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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>




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Circular Cities

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Rampant material extraction is pushing the ecosystems of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to their limits. Over 11% of global raw materials are extracted within the region, yet it represents only about 8% of the world's population.

[*The Circularity Gap Report* (CGR) Latin America and the Caribbean](https://www.circularity-gap.world/lac), a first of its kind, demonstrates how the region can leverage the circular economy to tackle systemic inefficiencies in satisfying societal needs, conserve its unique natural wealth, and improve its people’s well-being.

To devise pathways for a circular transition, the report analysed the sectors where circular interventions could yield the most positive impact—environmentally, economically, and socially. This entails shifting to a circular food system, building a circular built environment, advancing circular manufacturing, transforming the energy system, reducing waste generation, and improve waste cycling.

[Circle Economy](https://www.circle-economy.com/) is a global impact organisation with an international team of passionate experts based in Amsterdam. We empower industries, cities, and nations with practical and scalable solutions to put the circular economy into action. Our vision is an economic system that ensures the planet and all people can thrive. To avoid climate breakdown, our goal is to double global circularity by 2032. Through the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative, our mission is to deliver Circularity Metrics that measure the state of the global and national economy and identify key levers to transition to circularity. 

Latin America Collection

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Policy case

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Producing transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

Societal Services

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Providing air, water, rail, and land transportation for passengers, such as airlines, airports, ferries, cruise-ships, tour boat operators, marine ports, railways, train stations, tour bus operators, vehicle rental, and taxi companies, travel agencies and related services

Passenger Transport Services

Producing transportation equipment for the movement of goods and people by air, rail, sea, and land, including airplanes, spacecraft and military equipment, ships, boats, rail locomotives and rolling stock, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, and related equipment, as well as repair services for such equipment

Transportation Equipment

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop infrastructure to support sustainable lifestyles

 Spatial Planning

Compact city development

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

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Rethink

Includes a variety of actions (e.g. campaigns, information sharing, public events) that encourage city residents and visitors to build sustainable practices into their daily lives

Enable sustainable lifestyles

The mobility choices and behaviours of residents and businesses can vary greatly depending on the structure and design of the city. A sprawling city covering large areas with wide highways and no bike lanes discourages cycling and increases dependence on private vehicles, which contribute significantly to resource demand and GHG emissions. Meanwhile, a more compact city with mixed use developments, accessible public transport and extensive and appealing pedestrian and cycle networks enables and encourages walking, cycling and other non-motorised, low-carbon forms of mobility. Combined with urban planning that incentivises higher densities along major public transport routes, transit-oriented development can help to slow the outward expansion of cities into the surrounding countryside. 

Compact city planning can help local communities build and create more efficient, safe and viable cities. This concept includes ideas such as the 15-minute city or ‘complete neighbourhoods’, whereby all of the basic needs and services of a resident can be accessed within 15 minutes by walking, cycling or public transport. This concept has also attracted attention as a way to reduce inequality by ensuring that all neighbourhoods have access to affordable mobility options.

Local governments can support the development of compact and low-carbon cities by integrating such concepts into the city’s urban plans, and ensuring that all residents are easily able to conduct their day-to-day lives using non-motorised or public transport. Cities can also ensure that necessary and facilitating infrastructure is provided, such as cycle lanes, pedestrianised areas and public transport options, to enable the shift away from dependency on personal vehicles.


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🚌  Compact city planning and development

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

  At the turn of the century, the Colombian city of Medellín had the reputation of being an exceptionally violent and dangerous place and a global centre of drug crime. There were major problems of social exclusion: the residents of the hillside barrios that sat above the city were not well served by public transport. Within the wider context of urban integration, the city introduced the Metrocable, a cable car which connected the people of the barrios with the city centre in the valley below.   The initiative The solution for such problems of steep access has generally been either a funicular railway or a cable car. In 2004, the first Metrocable cable car was built in Medellín. “By integrating the design of the system with other forms of mass transit and improving access for pedestrians, the city's Metrocable system has helped connect low-income residents to their city and put urban mobility at the heart of equity.” [3]The overarching goal was social inclusion and improving the quality of life in the barrios. The more specific objective of the Metrocable was to connect three of the barrios to Medellín's main metropolitan public transport system in the centre, and to increase the Metro's levels of usage.The publicly-owned Metro de Medellín company and the city authorities worked closely together to implement the project. There are currently three aerial cable-car lines in operation. The cost of the first line was close to USD24 million and the second to USD47 million.   The challenge The city of Medellín, the second largest in Colombia, “is located in the Aburrá Valley in the central Andes, 1,479 metres above sea level”. It has its centre in the valley, with a number of barrios - informal settlements - on the hills that surround it. In the early 2000s, the only ways for the residents of the barrios to go into town was to walk or to catch one of the infrequent, unreliable buses. “Insufficient transport, low presence of state institutions and lack of public services inhibited development and employment opportunities for residents.” [1]These problems contributed to the physical and social marginalisation of these districts, resulting in poor access to the labour market, an increasingly serious lack of opportunities as well as high rates of crime and violence. “‘It was impossible to reach the centre of town; we were stuck here.'” [2] Medellín was also the centre of operations of the drug baron Pablo Escobar.   The public impact The first line to be built was Metrocable line K, to the Santo Domingo Savio neighbourhood, which reaches around 230,000 inhabitants in 12 localities and links northeastern Medellín with the city centre. Metrocable Route J serves 315,000 inhabitants in 37 districts.The Metrocable has halved the average travel time from the barrios to the centre, from roughly two hours to one. Its integration with Medellín's main public transport system has increased the comfort of passengers and reduced the cost and duration of their journeys.The area around the first cable car line became a prototype for social interventions in some of the poorest areas of the city, as part of the drive to social inclusion. The Proyecto Urbano Integral [Integrated Urban Project] (PUI), the urban integration project which addressed a context within which the Metrocable operated, won The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design, “the foremost award recognising achievement in this field”. [4]   Stakeholder engagement The project involved a number of stakeholders who were committed to its logistical and socioeconomic objectives: The city authorities. The publicly-owned Metro de Medellín company. The inhabitants of the barrios who used the cable cars. The participants in the PUI, who “helped to select the location of the stations, with the objective of complementing and amplifying the positive impact of the Metrocable”. [5]   Political commitment The year 2000 was an electoral year, and Metro de Medellín presented the cable car project to the mayoral candidates. Whilst most rejected it, the successful candidate, Luis Pérez, the mayor from 2001 to 2003, “happened to be as keen an enthusiast of cable-cars as the newly-appointed head of Metro de Medellín.  Pérez immediately committed the city authorities; three years later it was in operation”. [6]The project was equally strongly supported by Sergio Fajardo, the mayor of Medellín from 2003 to 2007. He was committed to the Metrocable in itself and as part of the wider PUI project: “under the leadership of Mayor Sergio Fajardo in 2004, the city bet on a public policy focused on reducing the profound social debts that had accumulated over decades, in addition to the legacy of violence”. [7] The project was financed jointly by the municipality and the publicly-owned Metro de Medellín.   Public confidence The project has the enthusiastic participation of the public, judged by the number of passenger journeys and the fact that the government actively involved the citizens who were affected by the project in its planning and implementation.In 2004, when the first line was opened, it was widely perceived as a success. “It also inspired many other Latin American cities with similar topography and socioeconomic dynamics to explore aerial cable cars as mobility solutions. La Paz-El Alto, Bolivia; Caracas, Venezuela; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Manizales, Colombia have all built cable car systems that help connect peripheral communities to the urban core.” [8]   Clarity of objectives The objectives were achieved as envisioned and did not alter during the project. They were clear, although they were a synthesis of improving transport links through the Metrocable, and setting it in the context of urban regeneration and social inclusion. “A coherent and energetic policy of integrating the cable-car systems into the urban fabric through [PUI] was developed, centred around transport projects but aiming for urban improvement through a combined strategy on mobility, environment, housing and public space, and the goal of creating of new dynamic centres in previously atrophied sectors.” [9]   Strength of evidence Cable cars had been a technically well-established form of transport for nearly a century, “dating back to 1914 in Bern, Switzerland. The cable car systems of the past were typically low capacity and designed to transport tourists, particularly in ski towns”. [10] However, Medellín provided a radically different socioeconomic context. “When Medellín became the first city to implement aerial cable cars as a public transport system, it did so with equitable urban mobility and the city's unique geography in mind. Cable cars, the city realised, would be well suited to serving the dense informal settlements on the city's mountainous periphery.”As the project was in this sense the first of its kind, it required evidence-gathering and technical analysis before being implemented. “In the late 1990s various studies and technical consultations were undertaken by Metro1.  In the late 1990s various studies and technical consultations were undertaken by Metro de Medellín.” [11]   Feasibility The impact of the studies and consultations was that “by 2000 it had become a technically and financially feasible project”. While the success of Line K has not been in doubt, there has been more sceptical analysis of Line J.The city administration had to address issues such as: The potential environmental impacts, which were considered in the planning stages, including benefits such as reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, and air quality has been improved. The risk of investing in a project of this size and novelty. During implementation, the authorities faced problems of cost overruns. The likelihood of achieving benefits such as “small-scale economic activity … In the second system, Line J, where the stations are less well articulated to urban morphology and street patterns [compared to Line K, such] benefits are still less evident". [12] “Whilst the first line has been highly successful and runs at full capacity (approximately 30,000 passengers per day), the impact of the second cable car line suggests that, to be economically and socially significant, cable car systems require specific minimum conditions in terms of urban morphology and population density, as well as careful integration with the existing mass public transit network.” [13]   Management The efficiency with which the Metrocable was implemented reveals that the delivery context was well understood and effectively managed.  “The speed with which the cable-car system was implemented and its articulation to the city's overall transport system owes much to the city’s institutional and governance structure. The publicly-owned Metro de Medellín company and the city authorities worked closely together in both a technical and financial sense. The Metro de Medellín company lies nominally in the hands of central government. There were issues between the parties involved but in light of the overall goal, these were effectively resolved.” [14]   Measurement The measurement of the Metrocable's impact has taken two main forms: The use of the system made by ordinary users, in terms of the number of passenger journeys and journey times (e.g., 3,000 journeys per day on Line K). The environmental impact: to estimate this, Metro de Medellín prepared a Project Design Document, which proposed a baseline and a methodology to gauge environmental impact.The degree of social inclusion is far more difficult to measure quantitatively, as is the integration of the Metrocable journeys with the city centre transport system, such as the Metro.   Alignment The authorities worked closely together in implementation of the projects. There were coordination issues between the city authorities and the company but these were gradually resolved.Metro de Medellín company and the city authorities worked closely together in both a technical and financial sense. “Although this has led to periods of tension over technical matters (for example over bus feeder routes and a complementary rapid bus transit system currently under construction), these have generally been resolved on the basis of the efficiency of the Metro and a shared commitment to urban improvement.” [15]The participation of the cable car passengers, and the residents of the barrios generally, has been encouraged by successive mayors. There has also been a shared sense of purpose with the architects, urban planners and others involved in the broader PUI project.   Bibliography MEDELLÍN‘S METROCABLE - MOBILITY AS FUNDAMENTAL FACTOR OF INTEGRATED AND INCLUSIVE URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Connective CitiesAerial cable-car systems for public transport in low-income urban areas: lessons from Medellin, Colombia, Peter Brand, Julio Dávila, 4-8 July 2011, World Planning Schools Congress, Perth, Western AustraliaMedellín's aerial cable-cars: social inclusion and reduced emissions. Julio Dávila and Diana Daste, 2012, Development Planning Unit, University College LondonMedellin: Introduction, The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban DesignMobility solutions for marginalized communities: The urban cable car, Dario Hidalgo and Juan Miguel Velásquez , 27 January 2015Medellín, Colombia: reinventing the world's most dangerous city, Ed Vulliamy, 9 June 2013, The Guardian  

Medellín

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Municipality of Medellín

<p>To improve access to public transportation, in 2004, the city of Medellín introduced the Metrocable, a cable car that connected the residents of the low-income, hillside&nbsp;<em>barrios</em>&nbsp;with the city centre in the valley below.</p>