The Circular Economy Club Is Growing
“The Circular Economy Club (CEC) has become the fastest-growing international, open, collaborative non-profit network in the circular economy field and has had a tremendous impact in connecting individuals and organizations!”, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign proclaimed.
Starting two years ago, the CEC network now comprises more than 2,600 circular economy professionals and – at the moment – 67 attached countries.
The Circular Economy has been gaining immense traction among entrepreneurs, academics and scholars all over the world. The Circular Economy Club (CEC) as a non-profit international network believes in bringing the community of circular economy professionals together in order to solve the challenges found when implementing a circular economy. It is headquartered in London and runs voluntarily.
All over the world
From 5th to 11th of February 2018, CEC organized the first Circular Economy Mapping Week. During this week, volunteer organizers all over the world hosted group sessions to map out the circular initiatives in their cities. Workshops took place in 67 cities, including Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Madrid, New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore and Taipei. The two objectives were supposed to bring together circular enthusiasts to discuss and learn more about the latest circular initiatives happening in their cities; and to map out circular initiatives taking place globally and make this information available online and free. Anna Queralt, CEC Mapping Organizer at Copenhagen, commented. “The reason why I supply for this position: I thought that it would be very interesting to join an organization at local level, but that it also has an impact on international level.”
Another goal of the Mapping Week was to understand what circularity means in practice, what is already working and what is not. Camillo Tellez, Community Manager of Greencubator, formulated: “It is models that we need to implement in all areas in all different businesses.” Or as the organizers express it: “Researchers will have hundreds of examples to analyze; teachers will have plenty of case studies to use for their classes; students will be able to browse and learn from what is being done; businesses will find sustainable alternatives to solve some of the challenges they face when trying to become more environmentally friendly; startups will be able to understand whether their ideas have a market and are working already somewhere else; governments will have a clear outlook of what is being done in their regions when deciding what needs public support; investors will find projects they can back and help grow.”
The result of the Mapping week can be visited under www.mappingweek.circle-economy.com/#/. Here, various articles on circular economy issues are listed like “Eliminating waste from the streets of Africa”, “Replacing fuel source for waste collection vehicles in Toronto”, “Gestión sostenible de residuos”, “Repurposing local wood waste into furniture in North London”, “Sustainable Menswear Brand” or “Lead metal recycling in water”.
Across all channels
Meanwhile, the Circular Economy Club incorporates 27 dedicated volunteer team members, 37 mentors providing free mentorship to start-ups and students, 45 organizers being the “visible face of CEC in your city, university or company” as field connector in the particular region, 67 CEC Mapping Week Organizers and not to forget 2,600 members and 35,000 followers “across all channels”, as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign underlines. This special initiative of the UN Secretary-General administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has set 2018 key goals “to get onboard 200 volunteer organizers worldwide who bring together the circular economy community in their cities”. The launching of the ‘Shaping the Future’ project through which 300 CEC members to transfer their knowledge to 9,000 university students is also planned.
Photo: pixabay
GR 2/2018
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