The University of Malta’s Department of Economics recently hosted a round table regarding the circular economy and greening enterprise with local representatives of State and private entities and stakeholders with an interest in the topics.

Dr Marie Briguglio and Dr Jonathan Spiteri from the department presented an overview of the Transition from Linear 2 Circular: Policy and Innovation (R2π) project. The aim of the project is to accelerate the transition to circular economy, highlighting business models for circular economy and proposing policy that will support such business models.

The University of Malta is a partner on the project, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. Members of the R2π international consortium consist of 15 partners from nine Member States and associated countries, including UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Malta, Poland, Belgium and Israel.

The round table was also addressed by Prof. John Thøgersen, Professor of Economic Psychology at Aarhus University, who has experience in projects on sustainable lifestyles, social norms in the environmental field, energy-related behaviour in households and consumer acceptance of organic food products.

The focus of the round table discussion was the measurement of business circularity. The potential of measuring circularity through survey questions, common indicators and/or a material flow analysis was discussed. Participants shared these experiences with the aim of supporting the local transition to a circular economy.