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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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Business case

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

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

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

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

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop regenerative infrastructure

Participatory governance mechanisms

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

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Rethink

Facilitate cross-collaboration by engaging city departments, industries and businesses on ambitious, closed-loop circular projects.

Support closed-loop systems and cross-sectoral synergies

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

Businesses

Communities

As much as 90% of world energy use comes from fossil sources. Meanwhile in 2017, only 0.7% of global energy use derived from solar power and 1.9% from wind ([Statistical Review of World Energy, 2021](https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html)). Some of the highly contested issues stopping the energy transition from materialising are land requirements and high upfront investment costs. Decentralising renewable energy production through cooperatives could be a solution to both. Local renewable energy cooperatives allow the financial burden of purchasing renewable energy equipment to be spread amongst a voluntary group of people, all while relying less on new land.

Cooperatives, then, allow residents without renewable energy potential, perhaps due to lack of space or property rental restrictions, to gain the potential through others. A cooperative project, for instance, may involve a street of houses in which the participants collectively decide to install solar PV panels on the roofs of suitable participating homes, whilst all participants' equally benefit from the renewable electricity production. This enables more people to consume renewable electricity and save on costs. Furthermore, all participants have a democratic say within the decision-making of the project, unlike a traditional electricity utility contract. This type of model can also be applied for microgrids, local biogas installations, gasifiers and other projects.

Local governments can support and facilitate such initiatives. They can set up a so-called “support coalition” that can support experiments, aid cooperative agreements, mobilise resources and provide regulatory support, such as subsidising part of the energy system. Municipalities can also become cooperative members themselves, directly consuming or selling the energy produced and gaining an additional instrument to implement municipal energy policy. 

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⚡  Support local renewable energy cooperatives

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

Policy Instruments

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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

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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Brooklyn Microgrid (BMG) is an energy marketplace for locally-generated, solar energy.   The BMG marketplace allows prosumers (i.e. residential and commercial solar panel owners) to sell the excess solar energy they generate to NYC residents who prefer using renewable, versus fossil fuel, energy. Brooklyn Microgrid's mission is to assist in the proliferation of solar production and consumption throughout New York City.  Join us in our efforts to make the Big Apple carbon neutral! ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Click below on the participant category that best describes you and your house, apartment, business, or school.Out of galleryPROSUMER As a solar panel owner, net metering is presently the only option you have to earn value on the excess energy your solar panels produce. BMG wants to give your neighbors the oppourinty to bid on your energy which could be at a higher rate than you're currently getting. CONSUMER Support Green Energy? Imagine being able to get renewable energy right from your community. SUPPORTER Don’t live in New York City, but you want to bring a microgrid to your city or town? EDUCATOR* Want to schedule a 45-min workshop that explains the science and tech behind BMG? (*NYC schools only.)"If in the future you find yourself selling your excess solar panel energy to your neighbor via secure blockchain, you'll have one startup's actions on President Street in Brooklyn to thank." ​ -Fast Company"This project..., is the first version of a new kind of energy market, operated by consumers, which will change the way we generate and consume electricity." ​ ​ -New ScientistThe Science behind Brooklyn MicrogridThrough blockchain technology and our own innovative solutions, we’ve developed Exergy, a permissioned data platform that creates localized energy marketplaces for transacting energy across existing grid infrastructure.
We’re just beginning to uncover the potential of the Exergy platform to influence the energy model of the future, and already the possibilities seem endless.Peer-to-Peer ​ On the Exergy platform, prosumers—generating energy through their own renewable resource—can  transact energy autonomously in near-real time with consumers on the platform in their local marketplace.Microgrid ​ A microgrid is an ecosystem of connected prosumer and consumer energy assets. Energy is generated, stored, and transacted locally, creating more efficient, resilient and sustainable communities.DSO ​ The distributed system operator is granted access to consumer data like building management systems. Using price as a proxy, the Distributed Systems Operator manages energy use, load balancing, and demand response at negotiated rates.EV Charging ​ When a charging station—public or private—or an electric vehicle has a surplus of energy, it is made available for purchase on the local network. Consumers can set budgets and be alerted to the availability via mobile app.

View PDFVolume 210, 15 January 2018, Pages 870-880https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.06.054Get rights and contentView Abstract

New York

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Brooklyn Microgrid 

<p>In New York City, the Brooklyn Microgrid (BMG) is a network of New York City residents and business owners that act as a marketplace for locally generated solar energy. Residential and commercial solar panel owners can use the platform to sell excess solar energy to NYC residents. Participants access the local energy marketplace through the Brooklyn Microgrid mobile app. In the app, people can choose to buy local solar energy credits. Prosumers&nbsp;sell their excess solar energy to the marketplace where consumers&nbsp;purchase the available solar via auction.</p><p>The local government plays a role by determining how the microgrid energy market fits into the current energy policy. Legislative rules determine which market design is allowed, how taxes and fees are distributed and in which way the market is integrated into the traditional energy market and energy supply system. Hence, governments can easily support microgrid energy markets to further the efficient utilisation of local resources and to decrease environmental degeneration by regulatory changes, e.g. the introduction of subsidies. Then again, they may also discourage the implementation of microgrid markets if these result in negative impacts on the traditional energy system</p>

New York's renewable energy marketplace

Brooklyn Microgrid is currently in the process of developing a community
microgrid in the Gowanus and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Community
microgrids present a new approach to grid operations that serves to achieve a
sustainable, secure, and cost-effective energy system by providing long-term,
locally generated power security within a community. The microgrid will use
blockchain technology to track transactions and charge users for grid use.

  

Read more at:

<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-microgrid-grows-in-brooklyn/>

<http://brooklynmicrogrid.com/>

