European need for a shared vision
Unlike in the recycling industry, cross-sectoral activities to facilitate knowledge transfer and promote the remanufacturing industry have been neglectable in Europe over recent years. Major industrial competitors, like the US and China, possess a strategy for remanufacturing within their industrial landscape. European remanufacturing could lose its competitiveness. Hence, there is a real need for a European-level solution to encourage remanufacturing throughout Europe.
The manufacturing industry is the largest employment sector and the biggest contributor to the GDP of industrialized nations (34 million people contributing about 14.5% of the total GDP in EU-27 countries) and so can be considered an important driver of their wellbeing and prosperity. It is also a major consumer of material and energy as well as a significant source of waste (about 14% of the 2,652 million tonnes of waste generated in EU-27 countries in 2008).
European Remanufacturing council
The aim of the ERN is to facilitate the development of sustainable partnerships between remanufacturing organisations for future research, collaboration, knowledge transfer and lobbying well beyond the 2 year timeframe of the ERN project.
The networks and partnerships developed during the course of the project will be cemented by the formation of a European Remanufacturing Council (ERC). The council is the focal point for remanufacturing dialogue in Europe, representing the industry to policy makers at-scale. The ERC provides opportunities to influence policy by communicating the cross-sector issues and challenges to be tackled and advocate for the support needed to promote the growth of remanufacturing.
