What is CRIC?
The Bulgarian Industrial Association, together with Denkstadt Bulgaria (a member of BIA), has launched a series of initiatives to support responsible Bulgarian business in implementing a circular economy and achieving real measurable results in the implementation of European legislation, improving resource efficiency, extending the life of products and reducing waste generated per unit of GDP.
The two partner organizations are creating a professional community called CRIC – at the Clean Industry Centre at BIA. The Centre's activities will expand in close cooperation with Denkstatt, with a stronger focus on supporting Bulgarian businesses to accelerate and support the transition to a circular economy.
CRIC will address the real challenges businesses are facing and assist them in the implementation of new business models.
What are the priorities and objectives of the CRIC?
- Giving real and specific support to business - addressing its actual needs and concrete actions for fulfilling them, not just principled statements and expertise.
- Becoming a solid professional community with a broad representation of industries and organizations.
- Maintaining the dialogue and active communication with both industry organizations and specific companies.
- Becoming the business's voice in front of institutions and media, to present positions and provide the necessary support to the industry in Bulgaria, presenting and defending concrete initiatives and measures coming from the business.
In the implementation of the objectives, joint actions will be discussed and planned together with affected industry organizations and enterprises from different industries, members of the BIA, for fundamental achievements in material recovery, which will contribute to improving the financial situation of the industry, facilitating the implementation of the requirements related to the new legislation, as well as to achieve the national targets for the reduction of waste disposal.
To meet these ambitious goals:
- We will hold meetings with interested industries and companies in several thematic areas - plastics and packaging, raw materials and metals, textiles and footwear, food industry, agriculture and biomass, construction waste. The meetings aim to discuss and summarise the most important cases for Bulgarian business, the steps to implement the requirements, and the opportunities for the industry to add value.
- We will establish separate areas for each theme, involving an optimal number of experts. Their task will be to prepare a summary/analysis/report for each of the thematic areas - the state of play, current concerns and solutions sought by the business. The documents produced will be used for dialogue and seeking interaction and partnership with state and local government, including specific proposals for legislative initiatives.
What distinguishes us from other initiatives and alliances?
- We don't want to just talk about the "circular economy" and be the next to "ride the wave" of Europe and new regulations - we want to be a factor and help through the search for solutions and concrete proposals.
- Training will be a side activity, but not the main one. We are not rejecting them, but they will be an ancillary tool, not a leading one.
- We will not simply promote Circular economics but rather "talk" about it through the prism of opportunities, difficulties and business needs.
