Knowledge & Publications

By way of introduction: What is Circular Economy?

What exactly is meant by circular economy? And what is the significance of the concept for companies? Our articles and podcasts introducing the Circular Economy explain what’s behind it.

Our definition

The concept of circular economy describes a sustainable economic system in which thought and action are taken in cycles that are as closed as possible in order to secure the economic and social benefits of products, components and materials in the long term while respecting the ecological limits of our planet.

Circular economy thus contrasts with the currently dominant “linear” economic system, in which value creation ends abruptly after a short chain of raw material extraction, processing and consumption with often inadequate disposal, landfilling or purely energy recovery.(continue to article)

Circular Economy - Concept & Background

Good practice - leading by example

The think tank - our podcast

Our publications

Blogs & trade organs

Claudia Schneider, Carina Hermandi (2021):
Always in the circle!
In: UMBAU21 (17/2021) Digitalization Smart Region Emscher-Lippe: Dimensions of the Future (complete edition).

Mario Heinemann, Paul Szabo-Müller (2021): Circular Economy in the Skilled Crafts, https://www.hwk-muenster.de/de/betriebsfuehrung/nachhaltigkeit-umwelt-energie/zirkulaere-wertschoepfung

Svenja Grauel, Friederike von Unruh and Paul Szabo-Müller (2020): Sustainable management thanks to circular economy, https://nachhaltig.digital/blog/1097

RETHINK. Impulses for circular economy (own series)

Julian Mast, Friederike von Unruh, Wolfgang Irrek (2022):
R-Strategies as Guidelines for the Circular Economy
(No. 2022/03).

Manuel Grundmann, Stefan Alscher (2022):
Systematic sustainability assessment of food packaging
(No. 2022/02).

Sabine Büttner, Wolfgang Irrek, Uwe Handmann (2022): Competence Center Circular Economy NRW. Driving the transformation to a sustainable and circular economy (No. 2022/01).

Prospects. News on circular economy (own series)

Julian Mast, Friederike von Unruh, Wolfgang Irrek (2022): R strategies and innovation in circular economy management. Entrepreneurial strategies of circular economy (No. 2022/04).

Manuel Grundmann, Stefan Alscher (2022): Sustainable food packaging. An evaluation matrix for systematic sustainability comparison (No. 2022/03).

Carina Hermandi, Linda Dierke, Stefan Alscher, Manuel Grundmann, Wolfgang Irrek (2022):
Circular Economy in SMEs – Concept for Initiation, Introduction and Implementation
(No. 2022/02).

Scientific Journals & Collections

Nermeen Abou Baker, Nico Zengeler, Uwe Handmann (2022): A Transfer Learning Evaluation of Deep Neural Networks for Image Classification, Mach. Learn. Knowl. Extr. 2022, 4, 22-41, https://doi.org/10.3390/make4010002

Mike Duddek, Saulo H. Freitas Seabra da Rocha (2022): Robotized pre-recycling for improved material recovery. In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Doni F., Salvia A.L. (eds) Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future. Springer, Cham., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_71-1

Wolfgang Irrek, Carina Hermandi, Julian Mast, Mike Duddek, Manuel Grundmann, Stefan Alscher (2021): Circular Economy Management – Thinking Value Creation in Circuits. In: Factory Innovation 1 (2021), https://doi.org/10.30844/FI21-1_20-25

Nermeen Abou Baker, Paul Szabo-Müller, Uwe Handmann (2021): Transfer learning-based method for automated e-waste recycling in smart cities, https://eudl.eu/doi/10.4108/eai.16-4-2021.169337

Nermeen Abou Baker, Paul Szabo-Müller, Uwe Handmann (2021): A Feature-Fusion Transfer Learning Method as a Basis to Support Automated Smartphone Recycling in a Circular Smart City, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76063-2_29

Conference presentation

A feature-fusion transfer learning method as a basis to support automated smartphone recycling in a circular smart city

Lecture by Nermeen Abou Baker

Conference: EAI S-cube 2020 | SmartCity360° Convention 2020 | 11th Conference on Sensor Systems and Software

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