COLLABORATING CENTRE ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION GGMBH

Their core work

CSCP is a Wuppertal-based research centre specializing in sustainable consumption patterns, circular economy transitions, and waste valorisation strategies. They bridge the gap between consumer behavior science and industrial resource efficiency — analyzing food value chains, designing circular business models, and developing tools that help cities and companies reduce waste. Their work spans from policy frameworks for circular transitions (R2PI) to practical urban biowaste recovery systems (SCALIBUR, HOOP), making them a go-to partner for projects that need the "demand side" perspective on sustainability.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2019), CSCP focused squarely on food waste, consumer behavior, and circular economy policy — projects like REFRESH and R2PI dealt with supply chain waste reduction and linear-to-circular transitions. From 2020 onward, their portfolio diversified significantly: they moved into urban biowaste infrastructure (HOOP), water safety and emergency response (PathoCERT), multilayer packaging recycling (MERLIN), and citizen engagement tools (PSLifestyle). The shift suggests a move from analyzing consumption problems toward designing practical recovery and response systems at the city and infrastructure level.

CSCP is moving from upstream consumer research toward downstream urban infrastructure — expect them to pursue projects on city-level circular bioeconomy, waste-to-value systems, and citizen engagement platforms.

How they like to work

CSCP operates almost exclusively as a consortium partner (9 of 10 projects), with just one coordination role (R2PI). With 200 unique partners across 37 countries, they are clearly a highly networked organization that gets invited into large, multi-country consortia rather than building small focused teams. This pattern suggests they are valued for bringing a specific competence — sustainable consumption expertise, business model analysis, or socio-economic modelling — into broader technical projects led by others.

With 200 unique consortium partners across 37 countries, CSCP has one of the broadest collaboration networks for an organization of its size. Their reach extends well beyond Europe — the SteamBioAfrica project demonstrates engagement with Southern African partners alongside their dense European network.

What sets them apart

CSCP occupies a rare niche: they sit at the intersection of consumer behavior science and circular economy engineering. While many partners in sustainability consortia bring either technical solutions or policy expertise, CSCP brings the demand-side understanding — how consumers, cities, and businesses actually adopt circular practices. Their track record of working across food, packaging, biowaste, and even emergency response means they can translate sustainability concepts across very different application domains.

Highlights from their portfolio

• R2PI
  Their only coordination role — a EUR 698K project on transitioning from linear to circular economy through policy and innovation, signaling their core identity.
• HOOP
  Largest single funding (EUR 730K) — a flagship project on circular cities and urban biowaste valorisation with financial engineering and public procurement dimensions.
• REFRESH
  Their earliest H2020 project, tackling food waste across the entire supply chain with consumer science and socio-economic modelling — established their reputation in the space.