This report was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the Programme of Work and Budget of the Regional Development Policy Committee. It is the result of an 18-month policy dialogue with 30+ stakeholders from public, private, non-profit sectors and representatives from the municipality of Groningen, Netherlands.
The report and underlying policy dialogues were co-ordinated by Oriana Romano, Head of the Water Governance and Circular Economy Unit, under the supervision of Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division in the CFE. The report was drafted by a core OECD team of experts comprised of Oriana Romano, Luis Cecchi, Policy Analyst and Ander Eizaguirre, Junior Policy Analyst. Special thanks are conveyed to Marco Bianchini, Policy Analyst in the SME and Entrepreneurship Division in CFE, for his participation in the fact-finding mission, inputs and comments on earlier drafts.
The OECD Secretariat is grateful to the deputy Mayor of Groningen, Ms Glimina Chakor, for her high level of commitment and leadership towards circular economy in the city. Warm thanks are also extended to the admirable local team in Groningen led by Aline Otten, Economic Affairs Manager, for the excellent collaboration throughout the dialogue, in particular: Floor de Jong, Co‑ordinator of International Affairs, and Anne Helbig, Policy Advisor.
Furthermore, the policy dialogue benefited from insights from peer reviewers who are warmly thanked for sharing their valuable expertise and city experience, participating in the case study missions and providing international best practices as well as guidance on the report, namely: Sebastian Holmström, Project Co‑ordinator in the Communications and Spatial Planning Department (City of Umeå, Sweden); and Rosa Huertas Gonzalez, Director of the Innovation, Economic Development, Employment and Commerce Department (City of Valladolid, Spain). Special thanks are conveyed to Professor Jan Jonker, Chair of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Nijmegen School of Management at Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, for his contribution to the policy seminar, held on 17 September 2019 in Groningen, Netherlands.
This report is the result of the interviews with 30+ stakeholders during the OECD visits to Groningen, Netherlands (12-15 February and 17 September 2019) (Annex A), as well as insights from the OECD Survey on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions and desk research. Interim findings and progress results were presented at the “Workshop: Circular Economy in Cities” during the 40th meeting of the Regional Development Policy Committee (5 November 2018, Paris, France), and at the 1st OECD Roundtable on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions (4 July 2019, Paris, France).
The draft report benefited from written comments by stakeholders engaged throughout the policy dialogue, in particular: Eileen Blackmore (House of Design), Pieter Jan Bouwmeister (Province of Groningen), Cor Dijkstra (Kaaskop), Michael Freerks (Royal Haskoning DHV Nederland B.V.), Marco Kwak (Attero), Tjitse Mollema (Waterschap Noorderzijlvest), Mathijs Niehaus (DaaromWel), Elze Reitsema (van Wijnen) and Maarten Wiersma (ABC2).
The report was submitted to RDPC delegates for approval by written procedure by 6 March 2020 under the cote [CFE/RDPC/URB(2020)/5]. The final version was edited and formatted by Eleonore Morena, and François Iglesias and Pilar Philip prepared the manuscript for publication.