Article / Report

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Providing various support services for businesses and governments, such as research, testing, certification and consulting services, cleaning and maintenance services, security and protection services, legal, accounting and bookkeeping services, information management, data processing, and business process outsourcing services

Research & Commercial Services

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Impacts

small_climate-4803653_640.jpg

thumbnail_climate-4803653_640.jpg

climate-4803653_640.jpg

Industries

small_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

thumbnail_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

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

large_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

medium_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

small_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

thumbnail_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

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

![Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png](https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2024_10_21_at_16_53_12_12858da6aa.png)

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

medium_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

small_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

thumbnail_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png




 
 
 
 
Last summer, Million Hailemariam, who came to Switzerland as a refugee from Eritrea, passed his final apprenticeship examinations, thereby completing his apprenticeship as a plastics engineer with a Swiss federal certificate of competence at Ypsomed. He is now a permanent employee – and is keen to stay with us for a few more years. We take a look back at the completion of his apprenticeship and discuss his plans for the future as well as personal experiences that have had a profound influence on him. Read more … From refugee to plastics technologist EFZ



Bern

large_blob

medium_blob

small_blob

thumbnail_blob

blob

Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, Economics (Switzerland)

Berner Fachhochschule

ETH Zurich is a public research university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. Founded by the Swiss Federal Government in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the school focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 

ETH Zurich

KOF Business Cycle Research Center

<p>Based on a specifically developed concept for mapping the circular economy at the company level, the approximately 8,000 companies of the KOF enterprise panel, which is representative for Switzerland were surveyed in 2020 by means of a written survey (response rate: 29,1%). For 27 specific activities in the field of the circular economy, it was surveyed in which areas the companies have achieved measurable changes in the period 2017 to 2019.</p><p>It is apparent that most companies enter the transformation process via activities to increase efficiency in the production area. These activities to increase efficiency are of central importance, since for most companies they are the basis for extending the activities to other production stages and dimensions of the circular economy, such as closing the loops by re-manufacturing and increasing the lifetime of the products.</p>