Description

<p>This project is funded by the Flanders Region/Vlaanderen Circulair (in the framework of the call for project Circular Cities) and is collaboration with Université Libre de Bruxelles.<br />Our project is to develop an open matchmaking platform for Flanders, focusing specifically on an industrial area called Buda. The core ideas behind this platform are the following:</p>

• It creates a match between supply and demand of material flows, unused spaces, skills, etc. For instance, waste flows from one sector being usable as inputs into another industry/company.
• This is done through an online platform where people can easily enter what they have (e.g. wood, scrap metals, bricks), or what they need, and the system then helps match these things and facilitate a transfer between the two parties.
• The idea is to help encourage industrial symbiosis / circular economy activities in this region. At the same time we want to ensure that this helps improve the image of this region, which is currently seeing slow growth, it lacks an identity and is in decline due to economic speculation.
• In addition to this very grounds-up matchmaking, we will also integrate a system that puts all these flows in perspective, looking at the metabolism of the region as a whole and that tries to understand the sustainability from a material flows perspective, and that links these individual efforts with the bigger picture.
• The platform is open source, modular and free to optimize its reuse for other places, flows, purposes.