Creative Circular Cities

🎄 The holiday season was off to a green start in Aarhus as City of Aarhus opened their ‘Sustainable Christmas Market’!   December 13-15, Domen was filled with sustainable alternatives for Christmas celebrations: recycled gift wrapping, sustainable Christmas decorations, a cut and paste workshop, organic body care products and clothing – and much more.   Local artists working with various sustainable crafts were present in the marketplace, and FLOR Aarhus organised a workshop on anti-material Christmas gifts. 🎁🌿 Over the weekend, 1400 people came by to enjoy the market.   The Sustainable Christmas Market is one of the Creative Circular Cities project activities in Aarhus. The event took place in Domen – an open space for community activities with a focus on co-creation and sustainable development. 🎥 Singing performance by Efterskolen for Scenekunst: https://lnkd.in/eGuRuwYs

Residents of Riga just received a brand new social circular economy space! ♻️🔨🧵    This week the new space “Sadarbnīca” was opened under the auspices of one of the CCC partners, the Rīgas enerģētikas aģentūra (REA). This will be a multifunctional place where residents will be able to get acquainted with the principles of the circular economy, as well as to restore and prolong the life of various household things in the woodworking workshop; it will also include events – master classes, seminars and classes.    “No major project can be achieved without the involvement of all parties – the structure of the municipality, society and entrepreneurs. ‘Sadarbnīca’ is a tool to ensure this cooperation and create a practical platform for the implementation of ideas,” said Viesturs Zeps, Head of the Housing and Environment Committee of the Riga City Council.    The space was developed through circular economy principles inspired by the results from a competition of students from Latvian universities. The opening celebration started with a performance by the band “Santehniki”, using musical instruments made of recycled objects, followed by project manager Ieva Kalnina's introduction to the story behind the creation of "Sadarbnīca".     The project is supported by the “Centres for Re-Use and Recycling of Resources in Urban Environment" (CURE+), financed by European Climate Initiative (EUKI). #circularity #citizenengagement #creativecircularcities

💡 CCC partners from across the Baltic Sea Region have met for the last time in 2024 in Estonia for the Strategy Lab hosted by the Tallinna Ettevõtlusinkubaator / Tallinn Business Incubator, and co-organised by Zero Waste Kiel e.V. and the Danish Cultural Institute. The event took place from December 3 to 5. During the lab, the project partners from Aarhus, Gdynia, Kiel, Riga, Tallinn and Turku were given tools and new sources of inspiration to develop their pilot projects for engaging their cities in a circular economy with creative industry input. The first day included talks on social entrepreneurship in Estonia, various initiatives at the municipal, activist and entrepreneurial level to tackle waste issues, as well as an introduction to collective governance structures. Heading into the second day, activist and placemaker Jaakko Blomberg joined the Lab to give examples on how to involve creative people in city projects by creating opportunities and providing autonomy. Jaakko Blomberg is one of the minds behind spaces in Helsinki such as Free City of Kalasatama, Pasila Street Art District and events such as Kallio Block Party, Cleaning Day and Helsinki Sauna Day. The Lab also benefited from the skilled facilitator and service designer Krzysztof Ożóg, who helped the partners to tackle complex problems through playful and thought-provoking workshops. In the end, the partners presented their visions for pilot projects ranging from a creative circular carnival to circular conferences, new business models and incubation programmes involving people at all levels, from students to small businesses and creative industries. The Tallinn Strategy Lab also included excursions to local initiatives that are supporting the transition to a circular economy: Lilleküla Circular Economy Center which hosts repair workshops and processes more than 40 types of waste, VIVITA, Inc. Solutions Laboratory where children can develop creative skills and make creations from waste material, and Tallinn Design House which features various circular design product lines. ♻️ “Creative Circular Cities” is co-funded by the EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme to promote circular transition at local level by involving the culture & creative sectors and industries. CCC initiates a transnational co-creation process, in which 6 demo cities – Aarhus (DK), Kiel (DE), Gdynia (PL), Riga (LV), Tallinn (EE), and Turku (FI) – will jointly develop and test CCSI-driven approaches for an integrated circular transition. 📸: Margaret Aidla #placemaking #circularity #citizenengagement #madewithinterreg

We are testing a slogan for the CCC project. What do you think about it?

In one of the CCC project cities, Landeshauptstadt Kiel at ALTE MU eG, we met the inspiring Daniel Holk, a volunteer at the wood workshop Werk Statt Konsum, where people can come to repair things or make new ones from used wood. How does it work? Who can use the facilities? 🌳Werk Statt Konsum is for anyone, from children to seniors, interested in working with wood. No special skills are required; 🌳Volunteers of the workshop assist people in their projects and teach them new skills; 🌳The workshop provides the material - old wood - from which new items can be made, or people can repair broken items. 🌳The workshop is open also on Sundays, when people have time to do repair works; 🌳Werk Statt Konsum is financed by donations, 27 volunteers work to keep the place running; 🌳People pay 6 EUR for a day to work at the workshop, this includes volunteer's help and using the machinery 🔗Find out more (In German): https://lnkd.in/d8uYRj-V #circularity #citizenengagement #creativecircularcities

In 2025, the cities involved in the CCC project – Aarhus, Gdynia, Kiel, Riga, Tallinn, and Turku – are planning a range of workshops for citizens, festivals, and an exhibition on the circular economy. One of the questions they are facing is how to engage audiences with circularity topics and sustain their interest in the long term. We addressed these questions in the Citizen Engagement Lab in Kiel, which took place from 30 September to 2 October and was hosted by CCC project partners in Kiel – Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein, Anscharcampus, and Zero Waste Kiel e.V. During the Lab, project partners worked on improving their pilots, learned tips and tricks from inspiring experts, and met practitioners – organisations that have integrated aspects of circularity as their core principles. In the keynote speeches two experts – Vivian Doumpa (Stipo Greece) and Jaakko Blomberg (Helsinki Urban Art) – shared their tips on citizen engagement and offered a range of examples from their projects. Landeshauptstadt Kiel, Germany’s first certified Zero Waste city, offers plenty of initiatives to draw inspiration from. Lab participants were impressed by Werk Statt Konsum – an open wood workshop with professional equipment, where people can learn how to repair things or how to make new things from used wood. Another inspiring initiative was Glückslokal, the shop of happiness. People can subscribe to the shop, and for a monthly fee of 5 euros, they can take 5 items each month – clothes, kitchen items, accessories, even monitors and cameras. The event was moderated by sustainability communication experts Maximilian Mauracher and Cléo Mieulet (New Standard.s), who have been nominated for the German National Sustainability Award 2025. To run the event more sustainably, most of the meals served during the Lab were prepared from food leftovers by local organisations ResteRitter and foodsharing Kiel e V.  The last workshop of the CCC project in 2024 – the Strategy Lab – will take place in Tallinn on 3 to 5 December. It will bring together the knowledge from all the Labs and help the project partners to build a long-term strategy for their projects. The project Creative Circular Cities is co-financed by Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme. #placemaking #circularity #citizenengagement #madewithinterreg Photos - Jan Konitzki

"Done is better than perfect", says the Finnish artist and activist Jaakko Blomberg, one of the keynote speakers of the CCC Citizen engagement workshop (Lab), hosted by the project partners in Kiel - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein, Anscharcampus and Zero Waste Kiel e.V. In the spirit of doing and experimenting we spent the first day of the workshop. Inspired by keynote speakers Vivian Doumpa and Jaakko Blomberg, project partners shared updates and ideas on involving citizens in cultural and circular activities that foster a mindset shift towards co-creation, creative expression, and sustainability. Participants were also introduced to various Kiel-based initiatives that encourage citizens to adopt more circular lifestyles. Before the official part we had the chance to visit the Waterkant Festival exhibition that is featuring different artistic and civic initiatives related to creativity and sustainable lifestyle. The exhibition area has a nice recreation zone by the water. #placemaking #circularity #citizenengagement Group photo - Jan Konitzki

Citizen engagement is one of the pillars of the CCC project - without it, no major changes towards circularity are possible. This week, one of the project partners, the Riga Energy Agency, hosted an event in the remote Riga suburb of Bolderāja, where municipal representatives and architects met with the local community to discuss how to turn the library garden into an aesthetic, circular space with activities for different audiences. Until 25 November, Riga Energy Agency is holding a competition for citizens to come up with ideas on how best to use the spacious library garden. Photos - Riga

As our dear colleague Indra Levite is moving on to a new job role next week, we are pleased to introduce Charles Bourrier as the new project manager for the BSR Interreg project, 'Creative Circular Cities.' 'I am Swiss-French-Latvian and now a bit Danish, I guess. I am happy to join the team of the Danish Cultural Institute and contribute with my skills in industrial design, innovation, circular economy & project management. I am an industrial designer with C2C knowledge, I have been working in the field of innovation education and sustainability for the past 15 years and mentored on diverse projects numerous SME's and businesses - from your local hairdresser to a large multinational company. I do speak a few different languages, can juggle with fire and enjoy spending time paddling on water', says Charles about himself. You can find more about Charles and his work on these sites: https://lnkd.in/dgbq5RPV https://lnkd.in/dwE8MpGh A warm welcome to the team, Charles!

Pomorski Park Naukowo-Technologiczny Gdynia / Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Gdynia, a partner in the CCC project, is developing a bulky waste platform as part of the project. Here you can learn about their study trip to Ekofabryka Wejherowo Sp. z o.o.