Our economies are resource-hungry, using up ever more materials, to the detriment of the planet. Moving towards a circular economy is part of the answer. Regenalyze hosted a highly motivated group of Norwegian economic development professionals from Næringshagene i Norge who came to The Netherlands to be inspired; according to the Circularity Gap Report, Norway is 2,4% circular, against 24,5% for The Netherlands.

The main take-aways from our exchange were:

• Public procurement is a key lever for circularity but it’s a balancing act. Utrecht’s step-by-step experimental learning is a good approach.
• Smaller municipalities often lack a clear circular vision and strategy, which holds back companies to deploy circular practices. Capacity building is needed here.
• Knowledge about successful circular practices must spread faster. This requires more collaboration between education and companies, but also company-to-company learning can contribute to this. Teachers must learn more from frontrunning companies.
• A circular regional economy requires careful nurturing and building local ecosystems of suppliers, clients, schools, NGOs and social workplaces.
• Big ambitions (Utrecht: “50% circular in 2030”) are good but a large group of companies are far from ready and need more support to catch up with the small leading pack of innovative companies.
• There is still a vast gap between small-scale circular initiatives and the mainstream linear economy. But in some areas, such as bio-based building, things move fast in recent years.