3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
EcoInnovation Cluster will play a key role in advancing a circular economy across all of
Luxembourg’s industrial sectors as the country transitions into a low-carbon sustainable
economy.
LUXEMBOURG STATE OF PLAY AND VISION
Our thinking is largely dominated by linear mindsets where the increase in consumption is at
the center of economic growth. Most of the companies operate their businesses based on
traditional economic concepts, and existing infrastructure is designed around this linear model.
Continuing to design, construct and operate the economic infrastructure and built environment
in a linear fashion incurs greater risks and expenditures, increasing opportunity losses and
costs, including failures to future proof against system shocks, uncertainties and surprises. In
sharp contrast, shifting to a circular model in designing, constructing and operating
infrastructure and the built environment goes beyond restorative features and enhances the
qualities of resilience, robustness, flexibility, and anti-fragility, that are best positioned to
respond to future uncertainties and surprises. Neglecting or delaying the shift results in more
expensive retrofits in the future or passing on opportunities to retrofit because of excessive
costs. A crucial aspect of circularity is to perform penetrating assessments of why and what
infrastructure is needed – the (multi-)functional benefits to be gained – and then apply deep
design practices integral to achieving circular economy outcomes. The objective is to establish
design principles that lead to “feeding products, components, and materials back into the
appropriate value chains,” resulting in “a healthy economy that is inspired by and in balance
with nature.” 298
The positive attributes resulting from shifting to a circular economy are applicable to the entire
throughput stream of economic activities, processes, and supply networks. Existing supply
chains are very often highly complex and long and make it almost impossible for the final
producers to identify all the materials, components and ingredients, which have been used in
the goods they sell. Most companies have suppliers from outside Luxembourg, and even from
outside Europe.
The awareness of these issues is increasing and there are several promising initiatives currently
underway to incentivize a circular economy in Luxembourg. Actors from government and
private research institutes have been pooling their skills through a technology platform
established within the "Luxembourg Institute for Science and Technology" (LIST) to boost the
298 Circle-Economy (2014) Designing for a circular world: circular design principles, October 06, 2014, www.circleeconomy.com/designing-circular-world-circular-design-principles/.
348