Patterns of Circular Transition: What Is the Circular Economy Maturity of Belgian Ports?

Abstract

Large seaport hubs in Northwestern Europe are aiming to develop as circular hotspots and are striving to become first movers in the circular economy (CE) transition. In order to facilitate their transition, it is therefore relevant to unravel potential patterns of the circular transition that ports are currently undertaking. In this paper, we explore the CE patterns of five Belgian seaports. Based on recent (strategy) documents from port authorities and on in-depth interviews with local port executives, the circular initiatives of these ports are mapped, based on their spatial characteristics and transition focus. The set of initiatives per port indicates its maturity level in terms of transition towards a circular approach. For most studied seaports, an energy recovery focus based on industrial symbiosis initiatives seems to dominate the first stages in the transition process. Most initiatives are not (yet) financially sustainable, and there is a lack of information on potential new business models that ports can adopt in view of a sustainable transition. The analysis of CE patterns in this paper contributes to how ports lift themselves out of the linear lock-in, as it demonstrates that ports may walk a different path and at a diverging speed in their CE transition, but also that the Belgian ports so far have focused too little on their cargo orchestrating role in that change process. Moreover, it offers a first insight into how integrated and sustainable the ports’ CE initiatives currently are.

Circular Economy at the Firm Level: A New Tool for Assessing Maturity and Circularity

“…The maturity of organizations in terms of CE has been also included in the standard BS 8001:2017, as reported e.g., in [39,40], while being explicitly targeted in [41,42].…”

A Virtuous Circle? Increasing Local Benefits from Ports by Adopting Circular Economy Principles

“…The framework provided in Figure 7 may help address some of the cultural and organizational challenges in port cities. Step 1 seeks to create the enabling factors of networking, cooperation, and involvement of stakeholders [10,20,31,47], as well as establishing leadership from the top. Step 2 encourages knowledge transfer, cooperation, and incentivisation by awarding circular economy champion status, all of which have been identified as important in the literature.…”

“…The circular economy has the potential to provide a vast array of economic, social, and environmental benefits, enabling greater levels of sustainable development. The CE is regarded as an approach, which decouples economic growth from environmental impact [20], and it achieves this by the implementation of 10 key circular economy principles (10 Rs). These are refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle, and recover [21].…”

“…This issue is highlighted in the literature, with Gravagnuolo et al [31] stating the importance of cooperation in port cities if CE is to be implemented, and Mankowska et al [10] identified the importance of communication between port authorities and external stakeholders. Haezendonck and Van den Berghe [20] state that although port authorities must play a key role in CE implementation within ports, networking, exchange of ideas, and funding provision is crucial. Girard [47] illustrated the importance of collaboration with stakeholders from outside the port area, eventually enabling CE over larger areas, growing from industrial symbiosis within the port, to urban symbiosis within the port city, and eventually city-territorial symbiosis, including the wider area and hinterland.…”

Moving from Niche to Norm: Lessons from Food Waste Initiatives

“…A transition started as a private sector initiative with a focus on financial benefits [14], following a bottom-up approach where the actions of the private sector have gradually been supported by policies and governmental institutions [10,12,15]. Despite many efforts in Europe towards the transition to CE, the maturity level (i.e., from niche to mainstream) of these efforts regarding the CE in different sectors varies enormously [16,17]. Moreover, Although individual behaviour is part of the food system activities, the model does not clearly show the drivers of individual decision-making, nor ways for incentivising the desired behaviour.…”