A pair of completed eco-innovative projects dealing with the food supply chain, both coordinated from Spain, have been recognised by the autonomous Valencia Community on Spain's eastern seaboard. The ECOBIONET and Lasermark projects received awards in the Best European Environmental Project category for 2013 from the Valencia Ministry of Finance and Public Administration.

A competitiveness cluster in Belgium's southern region of Wallonia is showing how researchers and companies can collaborate to develop new eco-innovative projects that should ultimately pay dividends in terms of green economic growth.

Professor Walter Stahel is a longstanding advocate of adoption of circular economy ideas as the basis for a more sustainable society. His 1976 research report for the European Commission, “The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy,” found that energy consumption in manufacturing is mainly related to extraction and processing of resources, rather than actual manufacturing processes, and that by reusing products rather than producing new ones, labour would replace energy, leading to energy savings combined with job creation. The report was subsequently republished as a book, and Professor Stahel has since authored many publications on the circular economy.