The Green Deal Data Space boosts new data sources to improve circular economy statistics in Europe
By Peter Nooteboom (CBS) – Use case: Textile Circularity
Dataspaces like the Green Deal Data Space (GDDS), being developed by the SAGE consortium, can serve many different purposes. In the domain of statistics production, access to new input data sources can be efficiently organized, and relevant output statistics can be disseminated to target audiences. Statistical institutes like Statistics Netherlands (CBS) provide high-quality statistics for informed, evidence-based decision making in government and society. For instance, they report on the footprints, material flows, produced waste, or use of secondary materials, which indicate the transition towards a circular economy, and whether policy is achieving the goals that the government is committed to.
The GDDS allows the sharing and enrichment of two data sources that are not used yet to create statistics: Extended Producer Resposibility (EPR) and Digital Product Passport (DPP). This provides two types of opportunities. First, understanding whether goals are achieved requires high-quality statistics. The GDDS may improve the quality of data that is used to determine whether these goals are being met. Second, the GDDS may reduce administrative burden. Some of the statistics, such as Structural Business Statistics, use surveys that require time and costs for companies to respond to. With the introduction of EPR and DPP, these companies may even report double where DPP and EPR reporting is not automated. If the quality of the GDDS data is sufficient, some of the surveys may be replaced by the GDDS data in the future.
At the beginning of 2026, CBS completed an overview of statistics, relating to the circular economy and in particular circular textile, where opportunities may exist. This overview focuses on statistics that are collected in all EU member states and is available on request. As a next step, CBS plans to analyze whether GDDS data sources may support the compilation of these statistics. The expectation is that these sources may become relevant not only in The Netherlands, but all through Europe.
SAGE (the Data Space for a Sustainable Green Europe) is a Digital Europe co-funded project that will develop a federated, secure, and interoperable data space to support key pillars of the European Green Deal — biodiversity, climate adaptation, circular economy, and zero pollution.