Documentation Non-country webinar 18.6.2020

Editorial note:

Note: Text below represent a summary of key points made – not a verbatim record of all arguments.

Timestamp refers to recording. Questions are generally listed in the sequence they were entered in the chat. Written comments to questions, etc. are listed

together with the original question. Substantial comments included, while editorial comments omitted.

Summary: The aim of the webinar was with a point of departure in a first draft of the Bellagio declaration, to have a select number of representatives of non-national stakeholders (cities, regions, industry, civil society and sectoral representatives) to present initiatives around CE monitoring. This was followed by a discussion on roles of non-national reporting, gaps in monitoring, relevant monitoring principles and possible strategies to fill some of the gaps. Cities and regions

(ACR+) Monitoring typically starts from waste statistics as this is what is available;

We know a lot about the materiels entering the markets and about the waste leaving the market, but we know very little about what happens in between. For example, lifetime extension of products is something that we have no grip on.

ESPON doing some work on circular jobs, but the concept is not well defined. Definitions needed.

(Lahti) The city of Lahti is putting in place a local scheme to reward citizens for circular behaviour. It is hoped tha.t this system can provide new insights into behaviour.

The city is also piloting an open data structure – initially for public companies, but hopefully to be expanded to private industry

New data streams

(VITO) There is a rapid development in digitalization of processes in society: o Processes: sensors, robotization, machine learning, AI, 3D printing o Products: RFID, IoT, digital twins o Platforms: apps, websites, communities But we need to manage issues such as data ownership and transparency of the value chain.

Relevant questions to discuss: Do you see alternative/unexpected data sources that can help tracking the (growth of the) circular economy? What are the data we want to aggregate to do monitoring? At which level: product, sector? How do we realize transparency of the value chain without endangering competition?

Finance sector work

(EEA) There is active work going on in the sustainable finance platform, where definitions of what can be considered green investments are being set. Possibility to nominate further members as call for nominations going out these days.

Definitions are essential as this will steer investments in the coming years. Sectoral organizations

(IVL) When one dives into concrete sectors the complexity increases. There are many types of plastic and it is not enough to see it as just a block if increased recycling is a target.

(PEI) Plastics Europe Italy is developing an index on circularity for plastics in collaboration with ISPRA. Aim is to be able to reduce the landfilling of plastics to 0% in 2030.

(JRC) Working with two indexes based on consumption and on the consumer in order to capture both the specificities of the value chain as well as the consumer behavior. LCA is an essential tool for these studies and requires detailed data.

In summary

The session showed a lot of the complexity that appears when diving towards the detailed level

It further underlined the need for definitions that together with creative use of new data can potentially lead to a better understanding of the transition process.

The need to work together across levels and sectors was underlined again and again

Modesty in monitoring was called for so that we try to understand the headlines and allow innovation to go on The writing group will elaborate further, and we hope to soon also be able to announce the possibility for a physical meeting in October. Remember to use the website for further information.

Webinar 3 – Monitoring Experience (Non-national entities) The ‘how to monitor’ question

Aim: With a point of departure in a first draft of the Bellagio declaration, a select number of representatives of non-national stakeholders (cities, regions, industry, civil society and sectoral representatives) are invited to present initiatives around CE monitoring. This will be followed by a discussion on roles of non-national reporting, gaps in monitoring, relevant monitoring principles and possible strategies to fill some of the gaps.

Thursday 18 June 2020 – 10:00 – 13:00 (CEST)

Time Agenda item

09.55 – 10.00 Connection to WebEx open for participants

10.00 – 10.20

Welcome and overview of the agenda

Peder Jensen, Expert on resource efficiency in a circular economy (EEA)

Overview of the Bellagio Process and introduction to the draft Bellagio Declaration Alfredo Pini, Technologist Manager (ISPRA)

10.20 – 10.35

The involvement of cities and regions in the monitoring of circular economy

Philippe Micheaux Naudet, Programme Coordinator Greening the Economy, Eco-Innovation and Circular Economy, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (ACR+) Elina Ojala, European Green Capital, Lahti, Finland

10.35 – 10.50

Discussion

10.50 – 11.05

Innovative approaches to circular economy monitoring – use of non-traditional datasets Karl Vrancken, Research Manager Sustainable Materials, VITO Taxonomy for sustainable business activities and its relevance for circular economy Andreas Barkman, Senior expert for sustainable finance (EEA)

11.05 – 11.20

Discussion

11.20 – 11.25 5-minute comfort break 11.25 – 11.40

The involvement of sectoral organizations in the monitoring of circular economy Plastics: Tobias Nielsen, Researcher, Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL); Giuseppe Riva, Director, Plastics Europe Italy

Consumption footprint of products: Serenella Sala, Project Officer, Scientific Research, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC)

11.40 – 11.55

Discussion

11.55 – 12.55 Moderated discussion around the role of non-country entities when it comes to monitoring of circular economy Co-moderated by EEA/ISPRA Bio-economy and it relevance for Circular Economy, Fabio Fava, Prof. University of Bologna

The first part of the discussion will be between the speakers and a number of invited discussants. This will be followed by a part where all participants are invited to contribute.

12.55 – 13.00

Wrap up

Peder Jensen, Expert on resource efficiency in a circular economy (EEA)

Welcome and overview of the agenda Peder Jensen, Expert on resource efficiency in a circular economy (EEA) Time stamp: 00:00:45 – 00:06:20 (Meeting started at 10:00 o’clock)

Original plan was for a 3-day physical meeting. We have migrated to web meetings due to COVID-19.

First this scene setting webinar

Then technical seminars with different stakeholder groups

Followed by a drafting of a declaration

To be discussed at a physical meeting in Bellagio in October.

Introducing the agenda

Please ask question in the chat and we will try to cover as many as possible

Overview of the Bellagio Process and introduction to the draft Bellagio Declaration Alfredo Pini, Technologist Manager (ISPRA) Time stamp: 00:06:20 – 00:17:45

Good morning. Happy to join you. Stress the link to the Bellagio process in the 1990s on assessment principles for sustainable development. Our directors (ISPRA and EEA) agreed to try to repeat the process but now for circular economy. Important that the process delivers real useful input to a policy process. We aim to get a commitment for real progress in monitoring. The covid crisis has allowed us to develop a process rather than a one-off event. This has led to a more solid process.

Process must be inclusive by reaching out to scientists, practitioners, etc. Trying to identify gaps in what we do. Some came out yesterday e.g. looking at different levels of activities.

We aim to develop a declaration as the output of the process in October. It is important the monitoring does not stop innovation, but rather is fed by it.

Thank you.

The involvement of cities and regions in the monitoring of circular economy

Philippe Micheaux Naudet, Programme Coordinator Greening the Economy, Eco-Innovation and Circular Economy, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (ACR+) Time stamp: 00:17:45 – 00:33:40

ACR+ is a network of authorities working on sustainable resource management.

Overview of our members

Monitoring starts from waste data. We need to harmonize how the monitoring works.

We are involved in a number of projects shown here

We know a lot about waste generation and on the recycling, but rather little in between. And very little about waste prevention. Thus the processes are not covered. Little knowledge about the quality of recycled products

Cities and regions have different regulatory frameworks.

The value chain needs to be taken into account in its totality.

Different activities to go beyond waste: E.g. territorial studies in particular cities.

Examples of specific datasets for regional statistics. Domestic material consumption and circular economy jobs.

Specific projects on urban data

This partnership is aiming a indicator development

Weight based monitoring has its limits

Therefore we start to look at carbon accounting in the value chain

We are also trying to see how we can expand on circular procurement.

Finally we try to use LCA analysis to give broader information.

Thank you

The involvement of cities and regions in the monitoring of circular economy

Elina Ojala, European Green Capital, Lahti, Finland Time stamp: 00:33:40 – 00:55:00

Hello to all. City of 120.000 in southern Finland

The award is based on 12 different sectoral indicators. We are strong in a number of fields.

Comparison with others

We are a pioneer in waste sorting in Finland.

We having stopped us coal for heating.

This is a picture of our waste management system. How materials flow. It quickly becomes complicated. Lots of actors involved. Difficult to get consistent data from all actors at local scale.

We need to look at consumption

Solutions

We are using roofing felt as asphalt for bike lanes. Local innovation

We have the worlds first cap and trade scheme for mobility. This application is defining means of transportation, counting emissions. Counting it allows you to get bus or theater tickets for cutting emissions.

We are about to start a project on open data. We see this as a solution. Material flows has to be optimized. Data is key. Energy, water and waste are public companies. First target for data sharing.

Thank you.

Q and A

Questions raised in the discussion

John Gossage: Do you have an evaluation of CitiCap? Reply (Elina Ojala): It has just been launched. Testing in the spring of this year. There is a website with information /City of Lahti: https://www.smartlahti.fi/citicap/ Theo Geerken VITO question to Philippe: How do you see the differences between the possibilities for CE Monitoring between city level and the regional level? Philippe Micheaux Naudet (ACR+): Monitoring at municipal level is a lot driven by municipal (waste) monitoring via for instance the (public) utilities in charge of waste, water or energy. At regional level, the data collection is more indirect. More and more regions are setting-up regional observatories of waste management and more recently of circular economy. This is a way for them to operationalize the data collection on their territory by allocating this task to a specific body and to cooperation between the various data sources on a territory.

Esther Sanyé Mengual from JRC-EC to Philippe: Thanks for your presentation. Interesting this change from waste to impacts. Regarding the projects leading with life cycle assessment and supply-chains: How do you deal with regional life cycle data in the projects you introduced? Are you collecting specific data or mainly employing life cycle inventory databases? Reply: We do not have a lot of data yet, but I will send the reply via one of my colleagues.

Peder Jensen: Lahti is a city of ambition. Is green innovation driving the ambition to be green city or is it the green ambition driving innovation? Reply: Long history of environmental ambitions. Trying to find ways of recovering from recession via green innovation.

Barbara Bacigalupi, EC ENV: To Elina Ojala: I find it very promising and challenging to set open data to ensure efficient use of material flows among industries. Are companies ready to share those and keep confidentiality aside to boost their circularity? What is your experience? Reply: We are starting from city owned companies, and even there it is difficult. So we need to push the benefits of collaboration. Understanding the big picture.

Other comments raised in the chat: Tiina Karppinen (SYKE, Finland): A comment from Tiina Karppinen from Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. We are developing the sub-national monitoring of household waste in SYKE. The major challenges are related to the high number of handlers of household waste (and consequently the data) even at the collection phase, not to mention the final utilization. So, there is still a lot of work in local waste monitoring, and even more in the inner circles of CE. John Gossage: Some of these questions are already being address, for example small spatial scale data is already potentially disclosive, and so publication has to be managed. I am not suggesting these are easy, but they do have analogues to what we are already doing.

Innovative approaches to circular economy monitoring – use of non-traditional datasets Karl Vrancken, Research Manager Sustainable Materials, VITO Time stamp: 00:55:00 – 01:03:05

Good morning. Where do we get data from? Want to trigger ideas.

Think about google maps. It guides you through traffic. They have traffic densities found from mobile phones. I suppose it was never the intention of the mobile phone operators to provide traffic information, but some one got the idea to explore this area.

Other examples. Rombit has a bracelet that tracks workers in large ports. If there are accidents it allow the localization of specific workers. During the past two months it has been reinvented to track proximity and warn of potential infections. Used in a different way

Block chains can be used to track materials so that you can track the source of materials. Then you can trace it into the recycled products and certify recycled content. And track materials in the circular economy.

Coupling of sensors. This machine can characterize it for content. Aimed at sorting waste but now used to create mass balance data.

Processes that make production more efficient tends to create data that can be used for other purposes. Product can interact and deliver data. Apps e.g. for carsharing generate new data flows But we need to understand the problematic issues such as privacy and how disaggregate data we actually need.

New ideas? What do we need to aggregate? How do we make it transparent without killing competition? Please think with me on this.

Taxonomy for sustainable business activities and its relevance for circular economy Andreas Barkman, Senior expert for sustainable finance (EEA) Time stamp: 01:03:05 – 01:31:30 (5 minutes break at the end of the session)

Good morning

The sustainable finance agenda is moving fast. Is becoming important for climate and environmental agenda. You can engage with the sustainable finance platform via a call going out today. Sustainable finance is an integrated part of the green deal

First action plan in 2018. To reorient financial flows towards sustainability. Taxonomy is part of this tool box. This is to allow the private sector and private finance to be involved.

A taxonomy is a classification tool of sustainable activities contributing to a specific objective. Establish a common agreement on what is sustainable. The requirements that need to be fulfilled are contribution to one of six objectives and not do harm to any of the others, while respecting social guidelines. High leverage effect

Impact: Create a level playing field. Will bring certainty, protection against green washing, easier to raise capital, etc.

There are work under the green deal exploring what sustainable finance can deliver. Platform to support the European Commission and CE will be part of the mandate. Call goes out today.

Thank you. See the link to the technical expert groups report on taxonomy.

Q and A

Questions raised in the discussion

Natascha Spanbroek: Natascha Spanbroek from National institute for public Health (NL)- to all - do you monitor substances of very high concern in a circular economy (which indicators do you use)? Barbara Bacigalupi, EC ENV: ESTAT do publish an indicator on toxic chemicals Ioannis Bakas: This is the link to the SCIP database monitoring SVHCs in products: https://echa.europa.eu/scip-database

Peder Jensen: What are the overarching privacy issues in new data? Karl Vrancken: Blockchain is certainly a good step forward. Expect a lot from that.

theo geerken: question to Andreas: What will be the concrete advantages for "investment activities" to be on the list ? Reply: The concrete advantage is that activities will be at the center of attention is for sustainable finance. Only be being labeled as green can it attract this type of finance. So better access to finance.

The involvement of sectoral organizations in the monitoring of circular economy Plastics: Tobias Nielsen, Researcher, Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) Time stamp: 01:31:30 – 01:39:40

Hello

Plastic is a fantastic material. But when it comes to CE it is less fantastic. Very much a linear material. Little is recycles. Until recently we exported a lot and incinerate a good deal, while land fills took the rest.

Traceability is key. Monitoring is fragmented

Challenges: There are many different components with different additives. Lack of information along the value chain. Quality if recycled plastics

Thus lots of detailed problems in order ti circularize plastics. Only 40% is packaging and most focus is there. But there are 60% that are not for packaging.

The involvement of sectoral organizations in the monitoring of circular economy Plastics: Giuseppe Riva, Director, Plastics Europe Italy Time stamp: 01:39:40 – 01:50:00

I will share some data we put together for Italy. End of life of plastics for Italy. We have developed an index of circularity

This condense the work with have done. Data on plastics in Italy. Covers all plastic in Italy 42% recycling 35% incineration 23% landfilling Aim is to avoid landfilling

Our circularity index. Based on CO2 emission

Data for the calculation. We save CO2 by recycling plastics

Here we calculate the index in 2016. Now at 23%

By 2030 we aim to have it at 47%. A jump in circularity

This is how to do it: Packaging. Lots of gaps in collection. We agree to zero landfill. We will create a working group for the implementation.

The involvement of sectoral organizations in the monitoring of circular economy

Consumption footprint of products: Serenella Sala, Project Officer, Scientific Research, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) Time stamp: 01:50:00 – 02:13:40

The CEAP is based on lifecycle thinking. There is a focus on key sectors and specific value chains. We are developing data along the full value chain in a LCA perspective. Want to be able to describe trade offs. Avoid burden shifting. Can be integrated with macro economic modelling

Two types of indicators: Consumption footprint looks at territorial consumption including trade Consumer footprint: Looking at lifestyles in key areas of consumption.

Use of representative products. 16 different impact categories

The need to operationalize systems thinking. Link production and consumption to behaviour.

Aspects covered in the slide. Can be used to test CE options.

Example of evolution in key sectors.

All is reported in the following publications.

We need to look at LCA in order to better understand what is really going on.

Q and A

Questions raised in the discussion

Peder Jensen: We need to embrace systems thinking, but does that mean we should step away from looking at plastics and rather see it as an element of a value chain? Serenella Sala: We have to keep both levels in our view. Karl Vrancken: Do you have CO2 emission factors for chemical recycling and on which technology are the based, or are they differentiated per type of chemical reycling technique? Giuseppe Riva: We are early in the analysis of chemical recycling. So not really well covere dyet.

Michiel Zijp (RIVM): Thank you Tobias: Is there a field (eg another material or dossier) that you find inspiring for how to set up plastic monitoring? with other words, what you propose as monitoring system is it already applied somewhere somehow? Tobias Nielsen: Lot of work done on traceabilty. Still to be put together.

Michiel Zijp (RIVM): Thank you Serenalla, very interesting, is the basis for the consumption footprint data on expenditures or data on actual numbers of products used (or both)? Serenella Sala: Both. Aggregation of data from many different sources. You may find our reports https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/sustainableConsumption.html. Study on rebound available here: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/2009. free access. summary of the work done on consumer footprint: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619329208. summary work on consumption footprint at country level: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619323431.

John Gossage: Can you unpack Consumption Intensity a bit Serenella Sala: Trying to look at consumption patterns. E.g. changes in meat consumption. Changes in packaging habits etc.

Karl Vrancken to Serenella: will the consumption data react quickly enough to track policy changes and are they available for every year? Serenella Sala: We are completing time series. There is an issue of timeliness. Timelag of several years. Nowcasting is difficult.

Nora Brüggemann: To Serenella: how are the rebound effects - that you mention should indeed be observed - assessed? Serenella Sala: I mentioned trade offs. We have done an extensive litt review. Not yet integrated in model.

Karl Vrancken (VITO): to Serenella: (remark rather than question) This approach covers the 'meso' level that we discussed before. I think we need to agree that with meso we mean 'consumption categories', rather than 'cities' or 'regions'. An Vercalsteren (VITO): To Karl: It is indeed important to define the 'levels' very well. This is topic of discussion in the ISO TC323 discussion (meeting this week) as well.

Esther Sanyé Mengual - JRC: To Giuseppe: Thanks for your presentation. Has the study been published? If so, could you share the link? John Gossage: That would be very helpful thank You Philippe Micheaux Naudet (ACR+): Answer to Esther Sanyé Mengual about project on LCA: I had confirmation that the project is not actually collecting data, rather life cycle assessment and management tools (in order to prepare a toolbox for public authorities). The objective of this project phase is to understand how those tools are implemented (identifying good practices), what is the role of the regional authorities to support them or to benefit from them designing policy actions. More information on https://www.interregeurope.eu/lca4regions/

Moderated discussion around the role of non-country entities when it comes to monitoring of circular economy Bio-economy and it relevance for Circular Economy, Fabio Fava, Prof. University of Bologna Time stamp: 02:13:40 – 02:45:00

Good morning. Will try to integrate some streams of the discussion

value chains

Bioeconomy is an overarching concept of a number of sub sectors in Europe. Interlinking many different product. These different elements are increasing interconnected. 10% of European economy.

Biorefineries is a key element of this.

We have a large number of indicators covering all aspects of the bioeconomy. But still large data quality problems. We need to be able to account for natural capital. Lots of work done on indicator development.

Q and A

Questions raised in the discussion

Alfredo Pini: Which are the most important challenges in monitoring circularity in biobased industries. Fabio Fava: We need a common monitoring for Europe. We need to set a system that can still be adapted to national circumstances. Harmonization. John Gossage: That was very interesting - it balances the emphasis on the abiotic flows by looking at the biotic flows. Mostly a comment. Barbara Bacigalupi, EC ENV: a comment: to communicate progress in an easy way, you need a limited number of key indicators, and not a Christmas tree. So need to prioritize and identify main knowledge gaps at macro, meso and micro level. Also exploit technologies to limit administrative burden of reporting and improve the timeliness We need to look at all the elements of the CEAP. Water use and recycled nutrients important for SDGs. Setting a monitoring framework is a challenge for subsidiarity reasons. Voluntary data is difficult, and confidentially reasons makes working with industry difficult. But we have confidence in the process of Bellagio. theo geerken: question to all speakers adressing different levels of CE : Favio showed that there are many SDG indicators but still not enough to cover well bio-economy. What type of new indicators do we need most to cover better CE?

Fabio Fava: There may not be enough, but we have lots of indicators. The main problem it to be able to use what we already have. Robust set is key. Giuseppe Riva: We have to accelerate what we do. An index can accelerate the filling of the infrastructure gap. Alfredo Pini: We have a challenge of balancing qualitative and quantitative approach. This was discussed at the level of assessment discussion yesterday. It is not necessarily about new indicators, but rather efficient use of indicators. Peder Jensen: But Estat said that they had build first indicators in existing data, so I guess we still need new indicators.

Fabio Fava: We need to integrate the bio and non-bio pathways

Next steps, general feedback, questions and answers Moderated by Peder Jensen, Expert on resource efficiency in a circular economy (EEA)

Time stamp: 02:45:00 – 02:50:00 Thanks to all speakers. Many interesting presentations such as the local cap and trade from Lahti. An interesting nudging element. We are looking at new data and EEA is exploring new flows as described by Karl. Timeliness is key. Looking at systemic elements is key. Monitoring synergies and working together. And then limit monitoring to what matters – avoid the christmas tree. To guide policy. Learn as we go. The writing group will elaborate further and we hope to soon also be able to announce the possibility for a physical meeting in October. Remember to use the website for further information.