The Basque Ecodesign Center (BEdC), the most important ecoinnovation and circular economy public-private partnership initiative in the Spanish State, has launched a call for new partners to pilot methodologies and develop innovative projects. The aim is to foster the prevention of environmental impacts and to enhance the competitiveness of the partner companies and of their value chain.

The admission period to be a new partner company ends on 7 May

Since 2106, the Basque Ecodesign Center has so far had 9 partner companies: CIE Automotive, EDP, Eroski, Euskaltel, Iberdrola, Ormazabal, Orona, Siemens-Gamesa and Vicinay Sestao, and the Basque government's entity, SPRI.

Thus, and thanks to the agreement signed between the partners and the Basque Government, 125 projects have been implemented, 33 strategic environmental watch reports produced and over 75 SMEs have been steered towards more sustainable production models. A dozen methodological guides, along with website tools, have also been produced and made available to all the companies of the Basque Country with the aim of incorporating lifecycle assessment in their management.

Given the success of this initiative and the companies’ high level of satisfaction, the Basque Government wishes to revisit the agreement with these and new companies for 2021-2025. This new agreement has two main objectives, to:

1. Generate circular economy expertise that is transferrable to the Basque industrial fabric by means of innovation in the priority areas of the Basque Country’s Circular Economy Strategy.
2. Drive the value chain (suppliers’ network) to a more circular economy.

As its main new feature, this new agreement includes a Strategic Committee, chaired by the Basque Government Minister of the Ministry of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia. The Committee will act as a thinktank for the circular economy in the Basque Country, by identifying challenges and needs for the Basque business fabric.

Any company interested in joining the Basque Ecodesign Center has to meet the following requirements:

• Have a registered office in the BAC.
• Have its own portfolio of products or services.
• At least one of these two characteristics:
  • Ability to influence the value chains prioritised by the Basque Circular Economy Strategy 2030 through their purchases or their products. They therefore need to have at least 30 suppliers and/or customers in the Basque Country in the following value chains:
    • Automotive sector, other means of transport, energy and other electrical equipment, agri-food and the bioeconomy, construction, metal or machinery.
  • Leading organisations in environmental sustainability, with a clear commitment and recognised for their R&D&i capacity in the circular economy, which can be proven as follows:
    • Benchmark: participating in sustainability indexes, leading environmental reporting schemes assessable by a third party, or environmental awards at national or higher level; or
    • Commitment: have taken part in previous Basque Ecodesign Center agreements, or have an ISO 14006 or similar type of ecodesign management certified system, or calculate and report lifecycle assessment or environmental footprint studies; or
    • R&D&i: Have a business line (>10% of the company’s turnover) associated to priority areas of the Basque Circular Economy Strategy 2030.

Any interested company should contact Iñigo Aizpuru (inigo.aizpuru@ihobe.eus; 944230743), a Circular Economy technician at Ihobe, to request more information. The admission period for new partner companies ends on 7 May and the signing of the agreement will take place in Donostia-San Sebastián on 26 May 2021.

Ihobe, the Basque Government’s environmental management agency, is the technical secretariat of this initiative, which is involved in the Government Programme 2020-2024, in the Basque Circular Economy Strategy 2030 and which stands out as one of the seven flagship projects of the Basque 2030 Agenda Priorities Programme.