Circular economy in companies from the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula: survey under the Circular Labs POCTEP Project

Circular Economy (CE) is a strategic concept based on a deep change in contemporary societies, moving from a linear economy to a circular model. The CircularLabs POCTEP* project aims at promoting the integration of the CE in business models and includes the participation of 11 partners from the three Regions of: the North of Portugal, Galicia and Castilla y León, both in Spain. This project Among its initial actions, this project launched an online survey for companies located in this Iberian Northwest Regions. A total of 294 companies answered this survey. On this sample, SMEs from services and industry were the most represented groups. The survey focused on multiple aspects, including the recognition of CE concepts, the integration of CE strategies, reasons for CE implementation, main obstacles and barriers, among others. Results show a dispersion in the interpretation of the CE concept, as it is mostly recognised as part of a strategical vision or policy in these companies. Moreover, CE is mostly considered for its environmental benefits. The most relevant difficulties found in EC implementation related to the lack of information and advice and insufficient financial support. The fact that only a fraction of the companies had implemented environmental management systems, may be seen as a reason for the lack of internal structure for CE technical support. This research will outline some of the necessary steps towards CE implementation in these North-western Iberian Regions.This study was part of the Trans-National Project CircularLabs. The authors would like to thank the Spain-Portugal Transnational Program (POCTEP), with the Financial Support from the European Union under Program FEDER (European Regional Development Fund). This Program is not responsible for the opinions expressed by the authors. Some of the authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integration of the circular economy paradigm in companies from the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula

Over recent decades, Circular Economy (CE) has become a major topic when organizations try to develop their business amid the constrains of resource limitation and the desire to reduce their environmental impact. This study’s main purpose is to assess the integration of CE practices in public and private organizations in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Through an online survey distributed to 294 companies from the cited region, we assessed their perceptions on CE, including such aspects as the area(s) it was integrated in, why, with what difficulties or what was necessary to accomplish it, and how the impact of the implemented CE practices was measured. Results showed that companies associate CE mostly with “resource optimization”. “Entity’s vision and mission” was the main strategic area where CE was implemented. The main motivation why entities/organizations embraced CE was “environmental reasons”, while “lack of information and guidance” and “lack of financial resources” represented the main obstacles to CE implementation. Non-parametrical statistical tests were used to compare the answers of three groups of people with different positions within the company/entity (manager, executive, and technician), as well as to compare the answers of two activity sectors (industry and services).Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal POCTEP 2014-2020, European Commission, under ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). Project code: 0495_CIRCULAR_LABS_6_E. This article was also supported by the FCT/MCTES Project CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio