What Basque Ecodesign Center is

Much of this success can be attributed to the Basque Ecodesign Center, a partnership with a 10-year track record of public/private sector cooperation between the Basque Government and major Basque businesses capable of acting as powerful drivers for their suppliers and generating knowledge.

"The Basque Ecodesign Center is a stable initiative set up in 2011 in a framework of cooperation between private sector businesses and the Basque Government. Its goal is to design and implement innovative eco-design projects to generate knowledge and subsequently transfer it to the fabric of Basque industry. In time, the Basque Ecodesign Center has evolved from its specific focus on eco-design to become a broader-based circular economy body.

When the Basque Ecodesign Center commenced operations in 2011 its founder members included six private companies based in the Basque Country (Cie Automotive, Fagor Electrodomésticos, Gamesa, Iberdrola, Ormazabal Velatia and Vicinay Cadenas) plus Ihobe as the driver and coordinator of the project.

Since then membership has grown to 19 in the agreement for the period from 2021 to 2025. This 2021-2025 agreement is an important mobilisation of Basque industry towards more sustainable systems in line with the strategy marked by the European Green Deal and the Basque Green Deal. The member companies represent:

• Over 3,400 jobs
• Over €335 billion in turnover
• Around 19,000 suppliers worldwide, with a large proportion in the Basque Country.

The 2021-2025 Basque Eco-design Center agreement seeks to attain the following main goals:

• To generate knowledge in the circular economy through innovation in the priority areas established in the Basque Circular Economy Strategy for transfer to the fabric of Basque industry.
• To drive the value chain towards a more circular economy.

The 2021-2025 Basque Eco-design Center agreement also has the following secondary goals:

• To improve the competitive position of member companies through the circular economy.
• To exercise a leadership role and become a benchmark for the deployment of the circular economy in the Basque Country.
• To maintain a strategic reflection process that can help align environmental policies with company needs.
• To complete the training of specialists in the circular economy.
• To help make the Basque Country a benchmark in the EU, as an advanced region in the deployment of the circular economy in the fabric of business.