Circular value creation has also attracted a great deal of interest in the business world in recent years. It offers the conceptual opportunity to combine ecological requirements with cost savings, more resilient supplier structures and increased competitiveness through innovative business models. Accordingly, the transformation to circular value creation is also associated with high expectations of positive labor market effects. The European Commission hopes that the implementation of its action plan for the circular economy will create up to 700,000 new jobs. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) is therefore planning to develop and implement a National Circular Economy Strategy (NKWS).
The aim of this accompanying research project is to provide scientific support for the process of developing and updating an NKWS for a resource-conserving, sustainable and circular economy and to enrich it with contributions to the discussion and further input. As part of the project, the project partners will develop proposals for a meaningful framework for the strategy as well as specific targets for reducing primary raw material consumption and closing material cycles. They are thus developing a consistent system of targets and indicators as well as an effective package of instruments and measures. Particular attention is paid to measuring the national and global climate protection effects of the proposed measures. The accompanying scientific research is thus intended to increase the speed of transformation of the NKWS and to develop it towards a genuine circular economy.