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The Circularity Gap Report: Friesland is a joint initiative led by Circulair Friesland, the Province of Friesland, and Circle Economy to track Friesland’s progress toward a more circular economy while also serving as a model for other regions. As the organizations behind this dashboard, we aim to provide structured indicators to measure key aspects of circularity—such as resource efficiency, waste reduction, and circular jobs—alongside on-the-ground case studies that highlight innovative local initiatives. This approach helps policymakers, businesses, and communities assess progress, address challenges, and accelerate Friesland’s transition to a circular economy. In doing so, Friesland is working toward meeting the national goal of reducing primary resource use by 50% by 2030 and achieving a fully circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050.

Beyond Friesland, this dashboard is designed as a replicable tool that can be implemented in other regions worldwide. By fostering comprehensive comparisons, it enables knowledge sharing and collaboration, allowing regions to learn from one another and scale successful strategies. In addition to tracking current trends, the monitor offers forward-looking recommendations to drive circular development—both within Friesland and beyond—helping to create a more sustainable global economy.

This case study collection supports the dashboard, in showcasing circular economy projects and initiatives already occurring in the region.

CGR Friesland

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Business case

Producing transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

**End poverty in all its forms and everywhere**

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Since 2015, global poverty reduction was already slowing down and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic reversed three decades of steady progress with the number of people living in extreme poverty increasing for the first time in a generation. Recovery from the pandemic has been slow and uneven as the world is presently facing multiple geopolitical, socioeconomic, and climatic risks. 
Given current trends, 575 million people (nearly 7% of the world’s population) will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 compared to 800 million in 2015 (or 10.8%). 
A surge in action and investment to enhance job opportunities and extend social services to the most excluded is crucial to delivering on the central commitment to ending poverty.
The 2030 Agenda acknowledges that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.


Priority actions on poverty eradication include:
- improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities, and productive resources;
- providing universal access to basic social services;
- progressively developing social protection systems to support those who cannot support themselves;
- empowering people living in poverty and their organizations;
- addressing the disproportionate impact of poverty on women;
- working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
- intensifying international cooperation for poverty eradication.

 For more information and documents on this topic, please visit [this link](https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/povertyeradication)

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal1](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal1)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/poverty-eradication](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/poverty-eradication)

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1. No poverty   

End poverty in all its forms and everywhere

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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**These 17 Goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.**

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, and especially on the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York which let to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed. A major blueprint came out of this: The Sustainable Development Goals: 17 overarching goals—and 169 targets—that governments are aiming to meet by 2030. Significant progress has been made in terms of poverty, health and inequality, but there's still a way to go. This is where the circular economy comes in: by circulating resources multiple times, the circular economy tackles issues of scarcity and allows all to access what they need—without overburdening the earth. If it's implemented in a holistic way—affording attention to social considerations and the fair distribution of resources— it also offers a pathway for achieving the SDGs; and the link between the two is ever-growing. To read more about the link between the SDGs and the circular economy, click [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/blogs/how-the-circular-economy-can-help-us-reach-the-sustainable-development-goals).

It is the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) which provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues. TheDSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
Alongside this, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.

To read more information: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals](https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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BuurtBestuurders

Across the Netherlands, privately owned cars spend an average of 95% of their time parked. For second cars, that number rises to 99%. Especially in rural areas, this leads to significant underuse of valuable resources. The initiative Buurtbestuurders offers an alternative: electric cars shared within the local community. This approach is not only more sustainable and cost-effective, but it also helps strengthen local social ties. While shared cars are increasingly common in urban settings, commercial providers often overlook less densely populated areas due to lower profitability. Buurtbestuurders was launched in response to this gap, driven by the belief that car sharing should also be accessible in villages and smaller towns, including those in Friesland.<img src="https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/buurtbestuurders_1_6b9620c28a.jpg">Photo: Buurtbestuurders The initiative addresses multiple challenges at once: reducing the number of vehicles on the road, cutting CO₂ emissions, and limiting the need for car production. A single well-used shared car can replace up to nine privately owned vehicles. The model draws on local networks and organizations—such as cooperatives, village associations, and community groups—to help introduce car sharing where commercial players are absent. Buurtbestuurders has set an ambitious goal: to place 500 electric shared cars throughout Friesland. In a province with over 312,000 personal vehicles, this would eliminate the need for an estimated 4,500 second cars, making a significant contribution to more sustainable mobility.The initiative is a collaboration between Energie VanOns and Friesland Huur, supported by the Province of Fryslân and the Municipality of Leeuwarden. Friesland Huur supplies the vehicles and manages contracts with local initiators. Energie VanOns provides the charging infrastructure for the electric vehicles. The system runs on a platform developed by WeGo, the leading provider of shared mobility solutions in the Netherlands. The concept is simple and accessible. Through an app, residents can book a car whenever they need one. For those driving fewer than 10,000 kilometers annually, the shared model is often more economical than owning a car. Many users assess their current car costs using tools such as the ANWB cost calculator and budget accordingly for shared use. Buurtbestuurders demonstrates how sustainable, affordable, and community-driven mobility is possible—even in places where traditional market-driven models fall short.

Shared mobility for every village: Buurtbestuurders