How to bring more eco-designed solutions to the market? How can SMEs evaluate the economic feasibility of circular solutions? The Berlin Institute for Innovation Research draws from over 10 years of experience regarding target groups, viable product ideas and sustainable business models. The newly developed guidelines „From (ecodesign) idea to market“ are meant to help SMEs see the advantages of sustainability, so that they are able to remain or become successful both in terms of their economic and innovative power.

We've all been there: changing habits is not always as easy as one might think. That's why it is helpful to have someone to support and motivate you. In an online event, professionals from the fields of design, digital services and city marketing presented inspiring solutions and lessons learnt to support and establish circular offers and consumption patterns.

How do you develop circular services that benefit your customers, the environment and your business alike? How do you improve the customer experience in the circular economy? And how do you enable customer participation in extended use, maintenance and re-use of products?
These questions were addressed in a training hosted by the International Design Center Berlin.

For ten years now, the German Ecodesign Award has shown how environmental and climate protection, innovation and excellent design can be combined. In its anniversary year, the jury of the highest state award for ecological design is once again on the lookout for future-oriented concepts, services and products. Companies of all sizes and from all sectors, students and pioneers in the national and international arena are invited to apply by 12 April 2021.

" ... At the end of September, I took part in the Learning Factory training pilot of the EcoDesign Circle 4.0 project exploring service development according to the principles of circular economy ..." Read more about the experiences of a participant from  Design Forum Finland in this pilot.

How to turn "waste" into market-ready products through design and engineering? How to encourage consumers to change their habits in favour of their health and a reduced footprint? How to strengthen design centres as actors to push the transition to a circular economy? The European Commission hands out its annual REGIOSTARS Awards to inspiring EU-funded projects. Discover this year’s finalist projects in the category “Circular Economy for a Green Europe”.

For the fourth time, Design Forum Finland opened its (virtual) gates and welcomed us to their Talk series about circular economy. Six different guests showed that circular design is possible and can move us towards a sustainable future.

Business is doing great, but the planet is moaning. This has to stop. But how? Join the new format of the EcoDesign Learning Factory: A pilot on Circular Service Design! This brand new format combines different methods from various fields to boost circular economy – and we need you and your brain to make it better.

Since its early days, the Finnish consultancy Ethica has been focusing on circular design. Here, Ethica co-founder and co-developer of the EcoDesign Sprint, Anne Raudaskoski, talks about why they decided to focus on circular design, what experiences they have gained and what is still needed to bring the circular economy to life. 

“Sustainable development: challenges and opportunities” - this is the name of the online conference, which was held on June 2-3, 2020.

The event was the final one in the framework of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet project “Sustainable Development: from Ecology to Multidimensional Approach”, dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge about the SDGs and their implementation in the EU and Russia. One of the presentations was about our project experiences in relation to the SDGs.

Why are the Nordic countries one step ahead in terms of circular economy?

What do collaboration and trust have to do with climate change?

Find out how alternative packaging made from wood fibre is helping to address our growing waste problem and how the sharing economy helps the climate.

“EcoDesign Sprint” is a training programme for enterprises and designers to generate circular design solutions. Developed by Finnish experts and piloted in Estonia, Finland and Sweden, it was implemented for the first time in Russia.

But how does it work in practice? What were experiences at a furniture factory in Saint Petersburg?