Circular economy in the northern Netherlands
Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland (SNN)
2023
The Northern Netherlands region is already a pioneer in the development of a circular economy. Its goal is to become the most circular region in Europe by 2025 - and thus set the framework for a more resource-efficient, sustainable and climate-neutral economy and way of life.
For the Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland (SNN), the association of the three Dutch provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, Prognos examined the status quo of the regional circular economy ecosystem and derived recommendations for the future based on European reference values.
These are the key findings of our analysis:
The three provinces are pursuing a common goal, although they are not assigned to any administrative unit. What still needs to be developed, however, is a joint strategy for the transition to a circular economy by 2025 with a concrete agenda for implementation.
Cooperation with neighboring regions with a similar focus on the circular economy could also be fruitful. The Chemelot project in Limburg (Netherlands), Flanders (Belgium) or North Rhine-Westphalia could be considered for this.
The circular economy has not yet been recorded in official statistics. Its goods and services can be found in all sectors. The project team therefore first defined the term "circular economy" in such a way that it can be applied to the statistical data. Associated goods and services were identified and compared with the economic classification systems. In a further step, Prognos derived coefficients for those goods and services of the circular economy that are not fully covered by the existing economic classification systems. In the final step, the project team calculated the coefficients using official economic data and aggregated them into indicators.
In this way, the project team was able to calculate regional figures on employment, gross value added and the number of companies actively involved in the circular economy. Prognos also calculated the specialization quotient of the provinces and the region based on employees and market fields.
In addition, the project team conducted extensive online research and collected data from stakeholders to describe the regional ecosystem. This included, for example, stakeholder groups involved in CE by sector and good examples of innovative technologies in the chemicals, plastics and water sectors from the region.
Project team: Hanne Hagedorn, Vera Wechner, Richard Simpson, Evelyn Stoll
Last update: 31.09.2023
Project Manager
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Prognos is one of the oldest economic research centres in Europe. Founded at the University of Basel, Prognos experts have been conducting research for a wide range of clients from the public and private sectors since 1959 – politically independent, scientifically sound.