Collaborative governance for regional sustainability transitions: cases of circular economy initiatives in the Netherlands

Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the challenges of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice, from local to global scales. The concept of the Circular Economy (CE) has recently gained its momentum on the agendas of policymakers as a way to address sustainability issues. Global demand for raw materials such as food, electrical goods or clothes is increasing sharply. The Dutch government is working with other public authorities, knowledge institutions and environmental organizations, industry, trade unions and other civil-society organizations to find smarter and more efficient ways of using raw materials. The ambitious goal is for the Dutch economy to be completely circular by 2050. Some experts warn that with current efforts and an available arsenal of economic and policy tools, the government's target of having a fully circular economy by 2050 will not be achieved. One of the challenges is the slow transition to CE and the lack of policy instruments and regional collaborative platforms for engaging different parties, knowledge exchange and co-creation of innovative solutions. On the other hand, there are already good examples of experimental collaborative initiatives (e.g. Green Deals, DuurzaamDoor) in various provinces in the Netherlands (e.g. Overijssel and Friesland), where regional governments, companies and other regional 'accelerators' – such as research institutes, economic boards and environmental organizations – are actively co-developing circular initiatives. These platforms facilitate experimentation, learning and innovation based on regional development strategies, participation and stakeholder involvement. What can we learn from these regional platforms? To what extent do they add up to sustainability/CE (regional) transitions and how? What are the main factors determining success in CE initiatives in different regions? To what extent strategy and vision formation promote the success of the CE initiatives? To explore these questions, we study 2 large-scale collaborative regional platforms from different regions in the Netherlands and local multi-actor (multi-level) CE projects fostered by these collaborative platforms.