CIRCULANDIA
Promoting circular food systems, regenerative agriculture and reusable packagingAbout the project
CIRCULANDIA is a four-and-a-half-year project (2026-2030) receiving funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. CIRCULANDIA aims to demonstrate, deploy, and upscale circular systemic solutions for food, nutrients, and packaging in European cities and regions, directly supporting the European Green Deal and Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI). The project addresses 3 Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) key value chains: 1) packaging, 2) plastics, and 3) food, water and nutrients (as listed in the CEAP key value chains). By combining the value chains, CIRCULANDIA aims to demonstrate that reducing pressure on natural resources is possible by showcasing that
- Regenerative methods can eliminate or drastically reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers and water use by restoring soil health and fertility, enhancing carbon sequestration, increasing water retention, and reducing nutrient runoff, while closing nutrient loops through local composting of bio-based streams;
- Shorter supply chains of local food production, distribution and consumption decrease the needs for logistics, storage space and time, and drastically reduce packaging requirements, as locally sourced products do not need to be designed for extended shelf life due to reduced transport and storage needs;
- Scaling reusable packaging systems further reduces resource extraction and packaging and plastic waste by keeping materials in circulation for multiple uses.
Links and Resources
Project reference: https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/projects/circular-systemic-solutions-regenerative-agriculture-local-food-systems-and_en
Project duration: 2026 – 2030
GreenDelta in the project
GreenDelta leads a work package that provides the sustainability assessments of the CIRCULANDIA solutions. The objective is to quantify reductions in emissions, waste, and resource use, while evaluating biodiversity, air quality, and the social, economic, and environmental trade-offs and benefits. Since the project follows a cross-sectoral approach by focussing on 3 interconnected value chains, GreenDelta will apply a novel sustainability assessment approach by combining life cycle sustainability assessments (LCSA) with system dynamics (SD). This way it is possible to observe and evaluate context-specific and system-wide changes and allow for more localized and effective decision-making. To lay the foundation for these types of assessment, GreenDelta will develop a methodological framework for linking LCSA and SD. The framework will include aspects such as stakeholder engagement and model validation. Furthermore, SD modelling capabilities will be developed in the software openLCA. This will produce the first open-source tool that allows you to conduct SD and LCSA calculations simultaneously, thereby covering the software capabilities for current developments in sustainability assessments, such as prospective LCA or dynamics LCA, but also completely new approaches, such as feedback loops and wider system modelling. Throughout the project the framework and software toolset will be iteratively applied to the demonstration case studies.
Partners
The parties working on this project are:
- CLIC Innovation (Finland)
- Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council (Finland)
- City of Vantaa (Finland)
- Stadt Freiburg (Germany)
- Ajuntament de Manacor (Spain)
- Møre og Romsdal fylkeskommune (Norway)
- Metropole Européenne de Lille (France)
- Stad Roeselare (Belgium)
- City of Espoo (Finland)
- Município de São João da Madeira (Portugal)
- Zagrebacki Holding d.o.o. (Croatia)
- Intercommunale de gestion de l’environnement – IPALLE (Belgium)
- Baltic Sea Action Group (Finland)
- Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland)
- Stiftelsen Norsk Senter for Økologisk Landbruk / NORSØK (Norway)
- Kekkilä-BVB Oy (Finland)
- University of Helsinki (Finland)
- Flanders`Food (Belgium)
- Mission Zero Academy (Belgium)
- Fundació Catalana per a la Prevenció de Residus i el Consum Responsable (Spain)
- Evolvis (Belgium)
- Fair Resource Foundation (Netherlands)
- University of Vaasa (Finland)
- GreenDelta GmbH (Germany)
- IDEA Strategische Economische Consulting (Belgium).