ESRs’ Blog
Is Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth and Circular Economy Action Plan going to spread prosperity or concentrate it?
The economic development, social cohesion and political stability in the EU have been imperiled by the regional[1] economic divergence [1]. The last 50 years have...
Read moreVideo Presentation: Circular Economy Paths In The Olive Oil Industry
Amos Ncube presents his research, entitled ‘Circular Economy Paths In The Olive Oil Industry: A Life Cycle Assessment Look Into Environmental Performance And...
Read moreIs there life beyond GDP?
by Josep Pinyol Alberich How should we measure economic performance and success? We keep using GPD and economic growth and we keep ignoring all the critiques that...
Read moreYou may want to change the way you buy clothes…
What would you do if you knew that behind the clothes you wear… …there are low-wage workers without basic rights, people dying from diseases caused by chemicals and...
Read moreFurniture Refurbishment: what about social implications?
IKEA, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, recently announced a furniture buy-back and resell scheme offering customers vouchers to spend in store. The scheme...
Read moreThe Untapped Potential of Biogas in Africa
The pathway to a low carbon economy for many countries across Africa appears as a long and winding road. There remains a predominance of fossil fuel-based heating...
Read moreThank you so much!
Stientje van Veldhoven, Minister for Environment of the Netherlands, said, “we need to look at the resources side” instead of base decisions on energy efficiency...
Read moreA Multi-Method Approach for Evaluating Environmental Implications of a Circular Economy
by Amos Ncube Despite a growing momentum to transition to a circular economy, there is currently no consensus on how organisations can measure their effectiveness in...
Read moreCovid-19 calls for the politicisation of supply chain management
Akis Bimpizas, Management School, University of Sheffield, UK ([email protected]) Prof. Andrea Genovese, Management School, University of Sheffield, UK...
Read moreThe virtual ReTraCE Roundtable for Industry and Policy Makers
Text by Sanja Arsova and Azar Mahmoungonbadi The First Day of the Roundtable event for exchanging knowledge between the 15 Early Stage Researchers, industries and...
Read moreOne Year In
It is around a year since I started my role as a ReTraCE ESR. I thought I would use this opportunity to reflect on the past year and share my thoughts, feelings and...
Read moreCovid-19: the end of global sourcing?
Akis Bimpizas, Management School, University of Sheffield, UK ([email protected]) Prof. Andrea Genovese, Management School, University of Sheffield, UK...
Read moreOnline conferences, networking while staying home
By Josep Pinyol and Kevin van Langen The latest Edition of the International Conference on Innovation and Circular Economy[1] took place from the 25th to the 27th of...
Read moreGlobalised world: A reality after COVID-19?
The COVID-19 crisis is not only challenging our livelihoods, but also our perception about the current economic development model. Many governments have restricted...
Read moreWindmills, cups and straws (1/2)
I was in one of the amazing Greek islands last summer, Samos, when I was preparing an abstract to submit for an international conference on circular economy (CE), and...
Read moreCovid-19: Voices from Naples
Quarantine can make you forget what day it is. The lock-down imposed nationally on March 12, to shutdown most businesses and a ban on public gatherings in Italy, the...
Read moreEmergy is not a “typo”!!!
I recently sent a document to an industrial partner and requested for a review. It did not take too long to receive the comment “word Emergy is a typo”. Well, even my...
Read moreFrom 15 ESRs to one team
The first ReTraCE ESRs Team Retreat took place at the University Parthenope in Naples, from the 16th to the 18th of December. This was a self-organised event that...
Read moreFlying Less as an ESR
Flying is a convenient, affordable, safe, and quick way to travel across countries, making it is the most popular mean of transportation for academics, especially to...
Read moreGiving new life to our products!
We began our sustainability journey at ReTrace project with the mission statement towards circular economy and our initiative “Zero Waste“, a corporate imperative, as...
Read moreTurning trash into treasures
Text by Jayani I. Sudusinghe, Felipe A. de Lima, and Biman D. Hettiarachchi. What happens to the disposable coffee-to-go cup we drink every morning? What happens to...
Read moreCircular Economy and the UK General Election
On the 12th of December, the UK general election will take place. While the debate has been mainly focused on Brexit and the National Health Service, Environmental...
Read moreTransformation
Text by Felipe A. de Lima, Jayani I. Sudusinghe, and Biman D. Hettiarachchi. Aquarelle by Felipe A. de Lima. Transformation (noun): an act, process, or instance of...
Read moreAfrica and the Circular Economy
With my African background, I always try to connect my research and reading with my roots as well for future implementation/consultancy. Throughout my literature...
Read moreHave you ever heard about Climathon?
Climathon is a global event that asks all citizens of the participating cities to face challenges linked to environmental sustainability and be part of the solution...
Read moreDesign for Sustainable Disposal
The new eco-design requirements regulation in the EU[1] is hailed as the first step to Right to Repair legislation across the EU. An interesting aspect of the new...
Read moreLet’s ReThink our attitude!
Text by Felipe Alexandre de Lima & Jayani Ishara Sudusinghe Aquarelle by Felipe Alexandre de Lima It’s worldwide recognized that the current “take-make-dispose”...
Read moreThe end of planned obsolescence?
Increasing the pace of new innovations and constantly releasing new products with small incremental changes is sometimes a strategy for firms in highly competitive...
Read moreOrganic waste: Biobased circularity
Municipal solid waste and in particular organic waste are globally generated in large quantities from various sectors including different stages of the food supply...
Read moreWhy can’t we live circular?
For billions of years we have had life on our planet, but no species had such a catastrophic effect on life on the planet as humans now have. And that is for one...
Read moreEU announces new investment in CE
European Union’s (EU) priority is to achieve a greener and smarter Europe. The circular economy (CE) has been regarded as a powerful tool to reduce environmental...
Read moreThe CE vs Growth dilemma
The current linear economy has been strongly challenged in recent years regarding its merely focus on economic growth in spite of the resulting environmental...
Read moreCircular Economy and the 6 REs
The idea behind the Circular Economy is that we stop discarding what we consider waste until we reach a society that doesn’t heap up waste at all. But what...
Read moreIt’s time to change!
We love consuming goods Buying things changes our mood, but are we aware of the environmental issues we have caused? There are tons of plastics in the ocean The...
Read moreReady to shape the future!
Circular economy is the buzz word these days and the task ahead of us as the recently appointed Early Stage Researchers in pushing the circular economy (CE) agenda...
Read moreOur journey begins!
The Sheffield Summer School has represented the official launch of ReTraCE project (www.retrace-itn.eu) funded by Horizon 2020 EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative...
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