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Call for applications: Circular solutions for nature – a list of leading European solutions
This project ended in May 2024.
We were looking for the most interesting European companies with circular economy solutions for tackling biodiversity loss. The list of circular economy solutions for nature shows how companies can tackle biodiversity loss and turning their solutions into successful business.
What was it about?
Stopping the loss of biodiversity cannot wait. The operations of businesses are entirely dependent on the resources and services provided by nature. In the future, business activities must enhance biodiversity instead of diminishing it.
Sitra’s “Tackling root causes” report showed that the circular economy can halt biodiversity loss. The key principle of the circular economy is to unlock more value from existing resources. This would reduce the need for new natural resources, leaving more room for biodiversity. Full exploitation of the circular economy in the sectors with a strong environmental impact could significantly help mitigate biodiversity loss. The circular economy is a vital tool for implementing business activities that enhance biodiversity and promote companies’ targets for nature.
Many companies would like to do more to stop biodiversity loss, but they lack the models for doing so. What does business for biodiversity mean in practice? What kinds of new opportunities does tackling biodiversity loss offer for businesses? Halting biodiversity loss is often only seen in terms of protection, restoration or ecological compensation.
For this reason, Sitra wanted to identify the most interesting circular solutions for biodiversity at the European level and to demonstrate that it is possible for companies to combat biodiversity loss with their solutions while also running successful businesses.
The list of circular economy solutions for biodiversity, compiled throughout 2023 and 2024, demonstrated European companies which:
- offer circular solutions that help prevent biodiversity loss and turn harmful environmental impacts into measures to strengthen biodiversity;
- unlock more value from existing resources and reduce the need to use new resources;
- operate in sectors that have a strong impact on nature, especially food production and agriculture, buildings and construction, fibres and textiles, and the forest sector.
We were looking for examples of different circular business models:
- product–as–a–service: offering services instead of a product. The customer pays for a particular function or performance rather than owning a product;
- circular inputs and design: using renewable, reusable, and recyclable materials as well as resource-saving principles in product design, sourcing, and manufacturing;
- sharing platforms: increasing the capacity to use goods and resources and extending their life cycles through digital platforms, as a result of renting, selling, sharing and reuse;
- product-life extension: using products according to their original purpose for as long as possible or enabling several stages of reuse through maintenance, repair and refurbishment;
- resource recovery and valorization: collecting and reusing resources from products and material streams, valorizing solutions which generate more value from existing materials, and material efficiency;
- + regenerative solutions: driving regenerative outcomes in areas under production, to improve soil health, carbon sequestration, nutrient retention, and diversity to build resilience.
See the full list and download our handbook!
Benefits for companies?
Safeguarding biodiversity is featuring more and more on the business agendas of various companies. Investors, financiers and customers are increasingly interested in solutions that mitigate biodiversity loss, hence the growing need for example solutions.
The companies included on the list:
- were given the opportunity to tell their own story to international audiences at the World Circular Economy Forum in 2024;
- were among the first to demonstrate how circular solutions can be used to generate business, solve customers’ problems and, at the same time, mitigate biodiversity loss;
- learned to recognise and communicate how their own circular solutions enhance biodiversity.
The list was published at the world’s leading circular economy event, the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), in 2024. The list gained significant visibility through both WCEF and Sitra’s international partner network. The companies included on the list were invited to the WCEF2024 and they had a chance to showcase their solutions in the forum’s exhibition hall.
How were companies evaluated?
The firms included in the list were selected by an expert panel comprising experts from Sitra and a consultant partner, who used the following criteria to evaluate companies:
- the business model and economic viability;
- the innovativeness of the solution;
- the size of the underlying problem that needs tackling;
- the mitigation hierarchy and use of existing resources;
- the firm’s targets for nature and resource use;
- the environmental impacts on the value chain.
The compiled list represented the expert panel’s view of what they considered the most interesting circular economy solutions for biodiversity at that time.
Who was involved?
The list was compiled by Sitra’s Nature and the Economy project team together with a consultant partner.
Timeline
The list was published at the World Circular Economy Forum in 2024.
Sitra has also previously compiled examples of interesting circular economy companies. Between 2017 and 2021, Sitra maintained a list of “The most interesting companies in the circular economy”, listing some of the most interesting Finnish circular business solutions. In 2020, Sitra published a list of 39 inspiring circular economy solutions from around the globe as part of WCEFonline.
Update 31 October 2023: The call has ended. The list was be published at the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) in 2024.
