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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

Providing specialist services to support consumers, businesses, andgovernments

Professional Services

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

**End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture**

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The number of people facing hunger and food insecurity has been on the rise since 2015, with the pandemic, conflict climate change, and growing inequalities exacerbating the situation. 
In 2015, 589 million people were experiencing hunger, and by 2021, that number had risen to 768 million. 
To achieve zero hunger by 2030, immediate and intensified efforts are required to transform food systems, ensure food security and invest in sustainable agricultural practices.
The Sustainable Development Goal to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (SDG2) recognizes the inter linkages among supporting sustainable agriculture, empowering small farmers, promoting gender equality, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles, tackling climate change, and other issues addressed within the set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Extreme poverty and hunger are predominantly rural, with smallholder farmers and their families making up a very significant proportion of the poor and hungry. Thus, eradicating poverty and hunger is integrally linked to boosting food production, agricultural productivity, and rural incomes.
Land, healthy soils, and water are key inputs into food production, and their growing scarcity in many parts of the world makes it imperative to use and manage them sustainably. Boosting yields on existing agricultural lands, including restoration of degraded lands, through sustainable agricultural practices would also relieve pressure to clear forests for agricultural production. Wise management of scarce water through improved irrigation and storage technologies, combined with the development of new drought-resistant crop varieties, can contribute to sustaining drylands productivity.
Beyond adequate calorie intake, proper nutrition has other dimensions that deserve attention, including micronutrient availability and healthy diets. Unhealthy diets and lifestyles are closely linked to the growing incidence of non-communicable diseases in both developed and developing countries.

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/rural-development](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/rural-development)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/food-security-and-nutrition-and-sustainable-agriculture](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/food-security-and-nutrition-and-sustainable-agriculture)

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2. Zero hunger   

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

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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CIRCO hub

In a world where resources are finite and sustainability is no longer optional, circular entrepreneurship is emerging as a future-proof approach for businesses. But how do you take the first step? That’s exactly what a CIRCO Track offers: a structured, hands-on, three-day program that helps companies redesign their products, services, and business models using circular principles. With expert guidance, real tools, and sector-specific knowledge, participants leave with a practical, ready-to-implement plan for a circular future.&nbsp;What is a CIRCO Track?&nbsp;A CIRCO Track is an interactive design process in which entrepreneurs, designers, and innovators from the same sector collaborate under the guidance of certified CIRCO trainers. Through workshops and peer exchange, they explore questions like:&nbsp;- Where does value loss occur in your value chain?&nbsp;- What circular solutions suit your product?&nbsp;- What would a circular business model look like?&nbsp;- Who do you need to partner with?&nbsp;- And most importantly: how do you make this a reality within your organization?&nbsp;CIRCO Tracks are offered for a wide range of industries, including:&nbsp;- Construction and biobased materials&nbsp;- Plastics and packaging&nbsp;- Consumer goods&nbsp;- Manufacturing and engineering&nbsp;Participants are challenged to reimagine their business—not just from an environmental lens, but from a strategic and competitive perspective. CIRCO is a national program supported by the Dutch government, designed to stimulate the shift towards a circular economy by activating companies and creative professionals. The method is gaining traction both nationally and internationally as a proven approach to help businesses become climate-proof and future-ready.&nbsp;From small family-owned manufacturers to innovative scale-ups, CIRCO Tracks in Fryslân are helping businesses unlock circular potential—not just in what they make, but in how they think.&nbsp;<img src="https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/CIRCO_1_47f9742805.jpg">CIRCO Hub Fryslân: Making circular business concrete for SMEs&nbsp;Since 2021, Vereniging Circulair Friesland (VCF) has been the official CIRCO Hub for the province of Fryslân. That means we organize all CIRCO Tracks and demo sessions in the region, in close collaboration with national CIRCO trainers.&nbsp;“Circular business models offer great opportunities for SMEs. As a regional partner, we make those opportunities tangible by offering CIRCO Tracks to companies in our network,” says Evert Jan van Nijen, Managing Director of VCF.&nbsp;“Every participant leaves with a newly developed business model and a circular product or service design.”&nbsp;Each track brings together 8 to 12 companies from the same industry, allowing them to learn with and from one another, while also connecting to a wider ecosystem of entrepreneurs and experts working on similar challenges.&nbsp;And perhaps most importantly, it helps businesses move away from isolated efforts and towards shared innovation.“By sharing knowledge and working together, we can truly do things differently.”&nbsp;– Jan Slagman, Director of Innovation and Sustainability, Europrovyl&nbsp;<img src="https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/CIRCO_2_7087863a4f.jpeg">

CIRCO Hub Fryslân: Developing circular business and products together