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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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Policy case

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Governments

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Scalability

Prioritize solutions that use the power of functioning ecosystems as infrastructure to provide natural services to benefit society and the environment; consider nature-based replacements for grey infrastructure.

Promote solutions inspired and supported by nature

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

**Harmonize with nature** by promoting infrastructure, production systems and sourcing that allows natural ecosystems to thrive




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Regenerate

Buildings house all production activities, and also are where people spend the majority of their time. Consequently ‘buildings’ consume  resources, namely energy and water, and produce large amounts of waste. 

The use phase of buildings represents the largest resource flows during their lifecycle. Optimised operations for different types of buildings—such as offices, industrial and commercial facilities or houses—can reduce energy, water and waste consumption, as well as operating costs, and enhance the wellbeing of users. 

Local governments can support Information and communication technology (ICT) innovation for the circular management of building operations for instance, by adopting new technologies, digital services and systems that can help with the monitoring and evaluation of (water and energy) efficiency. At the local level, policy can also set new building standards that can scale up net-zero waste, energy and water buildings. Then, the uptake of  ‘green contracts’—agreements that require the contractor to develop and implement a site management plan and favour certain types of resources—can also stimulate circular operations by legally ingraining circularity in the relationship between building owners, operators and users.


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🏢⚡  Optimised facility management

Societal Services

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

Renewable energy, fuels

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

Reduce Energy Consumption

Do better with less by using and supporting infrastructure, processes and products that are designed to minimize material, water and energy use and waste generation from production to end of use


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Reduce

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

Manage

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

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Water system refers to the water supply network for storing and supplying water for use by the community.

One of the greatest challenges of a city is to provide its inhabitants with safe, clean water from a limited fresh water supply. Improving the city’s water infrastructure efficiency, such as minimising leakages, reduces the strain put on the limited supply, which in turn, helps to ensure inhabitants gain access to clean and affordable water.

The water infrastructure of a city typically consists of components such as surface water diversions, wells, pumps, transmission pipes and canals, treatment and storage facilities, and distribution network elements (Burian et al.). Options for improving the efficiency of the system include investing in water loss reduction systems, creating and following a regular maintenance program, and better matching water supply and demand (Global Water Partnership).

Cities can improve the efficiency of their water system infrastructure by conducting a water audit, in which all water flows are traced and losses in the system are identified to map where the most efficiency improvements can be gained. Alongside this, asset management can be used to create a short-term and long-term strategy of investing in new equipment, refurbishing existing equipment and developing maintenance programmes to ensure infrastructure is as efficient as possible, and leaks are minimised. Such management programmes create financial transparency amongst all stakeholders and provide useful long-term planning for larger infrastructure changes (US EPA)

💧 Water Systems

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Develop regenerative infrastructure

Put enablers in place that allow circular businessesto grow, thrive and innovate (e.g. incubators, start-up funding, partnerships, innovation deals, business capacity building and testing groundsfor new business models).


Support circular and resource-efficient business innovations

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

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

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Other

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Infrastructure

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

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

Industries

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Urban Opportunities

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

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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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City Stakeholders

Thematic Areas

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

Impacts

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Downtown Toronto takes advantage of Lake Ontario's constant lake bottom temperature to operate a heat exchange system. Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system offers the city’s downtown property owners a compelling alternative to their buildings’ air conditioning requirements. Instead of installing separate chilled water generators within their buildings, many are taking advantage of the Deep Lake Water Cooling system, operated by Enwave Energy Corporation. The Deep Lake Water Cooling system offers substantial cost savings if building operators forego a standard chiller plant and instead install heat exchangers to interface with it. We’ll overview the functional parts of the Deep Lake Water Cooling system, which has been in service since 2004: the Lake Ontario intake pipes, the Island Filtration Plant, Enwave’s Energy Transfer Station (ETS), and the closed-loop Deep Lake Water Cooling chilled water circuit that individual buildings can access with new heat exchangers.  The cooling system for a typical large office building has chilled water distribution piping installed throughout its air-conditioned spaces. Individual fan coil units tied into the closed-loop chilled water circuit provide space cooling for specific building areas. As space cooling occurs, a chilled water generator, or “chiller," removes the heat accumulated within the water pumped through the pipe loop. Chilled water flows through the system as needed to match building occupants’ cooling demands. Instead of installing a chiller system to remove accumulated building heat, Toronto’s downtown buildings can install heat exchangers that interface a particular building’s chilled water circuit via Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system. A heat exchanger installation is cheaper, requires less maintenance, utilizes less space, and, most importantly, does not demand the electricity of a traditional chiller plant. alt="" Intake from Lake Ontario Three intake pipes run up to 83 m (272') deep and out to 5 km (3 miles) from the shore. The physics of cold water are factored into the design. Water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit), ensuring that the cooling water removed from the lake bottom will have a consistent year-round temperature at the system’s intake points. The cooling water to be used by the Deep Lake Water Cooling system first goes through Toronto’s standard water treatment process to become regular drinking water.    The Island Filtration Plant Lake water drawn by the Deep Lake Water Cooling intake pipes is filtered and disinfected at Toronto’s Island Filtration plant. The treated lake water itself is never used by the Deep Lake Water Cooling system – only its cooling properties are leveraged by using heat exchangers. The 4 degree Celsius temperature (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of the lake water processed at the Island Filtration Plant will be increased slightly at the next step, the Energy Transfer Station. The Energy Transfer Station The Energy Tranfer Station is collocated with Toronto’s John Street Pumping Station. The Energy Transfer Station includes large arrays of heat exchangers that allow the heat from the downtown chilled water loop to be rejected into the city’s drinking water supply before distribution to the public. The heat removed from the downtown chilled water loop is therefore never transferred to Lake Ontario and the slight temperature increase is insignificant for water utility consumers.   The Downtown Chilled Water Loop Toronto’s 10-mile chilled water loop runs from Simcoe Street near Lake Ontario, north through the Financial and Hospital Districts to Queen’s Park, and back to where it began. The downtown closed loop is made of steel and high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe and contains over six million gallons of water. The flow rate through the system peaks at over 72,000 gallons per minute (gpm) and averages over 30,000 gpm. Water on the return side of the downtown loop arrives back to the Energy Transfer Station at 13.3 degrees Celsius (56 degrees Fahrenheit), approximately 8 degrees (15 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the chilled water first leaving the Energy Transfer Station. The increase represents the net heat accumulated and retained from the Deep Lake Water Cooling system’s customer building sites. There’s a back-up system for the city’s closed loop, when necessary: 14,000 tons of additional back-up cooling can be provided by two steam-powered centrifugal chillers and two traditional electric centrifugal chillers. This may be required during high-heat days. In routine circumstances, the heat from the loop will be removed using lake water alone and flow through the downtown loop will by-pass the four supplemental chillers. The water circulating through the downtown loop is treated to drinking water standards. Keeping the water in the downtown loop clean and free of impurities has direct advantages – the heat exchanger processes (at each building site and at the Energy Transfer Station) are much more efficient when using cleaner water, and significant energy- and cost-savings can be realized. The downtown loop is disinfected with chlorine, and suspended solids are removed by using an efficient micron filtration system. The filtration system can remove particulates as small as 0.5 microns to meet local drinking water standards. Positive Environmental Impacts When combined on average, the buildings that use the Deep Lake Water Cooling system instead of individual chiller packages free up 61 megawatts of power on the Toronto electric grid. Because less electricity is required to power individual air-conditioning installations, less fuel is required for consumption at local utility plants. The corresponding carbon dioxide (CO2) gas emission reductions allowed by the Deep Lake Water Cooling system are figured to be about 79,000 tonnes (87,000 U.S. tons) annually – the equivalent of about 16,000 automobiles on Toronto’s roadways. The Deep Lake Water Cooling system can mitigate peak electric utility rates. On a summer morning during the work week, for example, less electric power is needed to cool downtown office spaces as hundreds of air-conditioning systems are operated simultaneously. It is cheaper for Deep Lake Water Cooling system customer sites to pump chilled water through heat exchangers than through separate chiller plants, particularly at such times of high utility rates. Because the installation of so many separate chilled water generator plants is avoided, the corresponding demand for hydrochloroflourocarbons (HCFCs) and chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) refrigerants is also eliminated. Deep Lake Water Cooling System Capacity The system as currently installed has the capacity to provide 72,000 tons of refrigeration and to air condition about 70 downtown office buildings, or 3.7 million m2 (40 million sq. ft.) of office space. The Deep Lake Water Cooling system provides cooling to a diverse array of customer sites including retail spaces, hospitals, government and office buildings, event-based venues, and residential complexes. It's a renewable energy-based District Energy System that is profitable without outside subsidies. Andrew Wilcox is the Manager of Business Development for Enwave Energy Corporation and was a technical contributor to this feature. 

Toronto

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Toronto is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341.Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

City of Toronto 

Since the 60% of GHG emissions in Toronto are generated by buildings, the City has identified thermal energy networks as a critical strategy to meet its sustainability goals, delineated in its climate change action plan, “TransformTO”.&nbsp;

Toronto takes advantage of Lake Ontario's low temperature to operate a heat exchange system

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within other industries

Open loop collection

Infrastructure for citizens or cities to sort waste and extract recyclables, including incentives and pay-as-you-throw policies, as well as clear and targeted communications campaigns.

Sort recyclables

Collection of waste arising from commercial and industrial actors

Collect non residential

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

Solutions at all stages of the Electronics Value Chain

Zero Waste Electronics

Collect organic waste generated by households and related businesses for use in, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion facilities.

Collect organic

Ensure that household and business waste is collected and appropriately sorted (by type, label, etc.) to allow for maximum recovery of value.


Collect and sort waste to facilitate recovery

Make collected and sorted recyclables available for use by citizens, small businesses up to large scale industrial processes. 

Use recyclables

Implementation of strategies to collect recyclable waste in order to make it accessible and available to be used as an input in industrial processes (big or small). These are door-to-door collection (higher recovery rates but more costly intensive), drop-off schemes (cheaper but less effective, more common in cities with high housing density), or a combination of the two, and their corresponding incentive schemes. 

Collect recyclables

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing electronics products for businesses and consumers, including cellular phones, personal computers, printers, servers, electronic computer components and peripherals, TVs, audio equipment, as well as household appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, etc.

Electronics and Appliances

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As a result of the City's COVID-19 response, some in-person services have been suspended in City buildings and divisional phone line hours may be different from what is indicated. If you experience any difficulties contacting a division, please contact 311.
                    Contact 311 to submit a service request to report electronic waste that was not picked up. Please note that you must report electronic waste not picked up within 24 hours of the scheduled collection day. The City of Toronto has expanded collection services to include Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or what is referred to as electronic waste or E-Waste. Collection will vary for multi-residential buildings depending on the service provider, such as in-house collections vs. contractor collections. Please visit the City of Toronto website for further details on Electronic Waste.Buildings may use any open top rigid containers, such as a reusable container without a lid to place out the E-Waste. The container will be left behind by the collection crew for future use.How do I put out small electronic items?Any open top rigid container may be used to place out small electronic items such as: telephones and accessories, cell phones, pagers, cameras, video recorders, personal hand-held computers, computer cables, mouse(s) and radios. Portable and laptop computers and keyboards, VCR's, DVD players may also be put in the boxes as long as the weight does not exceed 20kg (44 lbs).Please remove all batteries and ink cartridges. Dispose of batteries and ink cartridges at Household Hazardous Waste depots or Community Environment Day events.How do I put out larger electronic items that will not fit into an open top rigid container?For curbside collection, place larger electronic items beside your garbage cart for collection. For front-end loaded container customers, items that cannot fit in a rigid container should be placed next to the container or near the other items (oversized goods, mattresses, large appliances) as these items are collected by the same truck. Items include desktop monitors, printers, scanners and modems, copiers, typewriters, fax machines, video projectors, televisions, radio, stereos, receivers and speakers.Will I be charged for the special collection of electronic items?No, it is a free service to encourage waste diversion and ensure electronics items are disposed of safely, recycled and kept out of landfill sites.How and when will the electronics items be collected?A different style of truck from your regular garbage truck will pick up all electronics for either recycling or safe disposal. Always keep weather conditions in mind when placing items out for collection. In winter storms, we ask that you hold onto items until it's clear of snow and ice. E-Waste will be collected on a regular basis. For front end (FEL) container multi-residential customers, E-Waste will be collected on the primary recycling day. For curbside collected multi-residential customers, E-Waste will be collected on garbage day.Where are the electronics items taken after collection?All of the electronics items collected are taken to a City warehouse. They are packaged for shipping through OES transporters to OES approved processors and recyclers for recycling and safe, secure disposal of any potentially hazardous content.   

The Canadian city of Toronto offers residents a curbside e-waste collection service, created to encourage waste diversion and recycling as well as keeping electronics out of landfills. The service does not cost residents an additional premium and devices of all shapes and sizes can be collected.

Curbside collection of e-waste in Toronto

The food system nourishes populations and employs 50% of the global workforce, but:
- it currently drives a quarter of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) production, 
- animal farming alone uses over one-quarter of all land, equivalent to the size of the Americas,
- nearly a quarter of freshwater resources are lost due to rampant food waste, and
- it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss.

A circular food system must address the whole value chain, from production to consumption to waste management. The four key solutions for the food system are:
- Put healthier, satiating foods first: Prioritise satiating and healthy foods with a lower environmental impact—ideally shifting calories from meat, fish, and dairy towards cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
- Go local, seasonal, and organic: Prioritise the production and consumption of local, seasonal, and organic produce (sometimes in combination with GMO to reduce pests and disease loss on crops), which can lead to a significantly reduced need for chemical inputs, fuels, and processing services that contribute to environmental impacts.
- Mainstream regenerative agriculture: Scale up agricultural practices that regenerate ecosystems, recirculate nutrients and sequester carbon by design. 
- End avoidable food waste: Minimise food loss and valorise waste following the food waste hierarchy along the supply chain and at the consumer level through better management of transport and storage, more refrigeration and smart planning, and technology at the consumer and food service levels.



🍏 Food Systems

Putting in place purchasing guidelines for procurement departments and evaluating suppliers on circular economy principles

Circular procurement

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

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

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Rethink

 Public Procurement

High-level changes to policy and practice (such as taxation systems, investment and procurement guidelines and criteria) that disincentivize activities that perpetuate linear economic systems, as well as vision-setting (goals, roadmaps) to catalyze
action on circularity across the city

Eliminate linear incentives and set goals and incentives for circularity

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Develop circular criteria for public procurement of assets

Local governments can act as the first movers, and accelerate the transition towards a more circular food system through integrating circular criteria into public procurement policies for food. Purchasing decisions by local governments, -such as buying food for canteens in municipal offices and schools-, have a large economic influence in the region, and create important market demand for circular businesses and products.

Criteria within public procurement could, for example, prioritise regionally and organically produced foods, encourage the use of recyclable packaging and assess food waste prevention. Low-carbon and plant-based menus could also be developed. Used strategically, public procurement can be used to drive innovation in the sector to meet these circular demands,for example, new circular cultivation techniques and technologies, and low-impact food and packaging products.


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🍏  Circular public procurement of food products and services

         View the The Future of Waste Management in Toronto: Open House and Consultation webcast and presentation. Join the Long Term Waste Management Strategy e-mail list:
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AT A GLANCE 
THE INITIATIVE 
Toronto™s Circular Economy Procurement 
Implementation Plan and Framework (the 
Framework) is positioned to become a major tool 
in creating economic growth, enhancing social 
prosperity and moving towards zero waste in the 
city. Toronto™s annual purchasing contracts amount 
to approximately CAD 2 billion in value, which 
represents considerable potential for suppliers 
who have long-standing circular economy 
o˜erings or who are beginning to integrate circular 
economy into their existing business models. 
The 
Framework
 outlines the city™s circular economy 
procurement objectives in addition to a number 
of opportunities for the city to leverage its buying 
power. The Framework is consistent with the 
direction and approach set out in the city™s 2016 
Long Term Waste Management Strategy. 
TIME FRAME 
Coordination on the development of the 
Framework took place between January and 
June 2018. It will initially be implemented in pilot 
procurements for three years from June 2018 with 
ongoing business consultation, engagement and 
capacity building. Final recommendations will be 
presented in 2021.
FOCUS AREAS
Initially, the Framework may potentially be 
implemented in the following target sectors: food 
and catering; waste management; information and 
technology; textiles and clothing; construction 
 and engineering.LEAD POLICY LEVERS
ROADMAPS AND 
STRATEGIES
CONVENING AND 
PARTNERING
AWARENESS 
RAISING
CAPACITY BUILDING
PUBLIC 
PROCUREMENTCORE TEAM & PARTICIPANTS
Development of the Framework was co-led by city 
sta˜ from the Solid Waste Management Services 
Division (SWMS) and the Purchasing and Materials 
Management Division (PMMD). 
Sitting within SWMS is the Unit for Research, 
Innovation and a Circular Economy (UFRICE), 
which coordinated the work and convened a cross 
divisional working group on circular economy 
including one or two senior representatives from 
SWMS and PMMD in addition to eight other 
‚champion™ divisions, namely: City Planning; 
Economic Development & Culture; Environment 
& Energy O˚ce; Facilities Management; Parks, 
Forestry & Recreation; Transportation Services; 
Toronto Water; and Toronto Public Health. Other 
divisions are also open to join.
Toronto is also engaging suppliers in the project, 
to ensure that the Framework™s implementation 
is informed by potential bidders and business 
stakeholders.
FINANCE 
CAD 1.8 million has been allocated to UFRICE over 
three years to cover the costs of various projects 
and initiatives, including sta˚ng, studies, grants, 
partnerships, pilots, conferences, membership fees, 
and travel.
TORONTO
CIRCULAR ECONOMY 
PROCUREMENT 
IMPLEMENTATION 
PLAN AND 
FRAMEWORK
Creating systemic 
 change through public 
purchasing power
GOVERNANCE
 Toronto City 
Council
POPULATION
 3 million (2018)
GDP 308 billion USDDENSITY 4,769 per km
2For more see
 Policy Levers
OUTCOMES TO DATE 
UFRICE developed and submitted guiding 
principles to the Toronto™s Government 
Management Committee, and a plan for 
integrating circular economy approaches into 
city procurement processes. UFRICE is also 
determining a baseline and suitable metrics to 
track the economic, environmental and 
 social outcomes. 
Since inception, the project has launched into pilot 
phase and has begun not only identifying existing 
circular procurement activities, but also integrating 
new requirements within call documents.
 THE JOURNEYORIGINS 
The development of Toronto™s Long Term Waste 
Management Strategy involved over 40 events, 
public meetings, and approximately 3,400 survey 
responses between 2014-2016. The strategy 
provides a 30-50 year masterplan for Toronto™s 
municipal solid waste management. To ful˛ll 
the objectives SWMS will be guided by circular 
economy principles that aim to fundamentally 
change how resources are regarded, for example, 
by designing systems and products that enable 
greater recovery of materials.  
In November 2017, as one of the recommendations 
of the strategy, UFRICE was formed to deliver on 
and implement circular economy transformation. 
Its role is to support innovation and economic 
growth through a wide range of activities, 
including convening businesses, engaging new 
technologies, and building public and private 
stakeholder awareness and capacity.
In support of the strategy, a local councillor 
had also proposed updating
 the 2007 
Environmentally Responsible Procurement 
Policy
 to bring it in line with circular economy 
principles. Ultimately, this is what led to 
the creation of Toronto™s Circular Economy 
Procurement Implementation Plan and Framework 
coordinated by UFRICE. 
SUPPORTIVE ACTORS 
Toronto™s Government Management Committee, 
which governs all city agencies and bodies, was 
supportive of the initiative, helping to place it high 
on the agenda. Local agencies and environmental 
organisations participated in a UFRICE-funded 
workshop that has spurred conversations 
promoting circular economy-related activities in 
areas close to Toronto, and has raised capacity 
among local sta˜. 
Capacity building also extends to vendors, which 
could include circular economy training that helps 
them recognise opportunities for their businesses. 
The additional businesses which engage with 
the city on circular economy procurement may 
meet new contract criteria and the potential to be 
awarded city contracts.
MEASURING PROGRESS 
In these early stages, progress is in part 
measured by tracking the number of engagement 
interactions with suppliers and fully ˝edged pilots.  
Reporting on progress has been an important 
consideration and the city has identi˛ed core 
indicators against which to start tracking. These 
are:
 ŁEconomic - cost savings for the city, waste 
reduction savings
 ŁEnvironmental - the percentage of waste 
diverted from land˛ll, CO2 savings, 
percentage of recycled content, raw 
materials avoided
 ŁSocial - number of associated jobs created, 
number of city sta˜ who have received 
circular economy training, asset sharing 
activitiesREFLECTIONS
Supporting key institutions and complementary 
policies to help create change.
 The November 
2017 direction from Toronto™s Government 
Management Committee (now called General 
Government and Licencing Committee) to 
report on a strategy for procurement allowed 
this initiative to get o˜ the ground and put it on 
the agenda of the working group champions. In 
addition, the project is in alignment with PMMDs 
Supply Chain Management Transformation 
Project
, which includes implementing Category 
Management and Strategic Sourcing. Furthermore, 
the city supports extending responsibility to 
owners and packaging manufacturers for the 
life cycle of their products and the waste they 
generate. In 2018, the city™s 
Policy for the 
Addition of New Materials to the City™s Waste 
Diversion Programs
 was created. Also, at the 
provincial government level, support for Extended 
Producer Responsibility is included in the 
Waste-
Free Ontario Act 2016
, which enacted both the 
Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act 
(2016) and the Waste Diversion Transition 
 Act (2016).
Timing and collaboration is key.
 Given the 
selection of suitable procurement pilots is not a 
straightforward process, timing and collaboration 
is critical. To ensure circular speci˛cations 
are included in new procurement contracts, 
coordination with teams responsible for the 
developing contract is required. This could include 
communicating between divisions drawing on the 
contract, speci˛cation engineers, legal services, 
insurance managers, and PMMD sta˜. 
Testing, piloting, convening and partnering 
leads to rich learnings.
 The collaborative work 
across multiple city government divisions, with 
suppliers and ˛eld experts has been integral to the 
identi˛cation of circular opportunities, the ongoing 
development of the Framework, and the shaping of 
future procurement in the city. 
Opening up new opportunities for businesses.
 The framework opens up new opportunities for 
businesses to win contracts. The evolution of 
procurement in the city, alongside the assistance 
and motivation for businesses to innovate, 
supports Toronto™s wider goal of creating 
economic growth, enhancing social prosperity and 
moving towards zero waste in the city. 
FOR MORE INFORMATION 
Website: 
www.toronta.ca
 Contact: 
Annette.Synowiec@toronto.ca
 This case study is part of 
Circular economy in cities
, Ellen MacArthur Foundation


Toronto’s Circular Economy Procurement Implementation Plan and Framework (the Framework) is positioned to become a major tool in creating economic growth, enhancing social prosperity and moving towards zero waste in the city. Toronto’s annual purchasing contracts amount to approximately CAD 2 billion in value, which represents considerable potential for suppliers who have long- standing circular economy offerings or who are beginning to integrate circular economy into their existing business models. The Framework outlines the city’s circular economy procurement objectives in addition to a number of opportunities for the city to leverage its buying power. The Framework is consistent with the direction and approach set out in the city’s 2016 Long Term Waste Management Strategy, which identified waste reduction opportunities that will be explored as pilots in the City's procurement of textiles and uniforms, food and catering services, office equipment, and information technology. The aim of the framework is to develop an evidence-based and measurable circular procurement policy, and enable the City to increase the amount of goods and services that are regenerative by design, have lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, are less toxic and rely less on raw material consumption.

Circular economy procurement implementation plan and framework, Toronto

Article / Report

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Raise awareness and run information campaigns about  strategies for and impacts of the circular economy in different contexts.

Communication and awareness

Eliminate waste by maximizing the recovery of resources at the end of the use phase so that they can be reintroduced into production processes


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Recover

Since 2008, thanks to an effective recycling and reuse programs, the Mayfair condo in Malvern, one of Toronto's neighbourhood, has managed to cut the building’s waste by 88 per cent. Because of the high waste generation and cost associated with collection fees, the building’s reserve fund was getting low. To avoid an increase of maintenance fees for residents to compensate, the superintendent of the condo asked residents to recycle. The building's garbage bins were converted to recycling bins and garbage chute into an organics chute. By explaining to residents why garbage collection costs were so high and why fees were going up, residents were incentivised to reduce waste generation and increase recycling. The great determination of the superintendent, who has since developed quite the reputation as the environmental enforcer, the building went the extra mile. Fines are enforced upon residents that do not comply with the recycling program. additionally, the management supplies glass jars so residents can collect used cooking oil, which are picked up and purchased by a company called Green Oil, who then resells the cooking oil to recyclers to be processed as biodiesel products. There is a library in the basement with books and furniture donated by residents and a depot to collect medicine and other hazardous waste (i.e. batteries, chemicals, etc.). From disposing of eight dumpsters a week, the bulding is now down to just one a month. They also send out 10 recycling bins and 2 green bins for organics each week. Building maintenance reserve funds have also grown to $3 million from near depletion and are planned to keep increasing annually thanks to waste avoidance.