sep 2012 - Mar 2016
- Funding
-
European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), international
Scientific Coordination of Research Projects on a Sustainable Economy
- Duration
-
Oct 2015 - Dec 2019
- Funding
-
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany German Aerospace Center, DLR Bonn (DLR), Germany
Selected Publications for Resource Conservation + Circular Economy
Publications in peer-reviewed journals
Meyer, M.; Hirschnitz-Garbers, M.; Distelkamp, M. (2018). Contemporary Resource Policy and Decoupling Trends – Lessons Learnt from Integrated Model-Based Assessments. Sustainability 2018, 10(6), 1858; doi:10.3390/su10061858
Vasileios Rizos, Arno Behrens, Wytze van der Gaast, Erwin Hofman, Anastasia Ioannou, Terri Kafyeke, Alexandros Flamos, Roberto Rinaldi, Sotiris Papadelis, Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers and Corrado Topi, "Implementation of Circular Economy Business Models by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Barriers and Enablers", Sustainability 2016, 8(11), 1212, doi:10.3390/su8111212
Ekvall, T., Hirschnitz-Garbers, M., Eboli, F. and Śniegocki, A. (2016). A Systemic and Systematic Approach to the Development of a Policy Mix for Material Resource Efficiency. Sustainability 2016, 8(4), 373; doi:10.3390/su8040373.
Hirschnitz-Garbers, Martin; Adrian Tan; Albrecht Gradmann and Tanja Srebotnjak 2015: “Key drivers for unsustainable resource use – categories, effects and policy pointers”. Journal of Cleaner Production.
Project Reports and Briefs
Jacob, Klaus; Rafael Postpischil unter Mitarbeit von Lisa Graaf; Friedhelm Keimeyer, Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers (2019) Governance einer effizienten und nachhaltigen Ressourcennutzung. Abschlussbericht im Projekt Ressourcenpolitik 2 (PolRess 2). www.ressourcenpolitik.de.
Hinzmann, Mandy; Ariel Araujo Sosa; Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers (2019): Stärkung der Kreislaufführung von mineralischen Baustoffen mittels freiwilliger Selbstverpflichtung - Akteursperspektiven auf Bedarfe und Optionen. Akteursanalyse im Projekt Ressourcenpolitik 2 (PolRess 2). www.ressourcenpolitik.de
Hirschnitz-Garbers, Martin, Susanne Langsdorf, Ullrich Lorenz 2018: Ressourcenschonung als Zukunftsaufgabe – Ansatzpunkte für eine systemische Ressourcenpolitik. Umweltbundesamt: Dessau-Roßlau.
Hirschnitz-Garbers, Martin (2018). Co-creation in Sustainability Science. Challenges and potential ways forward in implementing co-creation in European research and innovation funding. RECREATE Project Policy Brief No. 9.
Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers et. al. 2018: Potentiale und Kernergebnisse der Simulationen von Ressourcenschonung(spolitik). Endbericht des Projekts "Modelle, Potentiale und Langfristszenarien für Ressourceneffizienz" (Sim-Ress). UBA Texte 48/2018. Umweltbundesamt: Dessau-Roßlau.
Wunder, Stephanie, Keighley McFarland, Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers, et. al. (2018): Food waste prevention and valorisation: relevant EU policy areas. Report of the REFRESH Project, D3.3 Review of EU policy areas with relevant impact on food waste prevention and valorization.
Fischer, Susanne; Mandy Hinzmann and Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers (2017). Stepping up Waste Prevention – Challenges and Opportunities for National Waste Prevention Programmes. RECREATE Project Policy Brief No. 7.
Jacob, Klaus et al. (2016): Handlungsbedarfe und Optionen für eine innovationsorientierte Ressourcenpolitik in planetaren Grenzen. PolRess Policy Papier.
Citation final report: Hirschnitz-Garbers, M., Hinzmann, M., Watkins, E., ten Brink, P., Milios, L. and Soleille, S. (2015). A framework for Member States to support business in improving its resource efficiency. Final Report for DG Environment, November 2015.
Citation annexes: Hirschnitz-Garbers, M., Hinzmann, M., Watkins, E., ten Brink, P., Milios, L., Soleille, S. et al. (2015). A framework for Member States to support business in improving its resource efficiency. Annexes to the Final Report for DG Environment, November 2015.
Citation executive summary: Hirschnitz-Garbers, M. and Hinzmann, M. (2015). A framework for Member States to support business in improving its resource efficiency. Executive Summary to the Final Report for DG Environment, November 2015.
Hirschnitz-Garbers, M. und Langsdorf, S. (2015): Informationskampagnen für Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten – Effekte und Ausrichtungen. Vertiefungsanalyse 4 im Projekt Ressourcenpolitik: Analyse der ressourcenpolitischen Debatte und Entwicklung von Politikoptionen (PolRess). www.ressourcenpolitik.de
Susanne Langsdorf and Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers 2014: Looking to the Future: Trend Report for a Forward-Looking Resource Policy. Umweltbundesamt, Dessau, commissioned.
Olfert, A.; Schiller, G.; Brunnow, B.; Walther, J.; Hirschnitz-Garbers, M.; Hölscher, K.; Wittmayer, J. (2020). Prozessbegleitende Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung als Werkzeug für ein nachhaltigkeitsorientiertes Infrastrukturmanagement. InfrastrukturRecht 17 (2020) 1, p. 17-20
Guske, A.-L.; Jacob, K.; Hirschnitz-Garbers, M.; Peuckert, J.; Schridde, S.; Stinner, S.; Wolff, F.; Zahrnt, D.; Ziesemer, F. (2019). Stories that Change Our World? Narratives of the Sustainable Economy. Sustainability, 11, 6163.
Selected Events for Resource Conservation + Circular Economy
Workshop:Re-Use Berlin – New Perspectives for Used Goods
- Date
-
21 October 2019
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany
Workshop:The Challenges and the Significance of the Involvement of Employees and Users in Corporate Sustainability Innovations
- Date
-
26 June 2019
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany Effizienz-Agentur NRW (EFA), Germany Effizienznetz Rheinland-Pfalz (EffNet), Germany
Workshop:The Challenges and the Significance of Bioplastics as Packaging Materials in the Food Industry
- Date
-
17 June 2019
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany Effizienz-Agentur NRW (EFA), Germany
Workshop:Decarbonisation – 100 % Renewable Energy and More: Transformation pathways to a greenhouse gas neutral and resource efficient society
- Date
-
17 October 2017
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany
Conference:3rd European Resources Forum 2016
- Date
-
9 - 10 November 2016
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany
Conference:National Resources Forum 2016
- Date
-
11 November 2016
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany
Workshop:Role and Challenges of SMEs in a Green(er) Economy – Barriers, Needs and Policy Options
- Date
-
28 November 2014
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany The Association of German Engineers (VDI), Germany
Discussion:Strategies and Options for Resource Policy in Germany - Parliamentary Breakfast
- Date
-
6 June 2014
- Organizer
-
Ecologic Institute, Germany