Riga will develop closer cooperation between municipal institutions, business support specialists, population and creative industries entrepreneurs to promote the principles of the circular economy in everyday life: reusing household items, leftover construction materials and other raw materials. The activities are planned within the framework of the project “Creative Circular Cities – Promoting circular transition at local level by involving the Culture & Creative Sectors and Industries”.
Riga City Council has started drafting the Circular Economy Action Plan for 2026–2030. As part of the city cooperation project, the long-term circular economy strategy of Riga up to 2040 will be developed, taking into account the best urban practices available in the Baltic Sea Region. This includes setting up of a digital participant collaboration platform that will help coordinate the contributions of different city working groups, institutions and partners in making Riga a sustainable city.
The population of Riga will especially benefit from landscaping of the garden of the Bolderāja branch of the Riga Central Library in accordance with the principles of circularity, i.e. creation of a new cultural space in Riga through the joint work of the population and professionals.
Business support specialists in Riga will have the opportunity to gain new knowledge about creation of circular business models and business incubator programmes, while representatives of the creative industries will be able to meet at entrepreneurs’ days and get a professional assessment of their business ideas’ compliance with the principles of the circular economy.
The project “Creative Circular Cities – Promoting circular transition at local level by involving the Culture & Creative Sectors and Industries” includes the following participants: the Danish Cultural Institute (Denmark), the Lifestyle and Design Cluster (Denmark), the Climate Secretariat of the City of Aarhus (Denmark), the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (Latvia / Scandinavia), Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Gdynia (Poland), “Pomorskie in the European Union” Association (Poland), the City of Turku (Finland), Valonia / Regional Council of Southwest Finland (Finland), Humak University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Tallinn Creative Incubator (Estonia), Anschar GmbH (Germany), Zero Waste Kiel e.V. (Germany), Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Schleswig-Holstein e.V. (Germany).
In total, 80 per cent of the project is funded by the European Union INTERREG Baltic Sea Region programme and 20 per cent is co-financed by Riga City Council. The budget of the project is EUR 370,410. Riga Municipality is represented in the project by Riga Energy Agency. The project is expected to last until October 2026.
Contact information: Project Manager Ieva Kalniņa, Riga Energy Agency, email: kalnina.ieva@riga.lv
Information was prepared by Solvita Brence-Kauste, Project Coordinator at External Communication Division of Riga City Council Communication Department, email: solvita.brence@riga.lv