As a circular economy is defined a different economic model that may be used to replace the existing linear paradigm of “take – manufacture – waste”. The concept entails effectively using resources and prioritizing renewable inputs, optimizing a product’s usage and lifetime to extract the most value, and recovering and reusing by-products and trash to create new materials or products. The European Commission moved toward the adoption of an action plan focusing on the design and production for a circular economy as part of the EU Green Deal, with the goal of reducing the EU’s consumption footprint, doubling its circular material use rate, and contributing to economic decarbonization by reducing the EU’s carbon and material footprint.
Aligned to what is stated, the RE-START project applies the rules of circular economy to start-up organizations, with the ultimate goal to encourage and guide students in HEIs to develop a circular start-up or transform their business idea into a circular one as business models based on implementing at least one of the Circular Economy (CE) strategies: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, and Regenerate (5R). Project’s goal is to create a circular start-up training program that improves HEI students’ entrepreneurial mentality by introducing them to real-life examples of successful circular entrepreneurs and encouraging them to support and commercialize their circular start-up. More specifically the project consists of four project results: The Development of the Circular Business Plan Toolkit, that will take place throughout the initial phase of project execution, the Preparation of a guidebook for trainers and academics and the Industry Corporations.
At this point of the project’s progress, the RE-START self-assessment Toolkit is about to be finalized, the primary and secondary research regarding the available training programs in each partner country for circular entrepreneurship has been consolidated, and the development of the training materials is about to begin, with contribution of all the partners.
In conclusion developing a circular economy benefits more than simply the environment. Its goal is to increase corporate competitiveness by discovering cost savings and resilience, and assisting in the implementation of climate change and sustainability obligations. The proof is in the numbers: the circular economy is expected to generate $4.5 trillion in economic value by 2030, and sustainable start – ups outperform their rivals in terms of returns. If you are interested in green entrepreneurship, and want to learn how to commercialize your business idea, visit the RE-START project website, to be updated: http://project-restart.eu/
