Circular Living Dictionary

Advisory services are personalised guidance and support provided to households participating in CARE’s circular pilots. These services are designed to address specific challenges and help households adopt sustainable practices in food and clothing consumption. By combining expert advice with tailored recommendations, advisory services empower participants to make informed decisions that fit their unique needs.

For example:

• In food consumption: Advisors might suggest practical tips for meal planning, food storage, or creative ways to use leftovers to reduce waste.
• In clothing consumption: Households may receive advice on extending the lifespan of garments through proper care, repair techniques, or mindful wardrobe management.

Delivered through workshops, one-on-one consultations, and digital tools, CARE’s advisory services ensure that every household has the resources and knowledge needed to achieve their sustainability goals. This ongoing support fosters lasting behaviour change, making circular living accessible and practical for everyone involved.

An audit is a systematic evaluation process used to measure and analyse specific aspects of performance or practices. In the context of CARE, audits are tools to assess household consumption patterns, such as food waste or wardrobe usage. These evaluations provide clear, actionable insights into current behaviours and their environmental impact. For example, a food waste audit might involve tracking discarded food over a set period to identify areas for improvement, while a wardrobe audit could uncover underused clothing items. Audits serve as a foundation for designing targeted interventions, helping households make data-driven changes that enhance sustainability and efficiency. Through audits, participants gain a deeper understanding of their habits and the tangible benefits of adopting circular practices.

Behavioural science is the study of human behaviour, focusing on understanding how people make decisions, form habits, and respond to different situations. In the context of CARE, it plays a vital role in designing effective interventions that promote circular living. By analysing the motivations, barriers, and triggers behind household consumption patterns, behavioural science helps tailor solutions that are practical, engaging, and aligned with real-world behaviour. This approach ensures that initiatives, such as reducing food waste or extending the lifespan of clothing, resonate with participants and lead to lasting, positive change. Through insights derived from behavioural science, CARE empowers households to make sustainable choices that feel intuitive and rewarding.

A baseline study is an initial assessment conducted at the start of a project or initiative to establish a reference point for measuring progress and impact. In the context of CARE, it involves gathering data on households’ current consumption patterns, behaviours, and environmental footprints related to food and clothing. This foundational information serves as a benchmark, enabling the project team to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and track changes over time. By identifying pre-existing conditions and challenges, a baseline study ensures that strategies are well-informed, targeted, and capable of driving meaningful, measurable outcomes.

The Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) is a flagship program by the European Union that supports local and regional governments in adopting circular economy principles. In the context of CARE, CCRI regions serve as pilot locations where innovative interventions in food and clothing consumption are co-created, tested, and refined. These regions play a pivotal role in demonstrating scalable solutions for sustainable living while tailoring activities to local cultures and needs.

Circular consumption refers to a sustainable approach to using goods and services, prioritising practices that extend the life cycle of products and minimise waste. It involves mindful choices such as repairing, reusing, sharing, and upcycling items, as well as purchasing durable, recyclable, or secondhand products. This approach aligns with the principles of the circular economy, ensuring resources are efficiently used and kept in circulation. Circular consumption not only reduces environmental impact but also promotes economic efficiency and fosters a culture of responsibility and sustainability in everyday life.

The circular economy is an economic model designed to eliminate waste and promote the continual use of resources. Unlike the traditional linear economy, which follows a “take-make-dispose” approach, the circular economy emphasises designing out waste, keeping materials and products in use for as long as possible, and regenerating natural systems. This model supports sustainability by encouraging practices like recycling, reusing, repairing, and sharing. It benefits the environment by reducing resource extraction and waste, while fostering innovation, economic growth, and resilience.

Circular living is a sustainable lifestyle that prioritises minimising waste and maximising resource use through practices like reducing, reusing, recycling, repairing, and sharing. It challenges the traditional “take-make-dispose” model by encouraging households to think about the entire lifecycle of the products they consume. Circular living empowers individuals to make thoughtful choices—such as reducing food waste, extending the lifespan of clothing, and adopting eco-friendly habits—contributing to a healthier planet and promoting well-being for all.

Citizen science refers to the active involvement of non-professional scientists—such as households, community members, and volunteers—in scientific research and data collection. It bridges the gap between science and society, empowering individuals to contribute valuable insights and information to research projects.

In the context of CARE, citizen science plays a crucial role in understanding and promoting circular living practices. For instance:

• Household Participation: Families contribute to research by tracking their food waste or conducting wardrobe audits, providing real-world data that informs project interventions.
• Community Engagement: Participants share feedback on pilot activities and suggest practical solutions, helping refine strategies to suit diverse needs.

Citizen science not only enhances research by incorporating diverse perspectives but also fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration. By involving citizens directly, CARE ensures that its solutions are grounded in everyday realities, making them more effective and impactful in driving sustainable change.

An online hub designed to connect participating households, the CARE Community Platform fosters collaboration, learning, and support. This digital space enables households to share experiences, exchange tips, and celebrate progress as they adopt circular practices in food and clothing. By offering access to resources, interactive challenges, and peer encouragement, the platform strengthens the sense of community and inspires participants to sustain and amplify their circular living efforts.

Co-creation is a collaborative process that brings together diverse stakeholders—such as households, researchers, policymakers, and community organisations—to jointly design, develop, and implement solutions. In CARE, co-creation ensures that circular interventions for food and clothing are practical, impactful, and tailored to real-life contexts. By involving households directly, this approach leverages lived experiences and local knowledge to create strategies that are both effective and meaningful, empowering participants to take ownership of the solutions and fostering lasting behavioural change.

Short, engaging videos created by CARE to showcase practical steps for reducing food waste and extending the life of clothes.

Food waste refers to edible food that is discarded or left uneaten at any stage of the food supply chain, from production and processing to distribution and consumption. It can occur for various reasons, such as spoilage, over-purchasing, improper storage, or aesthetic standards that reject imperfect-looking produce. Food waste is a significant environmental issue, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of valuable resources like water, energy, and labour used in food production. CARE’s Circular Food Pilots aim to address food waste at the household level by promoting mindful meal planning, proper food storage, and creative cooking practices to ensure every bit of food is valued and used effectively.

Fast fashion refers to the rapid production of inexpensive clothing that mimics current fashion trends. This approach prioritises speed and low costs, enabling retailers to bring new collections to market quickly. While fast fashion makes trendy clothing accessible, it often relies on unsustainable practices such as overproduction, excessive resource use, and poor labour conditions. The result is a cycle of disposable fashion that contributes significantly to environmental pollution and waste. CARE encourages households to move away from fast fashion by embracing sustainable alternatives, such as repairing, upcycling, and investing in quality garments designed to last.

Impact Assessment is the process of evaluating the environmental, social, and economic effects of a project, intervention, or policy. It provides a structured way to understand the benefits, challenges, and unintended consequences of actions, helping stakeholders make informed decisions. In the context of CARE, Impact Assessment measures the tangible and intangible outcomes of circular living pilots, such as reductions in food waste, improved resource efficiency, and enhanced well-being. By integrating tools like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and behavioural studies, CARE’s Impact Assessment ensures that interventions are not only effective but also scalable and aligned with sustainability goals.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific method for evaluating the environmental impact of a product, service or system throughout its life cycle. This comprehensive approach considers every stage from raw material extraction, production and transportation to use, disposal or recycling. By analysing factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and resource depletion, LCA helps identify areas for improvement and supports the development of sustainable practices. Within CARE, LCA is used to assess the environmental benefits of circular livelihood interventions, providing households and stakeholders with evidence-based insights to make effective decisions.

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a standardised methodology developed by the European Commission to measure the environmental impact of products and services throughout their life cycle. By assessing factors such as resource use, emissions and waste, the PEF provides a comprehensive view of a product’s sustainability. In the context of CARE, the PEF is used to assess the environmental footprint of household consumption habits, such as food waste and clothing care, helping participants to understand and reduce their impact on the planet.

Making consumption choices that have the impact of reducing resource use, waste, and environmental impact, such as planning meals ahead to reduce food waste or repairing clothes in order to use them for longer.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global objectives adopted by the United Nations to address pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. They provide a blueprint for a more sustainable future by tackling issues such as poverty, climate change, responsible consumption, and environmental protection. CARE contributes to the SDGs by promoting circular living, reducing waste, and fostering sustainable consumption habits in households across Europe.