C2C BIZZ

 

Institute's role: Project partner

Background: The Institute worked in partnership with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and University of East London (UEL) to apply Cradle to Cradle principles in practice on the London Sustainable Industries Park (London SIP), East London.  This included research on the feasibility of waste resources exchange and re-use on the London SIP and its adjacent sites and development of the first cross-business C2C demonstrator on an industrial park in the UK. Using by-products previously treated as waste from a group of adjacent industrial businesses, the demonstrator explored how C2C principles and other ‘beyond sustainability’ approaches could be applied in a practical, real world setting.

This activity was part of the C2C BIZZ project, set up to accelerate the application of Cradle to Cradle solutions in business sites and the wider built environment throughout North West Europe. The project used project partners’ experience in delivering Cradle to Cradle pilots to produce a toolkit for creating Cradle to Cradle business and innovation sites as well as guidance on finance models, operational good practice and technical advice for industry use. 

Challenge: In the UK alone, more than 434 million tonnes of waste are produced every year driving a waste management industry worth more than £4.8 billion. Global demand for resources and the cost of disposing of unwanted materials increase, continuous loop and C2C principles present an alternative approach to ‘waste’.  They aim to design and create production techniques that are not just efficient but as waste free as possible by converting what is left over from one production process into raw material or energy to be fed into other processes or products. However, take up and investment in the UK is slow, due in part to concerns about financial viability and risk management.

Activity: A feasibility study for the demonstrator was completed in March 2012 by Royal Haskoning, which reviewed the wider context for material availability and recommended a Cradle to Cradle solution using waste emanating from existing and future London SIP tenants: a plastic recycling business, a gasification plant and an anaerobic digestion plant.

The C2C demonstrator was built on the London SIP and it officially opened in February 2015. Photos from the event are available here.

Several C2C tools were developed by the Institute, based on its experience to assist in the decision-making process for developing a Cradle to Cradle business site. This practical guidance covered areas such as development frameworks, collaboration agreements and material flow modelling.

Partners: The C2C BIZZ project was led by Eindhoven SRE (Netherland) and delivered in conjunction with 11 public sector and academic partners across United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and France.  

Funders: The project was part-funded by the Interreg IVB NWE Programme. 

Further information: For more information on C2C BIZZ click here.