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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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This collection features a selection of the initiatives listed on the Québec Circulaire platform.

Québec Circulaire is one of the flagship measures of the Pôle québécois de concertation sur l’économie circulaire (Quebec centre for consultation on the circular economy), a voluntary grouping of leaders from various backgrounds to accelerate the transition to the circular economy in Quebec. The information that emerges about circular economy is often fragmented by types of strategies, regions, people involved and sectors of activity. For a real change in the economic model to take place, it seemed essential to create a convergence forum for the exchange of information. Therefore, Québec Circulaire's mission is to bring together the variety of initiatives, tools, and expertise related to circular economy in Québec that are currently dispersed and will be multiplying in the coming years. 

Having begun its transition to circular economy in 2014, Québec serves as a pioneer in North America. By shining a light on the collective impact of individual and targeted initiatives, the circular economy can constitute a powerful lever for change.

This collection of case studies aims to bring together Quebec people involved in this transition, alongside facilitating access to initiatives and knowledge developed elsewhere in the world, and disseminating Quebec best practices internationally.

To learn more about Québec's initiatives to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, visit www.quebeccirculaire.org.

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Québec Circulaire

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Starter Kit collection

Business case

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

Ecological Impact

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

Social Impact

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

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

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 and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

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

Producing and providing leisure and personal products and services for consumers, such as cleaning products, sports equipment and toys, personal and beauty care products, as well as domestic and personal services such as caretaking, cleaning, hairdressing and other beauty treatment, funeral and related activities

Personal Products and Services

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

Rethink the business model

Deliver products through business models that ensure maximum value

Product business models

Providing products through sharing between consumers, customers, etc.

Peer to peer sharing

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

 Convene Towards Action

Voluntary agreements around circular ambitions

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

Increase efficiency and promote local economic growth by shortening supply chains and connecting local producers to consumers.


Support local low-impact circular economies

Urban dwellers around the world have become increasingly reliant on the consumption of fast-moving consumer goods that are designed to be cheap to buy and easily disposable. There is, nevertheless, an opportunity to support the development of sustainable alternatives for a range of consumer goods, from packaging to cosmetics to clothing that use renewable and recovered materials.

Local and sustainable producer ecosystems are networks of local entrepreneurs and initiatives that innovate sustainable products and services. These ecosystems could be established in physical locations, such as a maker-space, and can support the innovation of ideas and products that use locally sustainable and abundant materials (such as renewable or residual materials). 

Local governments can support the creation of local and sustainable producer ecosystems by providing rent-free access to the facilities and locations for entrepreneurs and initiatives that are developing circular economy innovations. Local governments can also engage in dialogue with participants of local spaces to understand and overcome the barriers towards a local circular economy, and could even connect initiatives with residual material streams.


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👕📱  Local and sustainable producer ecosystem

Consumer goods are typically fast moving through the economy, meaning they are produced and disposed of in a short space of time. This has led to consumer goods being responsible for significant quantities of avoidable waste generation, often consisting of materials that cannot easily be recycled, and often end up polluting the environment.

A local government can consume less goods in the first place, which allows the waste generated to be reduced significantly, and reduces environmental pollution. Many consumer goods can be made more durable, allowing for multiuse rather than continual procurement of new goods. One such example of ths is reusing uniforms used in some public sectors (e.g. police service), rather than unnecessarily procuring a new set for every new employee.

Local governments can reduce their consumption of consumer goods in their city by creating awareness campaigns about overconsumption and the idea of ‘doing more with less’, where appropriate. Local governments can also directly reduce their consumption by pursuing a green public procurement policy. This is a process in which a local government prioritises the procurement of goods and services with the lowest environmental impact. In many cases this yields the procurement of less goods by purchasing more durable alternatives or reusing existing resources. 



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👕📱 Reduce consumption of new consumer goods by local governments

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

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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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The circular economy is based on four key principles:If we narrow flows—use less—the amount of materials used or greenhouse gases emitted in the making of a product or in delivering a service decreases. This can be achieved through circular design (material efficiency or lightweighting, for example), circular business models (sharing and rental models, for example) or using materials and products more often, thereby reducing the need for new ones (multifunctional buildings, for example). Of course, the ultimate way to narrow flows is to stop using unnecessary goods or services, such as excess travel or fast fashion clothing.If we slow flows—use longer—resource use is optimised, as the length for which we can use a product expands. Durable design and materials, and service loops that extend product lifetimes such as repair, all contribute to slowing rates of extraction and use. Ultimately, we need to make the most of what we have, be it clothing, electronics or buildings, by applying strategies such as repair, refurbishing, renovation or remodelling.If we regenerate flows—use cleaner resources—fossil fuels, pollutants and toxic materials are replaced with regenerative and natural sources. This helps us maintain natural ecosystems. The clean energy transition is, therefore, also a circular activity, as is regenerative agriculture. Using regenerative materials like wood over toxic or emissions-intensive plastic or cement also serves this goal.If we cycle flows—use again—we make the most of materials and products at their end-of-life stage by creating a circular flow of resources. This is enhanced by improved collection and reprocessing of materials, as well as getting the most out of the material by creating value in each stage of reuse—for example upcycling rather than downcycling. To achieve this, products should be designed for recyclability (both technical and biological) and for disassembly, which facilitates both reuse and recycling.

  Les deux co-fondateur de l'initiative souhaitent participer à la transition vers le zéro déchet, comment? Trouver une solution innovante; Étude bibliographique, notamment sur le marché de la seconde main et les habitudes de consommation des québécois.es; Recherche bibliographique sur les solutions innovantes liées à la consommation responsable en Europe; Identification de l’idée/la solution CIRCULE; c’est la circulation de TOUS objets entre voisins; c’est la location; Développement de quelques connaissances de l’écosystème au Québec (SAJE, Ville de Laval, Recy-Québec, Fonds Écoleader, etc.; Préparation d’un plan d’affaires; Préparation d’un cahier de charge de l’application web de location, circule.ca; Programmation et développement de la solution, en collaboration avec des programmeurs informatiques; Participation à des concours (OSEntreprendre – finaliste pour deux prix); Participation à des ateliers de formations (SAJE, Évol, Services Québec, etc.); Test et validation de l’application web, circule.ca; Utilisation de la solution par les particuliers et les entreprises, en septembre 2022; Diffusion et marketing à partir de septembre 2022.
 Oui.
Nous avons eu beaucoup des obstacles au niveau de financement parce qu’il y a beaucoup de recherche et développement dans notre projet (programmation, etc.). De plus, les coûts de programmation, au Québec, sont trop élevés, sans oublier les disponibilités des programmeurs dues à la pénurie de main-d’œuvre. Par ailleurs, nous sommes conscients que notre projet (pilote) demandait beaucoup du travail au niveau de la sensibilisation des consommateurs. Selon notre sondage à partir d’un échantillon de plus de 100 participants, mené sur les réseaux sociaux, 56 % des Québécois.es sont prêts à louer ou échanger ses objets avec leurs voisins. De ce fait, nous avons encore du travail à faire pour sensibiliser les consommateurs et leur montrer les avantages de la location chez leurs voisins (environnementaux, sociaux et économiques). Leviers Nous avons donc financé le projet par nous-mêmes, sans support externe. Et pour minimiser les coûts et accélérer le développement de notre application web, nous avons engagé une entreprise bien réputée en Tunisie, en octobre 2021. Avec cette application web, nous pourrions recevoir de financement pour :  Mettre en place une stratégie de commercialisation, en collaboration avec des experts; Poursuivre la programmation afin de développer une application mobile.
 Un expert en communication et en commercialisation sera donc recruté pour nous aider à mettre en place une stratégie innovante, dans le but de sensibiliser davantage les consommateurs Québécois.es. Nous avons aussi participé à quelques évènements qui permettent de nous offrir une bonne visibilité auprès du grand public (Défi OSEntreprendre 2022). Des agents et conseillers en développement durable et symbiose industrielle, notamment au sein des Villes, seront encore contactés pour nous aider à développer des partenariats avec des entreprises. Ces entreprises partenaires seront les propriétaires et les locataires des objets sur notre plateforme circule.ca. Finalement, nous soulignons le grand support (services et conseils) de quelques organismes, en particulier Évol, SAJE, des agents de Fonds Écoleaders, Esplanade, Ville de Laval, etc. Outils et méthodologies utilisés  1. En collaboration avec des ingénieurs informatiques, un cahier de charge de la solution a été développé, dont toutes les étapes de soumission d’un objet à louer, sur circule.ca, par le PROPRIÉTAIRE, ainsi que toues les étapes de location, par le LOCATAIRE, sont bien détaillées. Dans l’objectif de simplifier les tâches de nos programmeurs, des schémas - des algorithmes - des scénarios - des conditions de locations et de retour sont développés et détaillés. 2. Le framework Symfony est utilisé pour le développement de la plateforme circule.ca. Symfony est un framework PHP puissant et robuste. Les projets créés avec cette plateforme sont hautement extensibles en raison de l'architecture modulaire. L'utilisation de bundles et de composants en fait une solution brillante pour les sites Web et les applications de toute taille et complexité. Ceci nous permettra ensuite de développer la version mobile. 3. Plusieurs catégories d’objets à louer sont également déterminées : outils, équipements, vêtements, jeux, etc. 4. Les fonctions du client PROPRIÉTAIRE sont bien identifiées : (i) Créer un compte sur circule.ca, (ii) Lister des objets à louer, (iii) Gérer les commandes et (iv) Gagner de l’argent. 5. Durant la soumission d’un objet pour une location, le PROPRIÉTAIRE doit fournir et spécifier les caractéristiques, disponibilités, tarifs et conditions de location (livraison ou sans, caution, signature selfie, etc.), dans le but de protéger le client LOCATAIRE. Des cases destinées à cette étape sont obligatoirement complétées par le PROPRIÉTAIRE. 5. De même, le rôle et les responsabilités du client LOCATAIRE sont déterminées et développer pour assurer un processus de location écologique et sécuritaire : (i) Créer un compte sur circule.ca, (ii) Rechercher et sélectionner un objet, (iii) Soumettre votre commande auprès du PROPRIÉTAIRE, et (iv) Louer et retourner l'objet en économisant de l'argent. 6. Durant la location, le client LOCATAIRE doit signer un contrat de location, disponible sur circule.ca, et payer le frais de demander, dans le but de protéger le PROPIÉTAIRE. 7. Des fonctions de calcul de la commission de notre plateforme, circule.ca, ont été intégrées dans le code source de l’application. 8. Un calendrier de location pour chaque objet est disponible sur circule.ca. 9. Pour chaque location, le PROPRIÉTAIRE reçoit un courriel incluant toutes les informations de la location. 10. Le PROPRIÉTAIRE a un accès à un tableau de bord, disponible sur son compte circule, dont lequel toutes ses factures sont disponibles (son e-boutique de location). 11. Une première version du contrat de location a été révisée par une avocate, payé par l'organisme Évol, et disponible maintenant sur circule.ca. 12. La politique d’utilisation de la plateforme est en cours de développement. 13. La plateforme circule.ca est hébergée chez un hébergeur web au Canada pour assurer une haute sécurité des informations de nos clients. 14. Un système de paiement en ligne, très bien réputé à l’échelle mondiale, à été intégré dans circule.ca pour assurer des paiements en ligne sécuritaire. Sources de financement de l'initiative  Toutes nos activités actuelles sont financées à partir de notre propre capitale. Le développement de notre application web est complètement payé par notre propre trésorerie. Quelques programmes de financement sont identifiés (Recyc-Québec, Fonds Écoleader, Entreprendre ici, CRSNG, Service Québec, etc.). Nous envisageons préparer des demandes de subvention pour :
  Poursuivre le développement de notre application web et produire une version mobile ; Mettre en place une stratégie de marketing ; Avoir le support des experts en comptabilité, commercialisation, communication, juridique, etc.
 

Montreal

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Éco2Québec

<p>The sharing economy has already proven a wide range of successful applications to be no longer limited to a theoretical concept. Providing environmental and social benefitis, this is what the Circule platform is doing in Montréal.</p>