Competition

• Prod­ucts
• Mate­rials
• Research and devel­op­ment
• Systemic inno­va­tion, circular struc­tures, infra­struc­tures and processes
• Circular manu­fac­turing
• Zero waste solu­tions
• New circular busi­ness models and services
• Recy­cling, reuse, redis­tri­b­u­tion, product life exten­sion / repair
• Refur­bish­ment / reman­u­fac­turing
• Energy and resource effi­ciency

In addi­tion to the regular compe­ti­tion entries, the experts actively nomi­nate in this award cate­gory.

All stages of the value chain are taken into account: > Extrac­tion and produc­tion of natural resources/materials or their impor­ta­tion > Manufacturing/production of parts and prod­ucts > Supply, whole­sale and retail > Consump­tion and util­i­sa­tion of prod­ucts and services > Return systems, mate­rial and product recy­cling, waste recy­cling and waste manage­ment.

«Circular economy» is omnipresent today and an impor­tant inno­va­tion factor. Under­lining the urgency for action in view of the climate change, the Paris Agree­ment of 2015 made it clear that reducing the consump­tion of resources and mini­mizing the ecolog­ical foot­print was crucial. Coun­tries are following suit with dedi­cated regu­la­tions that will accel­erate the tran­si­tion from a linear to a circular economy. The inte­gra­tion of design as a compre­hen­sive, contex­tu­al­ising work process is of central impor­tance in this tran­si­tion.

With the visionary goal of the circular economy in mind, the Circular Design cate­gory honours inno­v­a­tive achieve­ments that are already circular in them­selves, that can be inte­grated into the value chain as a partial solu­tion, and that benefit and rede­fine it.

Nomi­na­tions can be made for compa­nies, processes, mate­rials, prod­ucts, tech­nolo­gies and systemic inno­va­tions and, of course, prod­ucts. It is a must to show a clear record of the process. What they all have in common is the fulfil­ment of the criteria, inno­va­tion, recog­nis­able circular conti­nuity from research & devel­op­ment to produc­tion to the customer — and obvi­ously back again.