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In 2016, the Flemish Government adopted the transversal policy paper "Vision 2050, a long term strategy for Flanders". It has set the ambition for Flanders for 2050 and has paved the way for a transition to a Circular Economy. It provided new objectives and confirmed the ambition to further reduce the total amount of (residual) waste by closing the loop and reducing the use of primary resources. More than before, prevention and reuse have been an integral part of materials management. The impact of waste behaviour needs to be measured against environmental and social priorities. In this context, the REPAiR project developed a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary methodology. Building on this methodology, this paper explores how governance in Flanders and Ghent has been affected by this transition and draws lessons to address these challenges.

In 2016, the Flemish Government adopted the transversal policy paper "Vision 2050, a long term strategy for Flanders". It has set the ambition for Flanders for 2050 and has paved the way for a transition to a Circular Economy. It provided new objectives and confirmed the ambition to further reduce the total amount of (residual) waste by closing the loop and reducing the use of primary resources. More than before, prevention and reuse have been an integral part of materials management. The impact of waste behaviour needs to be measured against environmental and social priorities. In this context, the REPAiR project developed a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary methodology. Building on this methodology, this paper explores how governance in Flanders and Ghent has been affected by this transition and draws lessons to address these challenges.

The use of cobalt has experienced a strong growth in the last decades. Due to its high economic importance and high supply risk, it has been classified as a critical raw material for the EU and other economies. Part of the EU's strategy is intended to secure its availability, through fostering its efficient use and recycling. The latter is affected by factors such as the amount of available end-of-life products, and their collection-to-recycling rate. A novel methodology to analyze the impact of these factors on the cobalt flows in society is the model MaTrace, which can track the fate of materials over time and across products. The MaTrace model was expanded, adapted, and applied to predict the fate of cobalt embedded in finished products in use in the EU, considering the underlying life cycle phases within the technosphere. Eleven scenarios were built, assessing different options in the implementation of relevant EU's policies. The flows were projected for a period of 25 years, starting in 2015. The results of the baseline scenario show that after 25 years, around 8% of the initial stock of cobalt stays in use, 3% is being hoarded by users, 28% has been exported, and 61% has been lost. The main contributors to the losses of the system are the non-selective collection of end-of-life products, and the export of end-of-life products, recycled cobalt and final products. The results of the scenarios show that higher collection-to-recycling rates and lower export could increase up to 50% the cobalt that stays in use.

The growing role of biomass for future resource supply : prospects and pitfalls -- Helmut Haber -- The growing role of photovoltaic solar, wind and geothermal energy as renewables for electricity generation / W.G.J.H.M. van Sark, J.G. Schepers, J.D.A.M. van Wees -- Assessment of sustainability within holistic process design / Alexei Lapkin, Philipp-Maximilian Jacob, Polina Yaseneva, Charles Gordon, Amy Peace -- A mass balance approach to link sustainable renewable resources in chemical synthesis with market demand / Dr. Claudius Kormann -- Early R&D stage sustainability assessment : the 5-pillar method / Akshay D. Patel, John A. Posada, Li Shen, Martin K. Patel -- Assessing the sustainability of land use : a systems approach / Miguel Brando -- Water use analysis / Francesca Verones, Stephan Pfister, Markus Berger -- Material intensity of food production and consumption / Lucia Mancini and Michael Lettenmeier -- Material and energy flow analysis / Goto, Naohiro, Nova Ulhasanah, Hirotsugu Kamahara, Udin Hasanudin, Ryuichi Tachibana, Koichi Fujie -- Exergy and cumulative exergy use analysis / Sofie Huysman, Thomas Schaubroeck, Jo Dewulf -- Carbon and environmental footprint methods for renewables-based products and transition pathways to 2050 / Geoffrey P. Hammond -- Tracking supply and demand of biocapacity through ecological footprint accounting / David Lin, Alessandro Galli, Michael Borucke, Elias Lazarus, Nicole Grunewald, Jon Martindill, David Zimmerman, Serena Mancini, Katsunori Iha, and Mathis Wackernagel -- Life cycle assessment and sustainability : supporting decision making by business and policy / Sala Serenella, Fabrice Mathieux, Rana Pant -- Life cycle costing / Andreas Ciroth, Jutta Hildenbrand, Bengt Steen -- Social life cycle assessment : methodologies and practice / Alessandra Zamagni, Pauline Feschet, Anna Irene De Luca, Nathalie Iofrida, Patrizia Butto -- Life cycle assessment of solar technologies / F. Ardente, M. Cellura, S. Longo, M. Mistretta -- Asssessing the sustainability of geothermal utilization / Ruth Shortalla, Gudni Axelsson and Brynhildur Davidsdottira -- Biofuels from terrestrial biomass : sustainability assessment of sugarcane biorefineries in Brazil / Otavio Cavalett, Marcos D.B. Watanabe, Alexandre Souza, Mateus F. Chagas, Tassia L. Junqueira, Antonio Bonomi -- Algae as promising biofeedstock : searching for sustainable production processes and market applications / Sue Ellen Taelman, Steven De Meester, Jo Dewulf -- Life cycle assessment of biobased and fossil-based succinic acid / Marieke Smidt, Jeroen den Hollander, Henk Bosch, Yang Xiang, Maarten van der Graaf, Anne Lambin, Jean-Pierre Duda -- Biobased poly vinylchloride (PVC) / Rodrigo A. F. Alvarenga, Zdenek Hruska, Alain Wathelet, Jo Dewulf -- Evaluation of wood cascading / Karin Heglmeier, Gabriele Weber-Blaschke, Klaus Richter -- Time-dependent life-cycle assessment of bio-based packaging materials / Maartje N. Sevenster

Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic, especially in the European Union, that promotes the responsible and cyclical use of resources possibly contributing to sustainable development. CE is an umbrella concept incorporating different meanings. Despite the unclear concept, CE is turned into defined action plans supported by specific indicators. To understand what indicators used in CE measure specifically, we propose a classification framework to categorise indicators according to reasoning on what (CE strategies) and how (measurement scope). Despite different types, CE strategies can be grouped according to their attempt to preserve functions, products, components, materials, or embodied energy; additionally, indicators can measure the linear economy as a reference scenario. The measurement scope shows how indicators account for technological cycles with or without a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach; or their effects on environmental, social, or economic dimensions. To illustrate the classification framework, we selected quantitative micro scale indicators from literature and macro scale indicators from the European Union 'CE monitoring framework'. The framework illustration shows that most of the indicators focus on the preservation of materials, with strategies such as recycling. However, micro scale indicators can also focus on other CE strategies considering LCT approach, while the European indicators mostly account for materials often without taking LCT into account. Furthermore, none of the available indicators can assess the preservation of functions instead of products, with strategies such as sharing platforms, schemes for product redundancy, or multifunctionality. Finally, the framework illustration suggests that a set of indicators should be used to assess CE instead of a single indicator.