How can enterprises transition to Circular Economy Business Models?
This question has been the focus of the project “R2π: - Transition from Linear to Circular” for the past three years, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
The ultimate objective of the R2π project was to accelerate the widespread implementation of circular economy business models and policies to ensure sustained economic development, minimise environmental impact and maximise social welfare.
The project involved a number of work packages led by different members of an international consortium, including the University of Malta.
The University of Malta was responsible for the creation of an inventory and the synthesis of results based on 18 case studies that had transitioned to circularity in one of the EU’s priority sectors.
The UM was also responsible for authoring a synthesis report involving inputs from dozens of stakeholder meetings across Europe. Early in the project lifetime, the UM also undertook an Economic Actor Survey distributed across European high-ranking business executives.
Towards the end of the project the UM was co-responsible for a Consumer Survey conducted across three EU member states, which sought to explore willingness to pay for circular business model products.
Research papers are now being completed, having been presented at scientific conferences globally.
The Principal Investigator from UM was Dr Marie Briguglio from the Department of Economics, with research also being conducted by Dr Jonathan Spiteri and Mr Christopher Meilak. Mr Glenn Formosa and Mr Joseph Caruana, as well as Ms Rebecca Borg and Ms Martese Pfeiffer Paris, provided research assistance in the course of the project.
Over the 3 years of the project, the UM delivered numerous talks, lectures and webinars, participated in multi-stakeholder seminars and conferences, TV and radio programmes, seeded new research projects and influenced institutional strategies and projects. The project’s final conference: “Transitioning to Circular Business Models” was held on 24 October 2019 in Brussels.