CM-MEHRCE-D: DATipilot- Communities - MEHRCE - Community Management for Innovative Reusable Systems

Sandra Transchel

Our innovation community, Reusable, aims to establish reusable systems as a central element of the circular economy in Germany. The focus is particularly on implementing reusable systems in eCommerce, pre-packaged food, out-of-home consumption, on-site consumption in system catering, and in drugstores. While reusable systems are already established in the beverage and transport packaging sector, there has been a lack of comprehensive transfer to other areas of application. Our community responds to this challenge by enabling systematic networking, cross-sector transfer, and collaborative implementation experiments. Our goal is to make the use of reusables a standard practice in all areas of life and to position Germany as a pioneer of the circular economy in the packaging sector.

We are building on an existing network of over 100 companies, start-ups, and NGOs that are active in the reusable association, the Mehrweg.Einfach.Machen alliance with WWF, and ProjectTogether, as well as collaboration and research projects of the project partners. We rely on cross-industry collaboration by combining existing initiatives, pilot projects, and scientific findings to create synergies. Simultaneously, we are creating structures and skills through community offerings that promote trust among cross-sector partners and enable networking.

The Reusable Innovation Community is led by the Wuppertal Institute, the Reusable Association Germany e.V., the Kühne Logistics University, and the Leuphana University. We leverage the expertise of experienced companies, start-ups, and public actors and consider this as the ideal basis for groundbreaking cross-sector collaboration. The reusable innovation community is crucial to addressing the challenges of the circular economy and realizing a sustainable transformation in Germany through joint efforts.