The Platform brings together stakeholders active in the broad field of the circular economy in Europe, goes beyond sectoral activities and highlights cross-sector opportunities. The Platform also provides a meeting place for stakeholders to share and scale up effective solutions and address specific challenges. It bridges existing initiatives at local, regional and national level, and supports the implementation of the circular economy.

On its website, this European Commission platform also provides a space for sectors and countries to share expertise, good practices and political initiatives, including the two Ihobe publications.

A hundred or so ecoinnovative benchmarks

The Ecoinnovation in the Basque Country. 105 Industrial Projects for New Circular Solutions manual features different initiatives from the food, automotive, consumer goods, construction and works, electrical and electronic equipment, machinery, metal, means of transport – including rail, maritime and aviation –, and chemical sectors. Twenty-four per cent of the new circular solutions included in this publication are already up and running or available on the market.

Each project has one or more motivating factors, including equipment ecodesign, reducing greenhouse gases, circular business models, environmental positioning and transparency, extended producer responsibility, green public procurement, plastics, best available techniques, cutting waste disposal, cost and supply of raw materials, and minimising pollution. Its results will be used to generate local ecoinnovative benchmarks and to transfer successful circular solutions to Basque SMEs.

Catalogue of circular products manufactured in the Basque Country

The 20 Years of Ecodesign. Made in Euskadi catalogue, published in physical and digital format, is the first of its kind in Europe. It includes a long list of product categories from ten industrial sectors, to which life-cycle assessment methodologies have been applied. They have notably improved their environmental impact and are an example for the whole European industrial sector. The report shows the leadership of Basque industry in the field of ecodesign.

The catalogue, the first of this type in Spain, provides individual technical datasheets with the characteristics and main aspects of each circular products. It also divides them into ten sectors: the chemical industry, the metal sector, furniture, automotive, food, production and consumption, machinery, transport, electrical-electronic, and the construction materials sectors.