Eco Efficiency and Circular Production: Cases from the Netherlands’ Eastern Region

Abstract

This chapter discusses three case studies of circular production in the eastern region of the Netherlands, where the Dutch Hanse tradition of craftsmanship and family business links up with modernity and care for the environment. The main goal of the firms in our case studies is to prevent waste and to use recycled and non-fossil resources in their own production processes. Moreover, attention is paid to the circularity of the whole supply chain by acting as orchestrator of that chain. Government should support these firms by facilitating knowledge spill-overs, providing proper education and internalising the positive externalities that the strategies of these firms bring about in terms of the circular economy and sustainability.

Technology, Transaction Costs and Economic Foresight. Developing Tendency-Based Scenarios

“…In this context McCarthy et al (2018) present a critical survey of recently developed models of circularity. Den Butter and Webers (2018) provide a conceptual model with both energy saving and waste reducing technological progress and show applications in case studies. Actually the recently observed slowdown of productivity growth can partly be ascribed to the influence of policies to combat global warming (which enhance global welfare in a broad sense; see e.g., Aitken, 2019).…”