board boekje web pages

148
accordance with the Concrete Agreement. Researchers and governments
can be considered as complementary actors and
branch organisations as supporting actors.
In the clothing case, a clear distinction exists between international,
big fashion labels producing fast fashion and the innovative
start-ups and scale-ups aiming for slow circular fashion. Innovative
fashion brands act as third party. For as long as the big labels do
not include circular strategies, these labels remain the dominant
prime actor. The slow fashion movement is gradually growing
but is not yet strong enough to become a bigger market player.
Members of this movement can be seen as prime niche actors that
together with innovative fashion brands aim ultimately to overrule
the mainstream market. However, if the stalemate continues,
their niche initiatives will not lead to scaling up and surely not
to mainstreaming. At that point, the national government has to
implement more stringent policy instruments discouraging the big
fast fashion labels from continuing on their current path. When that
happens government switches from being a complementary actor
to prime actor. Other complementary actors are local governments,
consumers’ organisations, business customers, recyclers and
researchers. Individual consumers serve as supportive actors.
In the regional circular economy programme, similar patterns were
observed. In the first phase of drafting the overall programme,
for example, prime actors consisted of the local government,
members of the Amsterdam Economic Board and key business
partners. Because the programme should be complementary to
what local governments do themselves, it was important for the
Board to get formal approval from these prime actors. In the phases
of building and scaling up circular initiatives, relevant actors for
each particular initiative were identified.