Our tours
CEH Catalonia featured visits to successful local circular economy projects, accompanied by sector experts for more insight.
Attendees discovered the business initiatives, R&D projects, government strategies, and successful collaborations that together are transforming the economy of Catalonia and making it more circular.
The guided tours were structured around the following
9 ECONOMIC SECTORS
Take a look at the tours and visits that took place for each one.
Agrifood
Visits took place to one of the Catalan agrifood consortia, the fruit sector in the Lleida region, and the Catalan viticulture cluster where visitors learned about the wine sector’s value chain. They also had the chance to learn about innovative solutions for preventing food spoilage and waste, taking advantage of by-products, and managing in an integrated way the water, energy, and waste products involved in industrial production.
Fashion & Textile
Catalonia has an important number of companies dedicated to the production of recycled thread made from various materials, as well as circular fashion. Participants visited these companies to learn about the projects that make them possible coming out of Catalonia’s centres for technology & investigation. In addition, they met with the third sector, which makes a vital contribution at the social level as well as the functional.
Energy
Attendees gained first-hand knowledge of various different innovative solutions in the fields of energy and sustainability applied in housing, service buildings, and districts, as well as in industries with efficient production processes.
Mobility
We visited the emerging mobility industry: Catalan companies that are leaders in the manufacture of electric vehicles, the new business models based on servitisation, and pioneering solutions that value the materials contained in vehicles that have reached the end of their lives.
Building
Participants visited buildings designed, constructed, and used from a circular viewpoint. Discover innovative circular solutions in materials, products, equipment and systems, as much for civil works, as for building in general including the area of social building.
- Hercal Zero
- Institut Provençana: Blue Containers Project
- Gonsi Sócrates Bio-building: Gonsi 4.0
- Lafarge Holcim, Montcada factory
- Lafarge Holcim, Turó Montcada
Packaging
We visited industries that are transforming the packaging sector, thanks to innovation in new sustainable materials, eco-design strategies, and the development of digital technologies for recycling and smart packaging.
Water cycle
Circular strategies applied to the water cycle are key in a country where water is a scarce and precious resource. Attendees toured pioneering public and private infrastructure projects related to desalination, water reuse, and control of water distribution.
Chemical
Participants had the chance to see projects that have made the chemical industry in Catalonia a benchmark sector internationally, with applications considered pioneering in the ambit of industry in areas such as saving resources, reducing environmental impact, the valuing of waste products, and the synthesis of plastics and circular materials.
Public Initiatives
We learnt how local policies and initiatives have made Catalonia a circular economy reference point, thanks to the focus on its citizens, collaboration between municipalities, and public private initiatives. Visits also took place to public initiatives aimed at lengthening the life of products, with strategies for repair, reuse, and the promotion of second-hand markets, all accompanied by communication campaigns.