This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 308680.

SCALING-UP THE CIRCULAR ECONOMYRecommendations for finance, regulation and required innovations

Stephan Slingerland, Tycho Smit Trinomics With contributions from Elisa Achterberg (Circle Economy / Sustainable Finance Lab), Ronald Kleverlaan (CrowdfundingHub), Daniel Gehrt (JIIP), Martha Bissmann (WIP Renewable Energy) and Franz Knecht (Connexis Strategy Consultants)*

POLICY BRIEF NO. 6, OCTOBER 2017

I The circular economy in Europe is on the verge of taking off, supported by targeted EU and Member State policies. However, many barriers for scaling-up are still remaining. These concern in particular finance, regulation and wider socio-economic innovations required for innovative business models in the circular economy;

II In the field of finance, better ways of understanding and assessing circular economy risks, a larger diversity in financing instruments and an improved access to available public funds especially for smaller start-ups and SMEs could contribute significantly to scaling up the circular economy;

III The regulatory reforms that could contribute to the growth of circular economy should aim at improv-ing measurement and rewarding of circular economy benefits, introducing stricter circular economy requirements in public procurement and an adequate pricing of resource use and waste production;

IV Research and innovation should focus on major socio-economic innovations necessary for the circular economy to expand, including other market models that favour ‘co-opetition’ (improved co-operation within supply chains, without distorting competition, see further explanation in this policy brief) between stakeholders in value chains and social experiments with local circular economies.

Key messages

* Whereas the authors are responsible for the final draft of this policy brief, the text has greatly benefitted from the expert contributions. It is partly based on discussions and presentations at two expert workshops held in the RECREATE project, on 25-10-2016 in Brussels and on 23-5-2017 in Amsterdam.

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POLICY BRIEF NO. 6

What to find in this policy brief?

Introduction 3

Challenges for scaling-up the circular economy 4

Finance for a circular economy scale-up 6

Regulation for a circular economy scale-up 9

Innovations for a circular economy scale-up 10

Recommendations 11

RECREATE is a 5-year project running from 2013 to 2018, funded by the European Commission. It is carried out by a consortium consisting of 16 key partners from European research and industry and is led by the Joint Institute for Innovation Policy (JIIP). The overall objective of the project is to support the development of the European Union’s research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020, with a specific focus on the part Societal Challenge 5: Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials.

www.recreate-net.eu

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Dear Reader,

We are very pleased to present you with the sixth edition of our RECREATE Policy Briefs. The background of this Policy Brief is somewhat different from that of prior editions: Whereas all previous Policy Briefs were directly based on work carried out by one of the analytical tasks of the RECREATE project, the present Brief is the final product of a series of workshops and events that RECREATE coordinator JIIP has organised on the subject of “Financing and Entrepreneurship in the Circular Economy”. The following events should be mentioned in this context:

• Joint K4I/RECREATE Dinner Debate on “Circular Economy and Nature-based Solutions”, 28 June 2016, European Parliament, Brussels

• Parallel workshops on “Financing the Circular Economy” and on “Startups in the Circular Economy”, 25 October 2016, DG RTD, Brussels

• Workshop on “Finance and Entrepreneurship in the Circular Economy” (as direct follow-up on the workshops on 25 October 2016), 23 May 2017, Amsterdam

At these events, we gathered a number of distinguished experts from various fields including financing and investment, research, consulting, industry (both large and small) as well as policy-makers. With them, we first identified a number of specific issues and challenges that present themselves to entrepreneurs engaged or wanting

to engage in “circular” businesses as well as to their potential financiers. In a second step, we discussed which measures can be taken from the regulatory and policy-making side in order to address these challenges.

Rather than already anticipating some of the conclusions, we would like to use this foreword to thank a number of people who have played an important role in this context: Ronald Kleverlaan from CrowdfundingHub as well as Frans Nauta from Berkely Haas School of Business for their excellent co-moderation of the events; Stephan Slingerland and Tycho Smit from Trinomics for their very efficient lead in producing this Policy Brief; Elisa Achterberg from Circle Economy who had a particularly active role both at the events and in contributing to the Policy Brief; but also all other presenters and active participants who contributed with specific inputs and feedback.

On behalf of the entire RECREATE consortium, we wish you a good read and look forward to your feedback. If you would like to find out more about the project, please visit our website www.recreate-net.eu or send an email to info@recreate-net.eu.

Kind regards,

Robbert FisherProject Coordinator

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IntroductionThe circular economy is on the rise. In the face of resource scarcity, climate

change and biodiversity loss, more and more companies recognise the need

to improve not only the environmental performance of products over their

whole value chain or lifecycle from cradle to grave, but to bring these back to

a cradle stage again in order to restart with a new lifecycle i. Increasingly also

new business opportunities are created by more service oriented business

models. From the companies viewpoint, this not only contributes to a better

environment, but also can give rise to improved financial benefits.

The EU strongly supports this shift towards a circular economy. The 2015

Circular Economy Action Plan ‘Closing the loop’ covers a wide range of

measures, acknowledging the production, consumption, end-of-life and reuse

stages of a product’s lifecycle ii.

However, so far the ‘linear economy’ is still predominant in Europe and

elsewhere. Many barriers remain to be overcome before ‘circularity’ becomes

common practice in all business sectors. These include in particular barriers

concerning finance, regulation and innovation. This RECREATE policy brief

discusses these barriers and suggests ways to overcome them.

EU Support for a Circular Economy

Recent EU support actions for a Circular Economy, as expressed in the ‘Closing the Loop’ Action Planiii, include on the production side a strengthening of the already existing EcoDesign Direc-tive, promotion of industrial symbiosis and increased funding for innovative circular economy research. On the consumer side the Action Plan aims to improve labelling practices and com-pliance with product warranty laws, to launch a test program to fight premature obsolescence of products, and to stimulate collaborative economy practices and incor-poration of circular economy criteria into green public procurement. For the end-of-life product stage the Commission proposes further harmonization of waste legislation among member states, new waste reduction and recycling targets and removing obstacles for an increased secondary materials market.

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Challenges for scaling-up the circular economy

New business models are required for the develop-ment of a circular economy. In the existing linear economy, value is created along a so-called ‘Value Hill’iv. Through the traditional ‘make-use-dispose cy-cle’v, first a product’s value increases throughout the production phase as resources are extracted, parts are produced, assembled into a complete product and finally sold to the consumer. However, when the use-phase starts the product slowly starts losing its value. This decrease in value accelerates when the product is eventually disposed of and ends up as waste. Key to circular economy business models is to prevent the product’s value from going all the way down the value hill. Rather, the value should be pushed back uphill and it matters that it is done as early as possible. Therefore, activities such as reuse

and refurbishing and remanufacturing should be pri-oritized over recycling (Figure 1).

Despite a successful application of these business models in practice, there are still several challenges for existing circular economy companies and start-ups. These include in particular:

• The need to combine good ideas with a selling point/business case

• Access to finance • Identification of the right entry-and exit points in

the ‘value-cycle’• Realization of a closed business case in an

economy where a level playing field is lacking• The ability to combine circular & environmental

performance with added value for the consumer

Adapted from: Achterberg et al., 2016

Figure 1: The Value Hill model and the circular economy

Using the Value Hill Model, four different categories of circular economy business models can be distinguished: Circular Design, Optimal Use, Value Recovery and Network Organisation. Circular Design is essential to for the circularity of a product because design determines the resource and energy impacts during the production phase and the use phase, as well as the possibilities for remanufacturing or refurbishment in the end-of life phase. Optimal Use can take many forms, from new product business models offering products-as-a-service to online platforms that facilitate the sharing of goods among peers. Value Recovery businesses can resell second-hand goods or products, refurbish products or remanufacture products. Network Organisation offer the required services to make new connections in the value chain by providing the infrastructure in terms of product tracking, logistics or other means that are needed to optimize the ‘value-cycle’. Examples of compa-nies operating in each of these four categories of business models are given in the text box below.

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Combining good ideas with a business caseMany innovative start-ups arise from a creative idea on a social-innovation or a new technology with a lot of positive environmental impacts. Although the implementation of such ideas might bring about valuable social and environmental benefits, many of these innovative entrepreneurs have a hard time to couple their idea to a business case and to ‘sell’ their idea to investors.

Getting access to financeScaling up circular businesses does require fresh financing. For instance, re-use needs cash or debt finance for advertising, refurbishing cash and cred-its for salaries of workforces that refurbish the products. Remanufacturing needs investments in new technologies and workplaces. However, sev-

eral types of circular economy models are hard to finance as they may not attract the attention of banks or do not fit the standard conditions for ac-ceding to capital. This applies for instance to the businesses that want to start up product-service systems such as leasing models. The next section will explain in more detail in which way circular businesses create particular financing challenges and how these can be overcome.

Finding the right entry and exit points in the value hillIn the circular economy, the entire value-cycle of a product needs to be optimized and investments in one phase of the lifecycle can generate benefits elsewhere in the cycle. This makes it hard for com-panies to determine in which parts of the product’s

Successful Examples of Circular Design, Optimal Use and Value Recovery in practice

Circular Design – Apart from its ambitions to increase the transparency on sourcing of materials during smartphone production, Fairphone has now developed the first smartphone with a modular design: the Fairphone 2. This optimizes the opportunities for easy replacement of parts, upgrad-ing of parts and increases the possibilities for refurbishment and reman-ufacturing. Up to now, Fairphone has sold its phones via a regular retail model but it is currently looking into the possibilities of switching to a product-service systemV.

Optimal use – Mud Jeans is a company that offers leasing of jeans. Cus-tomers pay a one-off membership fee of €20 and a monthly fee of € 7.50. During the leasing period of one year Mud Jeans provides repairs for free. After the one year period the user can decide to become owner of the jeans or to swap it for a new pair of jeans. Used jeans are used for resale on the second hand market (sometimes after repair or processing) or recycled to make new clothing. Mud Jeans makes a profit, although this is still coming from its retail model. The leasing model has not yet reached the break-even pointvi.

Value-recovery – Recover-E is a company that wants to optimize use of electronic equipment by offering service contracts through which they provide logistics and maintenancevi. At the end-of-life stage Recover-E col-lects the equipment is collected to be reused, resold to the manufacturer for remanufacturing or to be refurbishedvii. In this way Recover-E tries to cycle back electronic project at high levels in the value hill and thereby prolong the use-phase of products dramatically.

Network organization – Dutch Awearness is a company that provided sustainable workwear to companiesviii. To be able to follow the wear from the production, throughout the use phase and collect it at the end-of-life stage the firm has developed a chain management tool called the circular chains management systems, which combines a track and trace tool with a database on the processes and materials that were used during the pro-duction process.

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lifecycle they can – or want – to be involved and which parts they have – or wish – to leave to other companies. Also, it emphasizes the need for net-working organisations that provide increased co-operation between supply-chain partners so that incentives to invest in optimization of the supply chain are created and benefits are fairly shared throughout the supply chain.

Dealing with a non-level playing fieldNegative environmental impacts which result in so-cietal costs are not yet factored in to the prices of products. As a consequence, it is difficult for com-panies to do investments that reduce these exter-nal costs and remain competitive with companies that do not take such efforts.

Linking environmental performance to consumer serviceImproved environmental performance does not al-ways go hand in hand with clear benefits for the consumer. A product can be better from an envi-ronmental point of view, but it will only have an im-pact if consumers want to buy/use it.

Some of these barriers relate to good entrepre-neurship of start-ups and existing companies themselves, others concern boundary conditions for doing business, such as access to finance and regulatory arrangements that adequately valuate circular economy benefits.

Finance for a circular economy scale-upInvestments in circular businesses are often per-ceived to be risky by traditional financiers. There-fore, new ways to evaluate risks and returns are needed, especially to make product service sys-tems apparent risk lower and get them more easily financeable. Also, access to finance for small start-ups should be improved and a larger diversity in financial instruments is needed.

New perspectives on riskProduct service systems (PSSs) are a promising category of circular economy business models, including for instance product leasing (e.g. Miele ‘Bundles’ – pay for washing services rather than for washing machines) and product as a service (e.g. Philips ‘Pay-per-lux’ – offering lighting solu-tions rather than lamps). PSSs can have equal, or higher returns compared to conventionally linear sales models and can provide more stable cash flows over the longer term compared to singular sales modelsix. Next to that, higher profit margins can be achieved, because the lifetime of products is extended and the residual value of used assets can be monetised by increased cooperation with part-ners in the supply chain. They also provide positive environmental and social impacts, that generate additional returns next to financial revenues.

Despite of all these advantages, product service systems are often challenging to finance because they disrupt the common revenue structure that investors are used to. They require high upfront investments, have relatively high overhead cost (e.g. management of the contracts), and longer payback periods than traditional investments due to dispersed paymentsx. As a consequence, the in-vestment risk for potential financiers is perceived to be high.

The main reason for this is that current methods to evaluate investments do not fit into the current standardized and highly regulated risk assessment methods, and therefore fail to capture the real risks and returns of businesses applying product service systems. Such standard risk assessments are cur-rently mainly based on the tangible assets (credit worthiness) and financial liquidity (credit ability) and they cannot sufficiently capture the value of future earningsxi. However, many circular businesses have a strong customer base and good relationships with value chain partners which can be seen as intangible assets contributing to credit worthiness. This ‘so-cial capital’ is hardly ever reflected when analysing a company’s balance sheet and is often understood to be speculative only, in particular in the case of a

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start-up. It is therefore not factored in risk assess-ments. Neither do current risk assessment tools in general capture the increased risks that conven-tional companies have because of their dependency on raw materials and relatively high level of negative environmental impacts.

Making product-service systems more financeableThere are several ways in which companies that want to employ a PSS can improve their finance-abilityxii. First, it is essential to demonstrate close and tangible partnerships in the value chain through e.g. good contracts between circular start-ups, their investors and customers. The con-tracts need to be both flexible and robust, ensur-ing that customers are not discouraged because of strict obligations while simultaneously providing certainty for investors with respect to the cover-age of investment costsxiii. Furthermore, the cred-itworthiness of customers can be used to decrease the risk for investors. This can be done for example by providing new customers with lower value or used products and customers with a good pay-ment track record with more valuable products. Another way to make PSSs more financeable is to shorten the pay-back periods by charging higher

fees during the first few years, so that the investor is exposed to the risks for a shorter time period. This is especially a useful strategy for companies that provide product service systems for low-value assets, such as textiles.

Providing access to finance for small start-upsTraditional financiers often require minimum amounts for investments to be made. A general problem for circular economy- and other start-ups and scale-ups is that they often need investment volumes that are too small to be attractive for banks and too large to pay for from own equity. The EU has set up several funds to support this kind of investments (e.g. COSME, EFSI and H2020), but the total budget that is available to these funds is not sufficient to provide finance to all promising start-ups and scale-upsxiv. Additionally, business-es have indicated that the current procedures to receive funding from EU funds are too bureaucrat-ic and burdensome and that coherence between different instruments is lacking. In order to be able to support more start-ups and scale-ups the Commission has proposed to increase the budgets of COSME and EFSIxv. However, for a substantial scale-up of the circular economy further support is likely to be required.

Source: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, 2017x

Figure 2: Expected market size of the alternative finance market in 2017

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New finance modelsThe increased variety of business models also created the need for a larger diversity in financing types as well as new forms of ownership, next to a continued need for traditional finance. The market of non-bank finance is already rapidly growing in the EU, in 2015 it was valued at € 5.43 bnxvi. How-ever, the maturity of the market for new financing models varies strongly among EU Member States, with the UK being by far the largest market at the

moment, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, France and Sweden (figure 2).

Currently there is already a large variety of non-bank finance models, including ‘crowdfunding’, ‘so-cial impact bonds’, ‘equity in people’ and ‘commu-nity-owned businesses’. These new financing tools differ in terms of type of projects and companies they are used for and in the amount of money they can supply (see textbox)xvii.

Innovative finance and ownership models for a circular economy

Crowd-funding – A well-known form of alternative finance is crowd-funding. In this model a group of people donates or lends money to a certain pro-ject or business. In many cases the finance providers are actively involved in the development of the projects/companies and in some cases they are given some reward in return for their donation. As an example, the UK-based brewery Brewdog received a large part of its financing through equity crowd-funding . In the meantime they have over 46,000 participants who invested in the company through their online crowdfunding platformxviii.

Social Impact Bonds – In social impact bonds, the government allows a pri-vate party to take over a service that it would normally have provided itself. The private party sets up the service and pays the costs that are needed to run it. If the company successfully replaces the government service it receives payment from the government. In the Netherlands for example, there is a project where private organisations invest in a re-integration program for ex-prisoners. Their goal is to reduce the time that is needed to provide the ex-prisoners with a job by 25–30% and reduce recidivism by 10%xix. If the consortium succeeds in this, their initial investment will be refunded by the national government.

Equity in people – A radically new form of finance is to invest in individual people, instead of companies. The fund of Excellence, a company owned by the Austrian bank Erste, is a company that provides this type of finance, which they call Vision Capital. The company invests in people who want to study, or are starting as an entrepreneur. The ‘investees’ receive a fixed monthly income to cover their expensesxx. In return they have to pay over a specific period (max 10 year, mostly 5 years) a percentage of their income (2–12%) back to the company.

Community owned businesses – In addition to new financial instruments, new forms of ownership are gaining popularity and community-owned businesses are an example of this. In community-owned businesses the investments that are needed to start and run the company are done by a group (crowd) of people who do not only invest together, but also own the company together as a cooperative. This model is often used in local renewable energy projects where cooperatives are started to build and exploit a wind farm or solar farm. An example of this is the Wind Park Ni-jmegen-Betuwe cooperative, where 1 013 individuals from the region Ni-jmegen in The Netherlands collected €2M to build a wind park together with other investorsxxi. The company is run by a management board and the members of the cooperative share the revenues according to the share each individual has in the investment.

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The increased variety of financing models offers opportunities for circular businesses and other in-novative companies to find a financing model that suits their business model best. The most optimal solution for companies is often to use a combina-tion of different financing instruments, albeit that this often comes at the cost of an increased admin-istrative burden.

Another drawback of the increasing choice in dif-ferent finance types and sources is that it is hard-er for companies, especially start-ups, to find out where to find the investment they need. This means

that there is a growing need for organisations that provide financial advice to start-ups and other businesses so that the right sources of finance and mix of financing instruments can be found. The Eu-ropean Commission is aware of this challenge and has launched a number of initiatives to connect businesses with the right partners including sev-eral Thematic Smart Specialisation platforms and the Start-up Europe initiativexxii. Furthermore, the Commission has proposed to reinforce Start-up Europe and to set up pilot projects for matchmak-ing between start-ups and finance partners.

Regulation for a circular economy scale-up

Many challenges for circular businesses can be solved by adapting existing regulation/law. Impor-tant aspects in this respect are: rewarding circular businesses for their environmental performance and properly pricing resource use and waste pro-duction via cap-and-trade systems and/or taxes.

Rewarding circular businesses for environmental performanceEnvironmental and societal benefits are among the most important reasons to make the transition to a circular economy. However, to distinguish com-panies that really deliver these impacts from those that only present themselves as a circular business because of marketing considerations, it is essen-tial that the degree of circularity is measured in a straightforward and in a regulatory prescribed, standardized manner. Also the ability to rank com-panies according to their degree of circularity is essential to enable consumers to select the most circular products. Such rankings would also allow policymakers to assess circular performance of tenderers during procurement procedures. The Eu-ropean Commission acknowledges the importance of circular impact metrics and investigates the use-fulness of a ‘Product Environmental Footprint’ to inform consumers about the environmental impacts

of productsxxiii. Additionally, the Commission inves-tigates how the degree of circularity of a product can be included into the voluntary EU Ecolabel. A continuation on this path towards rewarding envi-ronmental performance of companies is needed.

Pricing resource use and waste productionOne of the key barriers for a circular economy to scale-up is the fact that the environmental exter-nalities that are caused by the current linear econo-my are generally not priced at all or when priced not properly yet. This also makes that current business models based on high turnovers from selling as many products as possible are often still more prof-itable than circular business models. This can be solved by internalizing these costs on the balance sheets of companies, by putting a price on negative environmental or social impacts that are created. This can be achieved via cap-and-trade systems or via taxes. The former are already being implement-ed for greenhouse gas emissions. The EU, several states in Canada and the US as well as 7 regions in China have set up greenhouse gas emission trading systems and many countries levy taxes on car fuels or coalxx. In a similar fashion countries could raise taxes on resource use or waste generation. The lat-ter could be done in a budget-neutral way by shift-

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ing taxes away from labour to waste production and pollution, although problems such as diminishing returns if successful in reducing waste still need to be addressedxxv. Such a tax reform will incentivize companies to use resources more efficiently and

prevent the generation of waste. Currently tax re-gimes of Member States are very different and of national competence in the EU, therefore imple-mentation of such a tax shift would have to take place on a national level.

Innovations for a circular economy scale-up

The circular economy is not only about econom-ics and financial profits. It also involves a shift in thinking about the role of consumption and pro-duction in our society and the way in which mar-kets can perform their role in such a way that they provide the right incentives for environmentally sound and socially inclusive action of business-es. Next to innovations in products and services therefore also a more fundamental level of social innovation is needed. This also requires room for experimentation before successful experiments can be scaled-up to a higher level. Two examples in which social research and innovation could be beneficial are ‘co-opetition’ in value chains and local circular economies.

Co-opetitionA circular economy often requires cooperation or even integration between companies in different parts of the value chain in order to be successful.

For instance, a manufacturing company can gen-erate new profits by cooperating with a refurbish-ment company that recollects and reworks used products of the manufacturing company. Howev-er, sometimes these companies are competitors. In other cases, their cooperation can create new concentrations of power in the value chain that are not regarded positively by national competition authorities. A variety of experiments in practice on a smaller and larger scale are therefore needed to see how such a ‘co-opetition’ can work in practice between companies and what are the regulatory borders required to allow for cooperation without endangering sufficient choice for consumers.

Local circular economiesAccording to some, a circular economy should as much as possible take place on a smaller region-al and local scale in order to be successful. In this way, a circular economy could create additional

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benefits such as community engagement and a feeling of ownership by all regional and local par-ties, which in turn would be important conditions for the sustainability on the longer term of a circu-lar economy. In some regions and towns, this has even led to the creation of local currencies, such as the Bristol pound in the United Kingdom or L’Oc-citan in the city of Pézenas in Languedoc-Roussil-

lon, France. Some European support was already provided for instance in the ‘Community Currencies in Action’ projectxxvi through Interreg, but further socio-economic research of what are the conse-quences of such local circular economies in prac-tice is required.

Recommendations Entrepreneurs are the first ones responsible for scaling-up the circular economy. They have to search for the opportunities that the market provides to them. However, this policy brief has shown that a take-off of the circular economy on a large scale by entrepreneurial action alone is not a matter of course, but still requires many ad-aptations in fields such as finance, regulation and (social-) innovation so that entrepreneurs find the right incentives and borders in which they can shape the circular economy. Main recommenda-tions for action that follow from this discussion are given below.

Finance• More differentiated risk assessment methods

which take into account the benefits of a circular economy should be developed and used by the financiers instead of traditional assessment methods;

• Financiers should also more openly approach and learn from the emerging variety in new financial instruments and see how to better incorporated them in larger-scale finance;

• Funding should become more accessible to smaller start-ups. This holds in particular for public financiers such as the European Investment Bank and other public finance institutions.

Regulation• To include in law improved measurement and

rewarding of circular economy benefits could contribute to scaling-up the circular economy;

• Stricter circular economy requirements could be applied in public procurement;

• Resource use and waste generation should be properly priced in particular by way of cap-and-trade systems and/or by tax reforms.

Innovation• Research and innovations should focus more

on major socio-economic changes necessary for a circular economy scale-up;This should include in particular research and larger scale experimentation with other market models that favour ‘co-opetition’ between stakeholders in value chains;

• Also more social experiments in practice with local circular economies are needed.

Implementing these recommendations could con-tribute to fulfilling the circular economy commit-ments made in EU and international policy agen-das. If possible, they would help to give a final push for indeed scaling up the circular economy from the ‘a thousand flowers’ level to mainstream in the near future.

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Referencesi. For instance, the Ellen McArthur Founda-

tion Circular Economy top-100 network now comprises 21 sectors in 23 countries. See www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ce100/directory

ii. European Commission (2015) Closing the loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, COM 2015 614

iii. European Commission (2015) Closing the loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, COM 2015 614

iv. Achterberg, E., Hinfelaar, J., Bocken, N.M.P. (2016). Master Circular Business with the Value Hill (White paper), Circle Economy & Sustainable Finance Lab.

v. A recent decision to stop further support for the Fairphone 1 however, has cast some doubts over the ‘circularity’ of the business model of the Fairphone .

vi. Recover-E (2017). Official website, URL: http://recover-e.nl/all-about-you/ict-user

vii. Recover-E (2017). Official website, URL: http://recover-e.nl/all-about-you/ict-re-cycler

viii. Dutch Awearnes (2017). Official website, URL: http://dutchawearness.com/chain-management

ix. Ibid.

x. Achterberg, E., van Tilburg, R. (2016). 6 Guidelines to Empower Financial Deci-sion-Making in the Circular Economy (White paper). Circle Economy & Sustainable Finance Lab.

xi. Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (2017) Sustaining Momentum – The 2nd European Alternative Finance Industry Report, University of Cambridge

xii. Fischer, A., Achterberg, E. (2016) Create a Financeable Product-as-a-Service Business in 10 Steps (White paper), Circle Economy & Sustainable Finance Lab

xiii. Ibid.

xiv. EC (2016). Communication - Europe’s next leaders: the Start-up and Scale-up Initiative

xv. Ibid.

xvi. Cambridge center for alternative finance (2016). Sustaining momentum – The 2nd European alternative finance industry report.

xvii. Ibid.

xviii. Brewdog (2017) URL: www.brewdog.com/equityforpunks

xix. Start Foundation (2016). URL: www.startfoundation.nl/nieuws/nieuws/samen_investeren_in_een_succesvolle_ter-ugkeer_naar_de_maatschappij

xx. Erste Group (2017). URL: www.erstegroup.com/en/news-media/press-releases/2017/03/27/erste-vi-sion-capital-fund-of-excellence-in-vests-in-dedicated-founders-alias

xxi. Windpark Nijmegen-Betuwe (2017). URL: www.windparknijmegenbetuwe.nl/wind-park

xxii. EC (2016). Communication - Europe’s next leaders: the Start-up and Scale-up Initiative

xxiii. European Commission (2015) Closing the loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, COM 2015 614

xxiv. IETA (2016). Carbon Pricing – The Paris Agreement’s key ingredient

xxv. See for instance the Ex’tax project, www.ex-tax.com

xxvi. http://communitycurrenciesinaction.eu

Policy Brief No.6, November 2017Scaling-up the Circular Economy – Recommendations for finance, regulation and required innovations

Authors Slingerland, Tycho Smit Trinomics

With contributions from Elisa Achterberg (Circle Economy / Sustainable Finance Lab), Ronald Kleverlaan (CrowdfundingHub), Daniel Gehrt (JIIP), Martha Bissmann (WIP Renewable Energy) and Franz Knecht (Connexis Strategy Consultants)

Layout Beáta Welk Vargová Ecologic Institute

Berlin/Brussels 2017

This publication reflects only the author's views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Photos:Cover page: © Michael Tatman/Shutterstock.com; P. 16 © serato/Shutterstock.com