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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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Article / Report

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

**Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all**

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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was already off-track to achieve its education targets. If no additional measures are taken, only one in six countries will meet SDG4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030. An estimated 84 million children and young people will still be out of school and an estimated 300 million students will still not have the basic numeracy and literacy skills they need to succeed in life. 

To deliver SDG4, education systems must be re-imagined, and education financing must become a priority national investment.

The goal targets to :
- ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes;
- ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education;
- ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university;
- substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship;
- eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations;
- ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy;
- ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development;
- build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all;
- substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries;
- substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States.

Source: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4)



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4. Quality education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

**Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable**

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The pandemic has caused major shifts in migration patterns, including huge movements of people in and out of urban areas. Furthermore, climate change and conflicts tend to have disproportionate impacts on cities. These factors mean that the world is far from achieving the goal of sustainable cities.  
In many developing countries, slum populations have been growing, putting at risk the target of adequate housing for all by 2030. Since 2015, the number of countries with national disaster risk reduction strategies has more than doubled. 

Cities are hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, and social, human and economic development. Urban planning, transport systems, water, sanitation, waste management, disaster risk reduction, access to information, education and capacity-building are all relevant issues to sustainable urban development.

This target entails multiple essential concepts such as disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable transport.

To achieve SDG 11, efforts must focus on strengthening capacities for planning for urban development, improving access to public transportation, and enhancing waste management. 

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements)


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11. Sustainable cities and communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

**Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development**

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Progress towards achieving SDG17 has been mixed. On the one hand, there have been some advances in areas such as development aid, remittances flows, and access to technology. However, funding for development remains a major challenge, particularly in low income countries. 
Additionally, geopolitical tensions and the rise of nationalism in some parts of the world have made it more difficult to achieve international cooperation and coordination. 
Many developing countries are battling record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens, competing priorities, and limited fiscal space. A major surge in concerted action is needed to ensure developing countries have access to the financing and technologies needed to accelerate SDG implementation.

To achieve goal 17, capacity-building activities are essential as they're aimed at strengthening and maintaining the capabilities of states and societies to design and implement strategies that minimize the negative impacts of current social, economic and environmental crises and emerging challenges. This particularly makes sense to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including North-South, South-South, and triangular cooperation.
As the achievement of Sustainable Development requires all hands on deck, these multi-stakeholder partnerships must happen around key topics such as finance, science, technology and trade. 


Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/capacity-development](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/capacity-development)


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17. Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

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.

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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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Onderwijsakkoord Fryslân

In a world facing rapid transitions, collaboration between education, government, and society is more vital than ever. In Fryslân, five leading educational institutions – Aeres, Firda, NHL Stenden, Van Hall Larenstein and the University of Groningen – have joined forces with the Province of Fryslân and the Municipality of Leeuwarden. Together, they’ve created the Fryslân Education Agreement, a shared commitment to drive social progress through education, research and innovation.At the heart of this agreement lies a clear conviction: the true value of education lies in the impact it has on the community it serves. Students are not just learners, but active contributors to society – ambassadors of new perspectives, equipped to help tackle the major challenges of our time. This agreement is about empowering people to shape a better future, ensuring that Fryslân becomes a clean, healthy and happy region where everyone can thrive.<img src="https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/onderwijs_1_43871d589e.jpg">Educating for the Future of the RegionWhile education and research are delivered broadly, the region has defined six key areas as strategic priorities for growth: AgroFood, Water Technology, High Tech Systems &amp; Materials, Circular Materials, Maritime Technology, and Tourism &amp; Hospitality. These sectors form the backbone of Fryslân’s economic and societal development, though education also continues to support fields such as healthcare, services and wellbeing. Through this agreement, educational institutions position themselves as active partners of local governments, businesses and community organizations, all contributing to the concept of Broad Prosperity. Their joint vision: a vibrant, innovative Fryslân that is a great place to live, work and learn — now and for future generations.The Fryslân Education Agreement is grounded in three core ambitions: to create top-tier campuses, programs, and hybrid learning environments that position Fryslân as a circular, inclusive, and innovative region; to educate adaptable, future-ready professionals who can thrive in a dynamic labour market; and to establish Fryslân as a European leader in the circular economy by 2030. To realize these goals, the region’s educational institutions are committed to more than just delivering qualifications—they aim to cultivate resilient, engaged individuals who contribute meaningfully to both the regional economy and society. Central to this vision is a focus on accessible, high-quality, and future-oriented education that supports personal growth and lifelong learning for all residents, regardless of age, background, or educational level. The approach emphasizes talent development and empowers students with the mindset and skills needed to navigate and shape an ever-changing world.Adapting to an Ever-Changing WorldThe agreement is a living document, constantly evolving alongside the world around it. As societal needs shift, the goals and priorities of the agreement may also change. Continuous dialogue between all partners remains essential. A key element of the agreement is ensuring that educational programs remain current and aligned with the six strategic sectors of the region. It also promotes collaboration across different levels of education – from vocational training (MBO) to higher professional education (HBO) and university (WO) – enabling smoother transitions and more flexible pathways for students. Life-long learning is a crucial pillar, giving all residents the opportunity to develop or reskill at any stage of life. The institutions also take responsibility for strengthening the regional labour market. They commit to securing sufficient student enrolment in key sectors, fostering relationships with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encouraging entrepreneurship and expanding international opportunities.Beyond structural reforms, the agreement fosters a new kind of collaboration – one rooted in trust, openness, and shared responsibility. Educational institutions align their efforts with the Blue Delta economic agenda, and actively contribute to regional innovation through partnerships with governments and industry. They aim to build a balanced, open learning ecosystem – one that connects students, teachers, businesses and civil society. Here, knowledge and creativity flow freely, and everyone has the opportunity to contribute to a better future for Fryslân and beyond.