{"id":17593,"date":"2021-03-29T07:47:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T05:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naider.com\/naiderlab\/economia-circular-como-palanca-de-competitividad-una-cuestion-de-hoy-no-solo-de-manana\/"},"modified":"2023-04-24T13:37:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T11:37:27","slug":"circular-economy-as-a-lever-for-competitiveness-a-question-for-today-not-just-for-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"naiderlab","link":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/naiderlab\/knowledge\/expert-analysis\/circular-economy-as-a-lever-for-competitiveness-a-question-for-today-not-just-for-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"CIRCULAR ECONOMY AS A LEVER FOR COMPETITIVENESS. A QUESTION FOR TODAY, NOT JUST FOR TOMORROW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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*Original article published by Confebask (link<\/ a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The circular economy is here to stay. The economic growth model carried out so far, based on producing, using and throwing away, shows different limitations to which a circular economic model could provide a solution. According to the report published by Accenture \u201cCircular Advantage: Innovative Business Models and Technologies to Create Value in a World without Limits to Growth\u201d <\/a>, e<\/em >The current growth model, in addition to consuming resources that are already finite, consumes (recoverable) natural resources at a higher rate than they can be recovered (figure 1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Projection of demand and availability of sustainable resources Source: Accenture \u201cCircular Advantage: Innovative Business Models and Technologies to Create Value in a World without Limits to Growth\u201d <\/em><\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If this dynamic continues, businesses that do not position themselves and continue basing their growth on the use of increasingly scarce natural resources will see the value of their business affected through:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reduced benefits <\/strong>derived from uncertainty in the supply of resources and changing consumption patterns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase in costs and the impossibility of making efficient projections <\/strong>due to their volatility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deterioration of the image and difficulties in complying with regulations. <\/strong>As the scarcity of resources worsens, social awareness will increase and public policies will favor businesses that have been able to decouple their production from the consumption of scarce resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In front of these\nchallenges, the Circular Economy seems to be, to this day, the only solution that\ncan add value to companies. Those who manage to transition to a\nactivity not dependent on resources will obtain competitive advantages in the\nfuture. But it is precisely the concept of “future” that creates a certain\nunrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\nobvious consequences of continuing with a linear production model, many\nof the competitive advantages that companies will obtain materialize in a\ndistant time horizon, which seems not to encourage its application in the\nshort-medium term. Some companies may prefer to procrastinate their process\nparticular transition towards circularity. The theme “still does not go with\nwe”. But is it really so? Is this a long-term story? Well\nIt does not seem that it will be exactly like that because there are very relevant actors for\nbusiness competitiveness that are engaged in precisely the opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, the financial sector, a necessary ally of business development, has realized the opportunity offered by the Circular Economy and its good prospects for the future and is clearly positioning itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2. Number of funds focused on circular economy ( exclusively or partially). Ellen Macarthur Foundation:<\/em> Circular Economy Funding Report<\/em> <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to\nthe report\npublished by the Ellen Foundation <\/a>Mcarthur<\/a>, since 2016,\nthe number of private market funds that\ninvest in circular economy activities (fully or partially). A\nA similar trend is observed in bank loans, the financing of\nprojects and insurance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite\nstill have a relatively small weight in the market, the trend\ngrowing is evident and is due to the fact that the market requests it. If this dynamic continues, the companies that\ndecide <\/strong>to procrastinate<\/em><\/strong> or those who\ndecide not to transition to a circular model yet, they will see how their access barriers\nFunding will increase in the short-medium term, which will impact its\ncost structure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another agent\ndetermined, as the English would say, to hasten the process of transition from\ncompanies is the public sector. Starting with the European Commission, which does not\nis willing, it seems, to allow it to continue to be produced and consumed\nlinear way because it has in the frontispiece of its policies very\nregarding the climate issue and other Sustainable Development Goals. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid the risk of business inaction, the Commission has chosen to apply the principle of prevention and act accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand,\nfrom the supply side, stimulating the\ngreen offer and developing new, increasingly demanding regulations and a\nincentive tax policy. <\/strong>But, on the other\nOn the other hand, the Commission is also acting to increase the green demand through tools that favor the\nempowerment of consumers and favors green public purchasing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In relation to\nconsumers, <\/strong>the Commission\nproposes a review of the consumer protection legislation of the\nEU that guarantees that they receive, at the point of sale, reliable and\nabout the useful life of the products, the availability of repair services or\nspare parts, among other issues. In addition, the Commission proposes that\ncompanies accredit the ecological quality of their products through the\nenvironmental footprint of the product and the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interest of public purchasers, <\/strong>the <\/strong>Commission\nproposes mandatory minimum criteria and objectives of Green Public Procurement <\/em>in the\nsectoral legislation and is gradually introducing mandatory requirements\nnotification to monitor the incorporation of these green objectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be remembered that the aggregate demand from public authorities represents 14% of EU GDP, <\/strong>so this determination will only create competitive advantages in the short-medium term for those companies that position themselves on time and, consequently, it will hinder the profitability and volume of business of those that do not decide to position themselves yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, when\nWe are talking about the Basque business fabric, the need to speed up the transition\nin the production model is especially important, due to the enormous\ndependence on raw materials from its industrial sector. The future of\necological transition of the Basque business sector is now or, surely, not\nbe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is well known in the Basque administration and the configuration of the new Basque Government and the reorganization of the attributions of economic development, ecological transition and sustainability in the same Ministry is a declaration of intent that the Basque company must know how to interpret good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 3. Number of Basque companies in ecodesign, productive eco-efficiency and circularity of materials. Ihobe 2019 <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But the\nIn fact, the government had already been promoting pioneering instruments to facilitate\nthe ecological transition and the circular economy and a good number of companies\nVascas has been working on this process for a long time. In 2019, Ihobe published\nthe number of companies that had\nworked on ecodesign, ecoefficiency in production and\/or circularity of\nmaterials within the industrial sector. Specifically, 239 companies had\nworked in any of the fields mentioned, of which more than 70% were SMEs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve this,\nThese companies have been able to take advantage of a whole mix of\ninstruments promoted for this purpose by the Basque institutions and which complete\nother tools of a more generic nature (i.e. R&D financing). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the case of Basque\n<\/a><\/em> a><\/em>\nCenter <\/a><\/em>(BEC)<\/ a>, what are you looking for\nguide environmental product innovation as a factor of competitiveness.\nTo achieve this, it makes available to companies training services and\ntechnical training and a network that fosters public-private collaboration to\nthe development of technical projects and the generation of new opportunities for\nbusiness. The initiative has the Basque\n<\/a><\/em> a><\/em>\nHub<\/a><\/em>, which is\npositioned as the core of the training activity in the field of Ecodesign in the\nBasque Country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\nInteresting initiatives along the same lines can be found at the University\nof the Basque Country – Euskal Herriko Unibertsitaea. The scool of\nIngenier\u00eda de Gipuzkoa has set up a circular economy classroom for the\ndevelopment of collaborative projects between public-private agents. Also\nThe Bilbao School of Engineering, for its part, offers a master\ncharacteristic of Circular Economy<\/a>, pioneer to\nstate level for its business approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The set of\nagents of the Basque Science and Technology Network <\/em>offers\nvery significant technological support services and there is a large group\nof advanced service companies specialized in the circular economy that provide enormous value to small and\nmedium-sized companies in our country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is open,\nTherefore, a range of opportunities for those companies that decide to join the\ngreen transition process and materialize said transformation in new and\nbetter competitive advantages. In the Basque Country there is infrastructure,\nfunding, training and, very importantly, determining the\npublic institutions to achieve the transition to a circular economic model\nas soon as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully the next Ihobe indicator of companies working in circular code will already be five digits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jokin Etxebarria<\/strong>
Carlos Cuerda
NAIDER <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The circular economy is here to stay. The economic growth model carried out so far, based on producing, using and throwing away, shows different limitations to which a circular economic model could provide a solution. According to the report published by Accenture \u201cCircular Advantage: Innovative Business Models and Technologies to Create Value in a World…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15631,"template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":""},"hashtag-lab":[],"naiderlab_tag":[153],"naiderlab_category":[50],"ppma_author":[198],"class_list":["post-17593","naiderlab","type-naiderlab","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","naiderlab_tag-circular-economy","naiderlab_category-expert-analysis"],"taxonomy_info":{"naiderlab_tag":[{"value":153,"label":"Circular economy"}],"naiderlab_category":[{"value":50,"label":"Expert Analysis"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/naider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/EC_competitividad2-1-1024x788-1.png",1024,788,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Naider","author_link":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/author\/sirope-naid3r\/"},"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naiderlab\/17593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naiderlab"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/naiderlab"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"hashtag-lab","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag-lab?post=17593"},{"taxonomy":"naiderlab_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naiderlab_tag?post=17593"},{"taxonomy":"naiderlab_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naiderlab_category?post=17593"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naider.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}