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The Circularity Gap Report: Friesland is a joint initiative led by Circulair Friesland, the Province of Friesland, and Circle Economy to track Friesland’s progress toward a more circular economy while also serving as a model for other regions. As the organizations behind this dashboard, we aim to provide structured indicators to measure key aspects of circularity—such as resource efficiency, waste reduction, and circular jobs—alongside on-the-ground case studies that highlight innovative local initiatives. This approach helps policymakers, businesses, and communities assess progress, address challenges, and accelerate Friesland’s transition to a circular economy. In doing so, Friesland is working toward meeting the national goal of reducing primary resource use by 50% by 2030 and achieving a fully circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050.

Beyond Friesland, this dashboard is designed as a replicable tool that can be implemented in other regions worldwide. By fostering comprehensive comparisons, it enables knowledge sharing and collaboration, allowing regions to learn from one another and scale successful strategies. In addition to tracking current trends, the monitor offers forward-looking recommendations to drive circular development—both within Friesland and beyond—helping to create a more sustainable global economy.

This case study collection supports the dashboard, in showcasing circular economy projects and initiatives already occurring in the region.

CGR Friesland

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Business case

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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


Construction and Infrastructure

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

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

**Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation**

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The manufacturing industry’s recovery from COVID-19 remains incomplete and uneven: some high-income regions achieved record-high manufacturing value added per capita in 2022 but levels in LDCs were not much higher than the 2015 baseline. 
In the aftermath of the pandemic, data show that higher-technology industries recovered faster and proved to be more resilient, pointing to the need to promote innovation and technology transfer in a way that benefits all countries. 

Inclusive and sustainable industrial development has been incorporated, together with resilient infrastructure and innovation, as Sustainable Development Goal 9 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To achieve Goal 9 by 2030 it is essential to support LDCs, invest in advanced technologies, lower carbon emissions, and increase global mobile broadband access.

This goal's target includes:
- develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all;
- promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries;
- increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets;
- by 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities;
- enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending;
- facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States;
- support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities;
- significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/industry](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/industry)

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9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure  

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

**Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable**

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The pandemic has caused major shifts in migration patterns, including huge movements of people in and out of urban areas. Furthermore, climate change and conflicts tend to have disproportionate impacts on cities. These factors mean that the world is far from achieving the goal of sustainable cities.  
In many developing countries, slum populations have been growing, putting at risk the target of adequate housing for all by 2030. Since 2015, the number of countries with national disaster risk reduction strategies has more than doubled. 

Cities are hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, and social, human and economic development. Urban planning, transport systems, water, sanitation, waste management, disaster risk reduction, access to information, education and capacity-building are all relevant issues to sustainable urban development.

This target entails multiple essential concepts such as disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable transport.

To achieve SDG 11, efforts must focus on strengthening capacities for planning for urban development, improving access to public transportation, and enhancing waste management. 

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-cities-and-human-settlements)


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11. Sustainable cities and communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Narrow strategies reduce material and energy use. Currently, material use is highly inefficient and ineffective; we can deliver similar social outcomes by using much less and phasing out fossil fuels, for example. This doesn’t mean being worse off, but rather focusing on using materials efficiently: think in terms of riding a bike instead of driving a car, eating less meat, and living in a space that suits your needs. Using less is a core tenet of the circular economy—yet currently, the threshold for sustainable consumption, 8 tonnes per person, is being surpassed by 1.5 times. 

Narrow

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).

Regenerate

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

This section examines material extraction—both domestic and international—for use in Friesland, through Material Flow Analysis and footprinting. It also includes the waste treatment breakdown, detailing how waste is processed, reused, or diverted from landfills. The Circularity Metric tracks the extent to which materials are recycled as compared to the total material consumption. Additionally, the share of renewable energy consumption is included, alongside a dedicated section on water, emphasizing its critical role in the circular economy. Sustainable management and technological innovation in water use can significantly minimise environmental impact and enhance resource efficiency. These indicators collectively ensure that circular economy efforts yield tangible environmental benefits, complementing the economic and social dimensions.

Environmental

Environmental indicators are fundamental to measuring the transition towards a circular economy, as its core aim is to minimize material and water consumption, waste, and emissions while regenerating natural systems. 

It tracks how virgin and secondary materials are extracted, imported, processed, and consumed across ‘sectors of final demand.’ It highlights the distribution of raw material consumption across seven sectors, each representing a societal need: Housing and Infrastructure, Services, Mobility, Nutrition, Manufactured Goods, Healthcare and Education, and Communication. This breakdown offers a clear view of how resources flow to meet societal demands.

Material flows and footprints

Using socioeconomic metabolism, we track material and energy flows within an economy, which operates like a living system. 

It uses input-output modeling to account for not only the region’s direct emissions but also those that occur along the supply chain, including the embodied carbon in imported products. This approach differs from a production-based carbon footprint, which only considers emissions produced within the region’s borders, regardless of where the products are consumed. The consumption-based carbon footprint provides a more complete view of the region’s impact on global emissions.

Carbon footprint

The carbon footprint, from a consumption-based perspective, tracks the total emissions linked to a region's final demand.

This section includes an index of life satisfaction and quality of life in a region, and health indicators, which tracks physical and mental well-being as influenced by environmental and economic conditions. Trust is another key indicator, measuring confidence in institutions, businesses, and communities—essential for fostering collaboration and collective action in a circular economy. Together, these indicators highlight how circular strategies can contribute to a more equitable, resilient, and thriving society.

Social

Social indicators are crucial for assessing the human impact of a circular economy, ensuring that the transition not only benefits the environment and economy but also enhances overall well-being, health, and social cohesion.

Impacts

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Industries

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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

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**These 17 Goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.**

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, and especially on the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York which let to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed. A major blueprint came out of this: The Sustainable Development Goals: 17 overarching goals—and 169 targets—that governments are aiming to meet by 2030. Significant progress has been made in terms of poverty, health and inequality, but there's still a way to go. This is where the circular economy comes in: by circulating resources multiple times, the circular economy tackles issues of scarcity and allows all to access what they need—without overburdening the earth. If it's implemented in a holistic way—affording attention to social considerations and the fair distribution of resources— it also offers a pathway for achieving the SDGs; and the link between the two is ever-growing. To read more about the link between the SDGs and the circular economy, click [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/blogs/how-the-circular-economy-can-help-us-reach-the-sustainable-development-goals).

It is the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) which provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues. TheDSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
Alongside this, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.

To read more information: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals](https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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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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Friesland Indicators

     De sloop van de eerste 72 portiekflats in Heechterp (fase 2) is gestart. Op 5 september werd begonnen met het ontmantelen van het beton. Elkien, Gemeente Leeuwarden, Bouwgroep Dijkstra Draisma, Van der Wal Sloopwerken, KWS en de Leeuwarder Betoncentrale hebben hiervoor een circulaire keten van betonverwerking opgezet. Een unieke mijlpaal! Want door deze samenwerking kan de kringloop van beton binnen de gemeente Leeuwarden gesloten worden uitgevoerd.
Samenwerken draagt bij aan een circulaire economie
De klimaatverandering vraagt om een forse reductie van CO₂. Bovendien neemt de vraag naar grondstoffen wereldwijd toe. Daarom kijkt Elkien, samen met deze partners, voortdurend naar duurzame alternatieven en naar mogelijkheden om milieubewust te bouwen. Het samenwerken in een regionale keten van sloop naar nieuwbouw draagt bij aan een circulaire economie. Door de materialen die vrijkomen bij de sloop, om te zetten naar herbruikbare bouwmaterialen voor het nieuwe Heechterp besparen we enorm op schaarse grondstoffen. Het geschikt maken van de materialen doen we direct in de regio zodat vervoersbewegingen ook zoveel mogelijk gereduceerd worden.
‘Heechterp Vernieuwt’ circulair
Elkien wil woningen betaalbaar houden voor huurders. Het is daarom belangrijk dat er een kantelpunt ontstaat, waarbij duurzaam bouwen niet langer duurder is dan traditioneel bouwen. Alles staat of valt met het opschalen, het gebruiken en het produceren van duurzame materialen. Zodat deze uiteindelijk betaalbaar worden. Bovendien neemt dan de CO₂-reductie toe. En daar kan Elkien als grote woningcorporatie in Friesland een flinke bijdrage aan leveren.
Het nieuwe normaal
Directeur Peter van de Weg van Elkien zegt er over: “We werken stap voor stap aan het nieuwe normaal. We willen bouwen aan een betere wereld. In de toekomst willen we daarom zoveel mogelijk bouwmaterialen inzetten die onze planeet, het klimaat of de natuur zo weinig mogelijk schade toebrengen.  Voor ‘Heechterp Vernieuwt’ gaan we de komende tien jaar in iedere fase nieuwe circulaire ambities stellen”.
Gesloten keten
“Een flatgebouw afbreken, gebeurt vaker. Dat is ingrijpend. Maar we doen dat omdat we willen dat Heechterp mooier wordt” zegt wethouder Hein Kuiken. “Dat doen we samen met Elkien en met de buurt. Samen met sloopbedrijf Van der Wal, Bouwbedrijf Dijkstra Draisma, met KWS en met de Leeuwarder Beton Centrale hebben we de hele keten van sloop en hergebruik weten te sluiten. Het mooie is dat beton dat we weghalen op dezelfde plek weer terugkomt. Dat is heel bijzonder”.
Hoe werkt het?
Het proces van sloop –> omzetten tot puin –> tot grondstof voor nieuw beton –> en tenslotte hergebruiken Heechterp ziet er als volgt uit:

Het beton wordt gesloopt door Van der Wal
KWS verwerkt het beton tot betongranulaat
Van het granulaat maakt de Leeuwarder Beton Centrale weer nieuw beton
En Bouwgroep Dijkstra Draisma gebruikt dit beton om weer te bouwen
  

           

    Goed nieuws! De eerste circulaire betonketen in onze gemeente is een feit! Ondernemers, woningcorporatie Elkien en gemeente Leeuwarden ontwikkelden deze keten samen. Beton uit de sloop van 72 portiekflats in de wijk Heechterp wordt hergebruikt voor de nieuwbouw in de wijk. Gistermiddag werd gestart met het ontmantelen van het beton.Woningcorporatie Elkien, gemeente Leeuwarden, Bouwgroep Dijkstra Draisma, Van der Wal Sloopwerken & Asbestsanering, KWS Infra en de Leeuwarder Betoncentrale: allemaal zijn ze betrokken bij het opzetten van deze circulaire keten van betonverwerking. Een unieke mijlpaal! Want door deze samenwerking kan de kringloop van beton binnen de gemeente Leeuwarden gesloten worden uitgevoerd.De klimaatverandering vraagt om een forse reductie van CO���. Bovendien neemt de vraag naar grondstoffen wereldwijd toe. Hoe mooi is het dat we het beton dat we weghalen op dezelfde plek weer terug laten komen! Het proces van sloop ��� omzetten tot puin ��� tot grondstof voor nieuw beton ��� en tenslotte tot het hergebruik in het nieuwe Heechterp gaat in vier stappen. Het beton wordt gesloopt door Van der Wal Sloopwerken en wordt daarna door KWS gebroken tot puin. Van dit betongranulaat maakt de Leeuwarder Betoncentrale weer nieuw beton.��Dit beton gebruikt BGDD weer bij de nieuwbouw in de wijk.Naast dank aan de bovenstaande partijen ook nog een pluim de inzet van de transitiemanager van bedrijvenvereniging De Zwette! Geweldig om na een periode van plannen maken en voorbereidingen de eerste resultaten te kunnen zien en samen te kunnen bijdragen aan een circulaire economie: NET SIZZE MAR DWAAN!        Nieuws    28 01 2025     2025 is h��t jaar van de circulaire economie. Hoe mooi is het dan dat het boek Niks Nieuws, over de…   Lees meer → 
   13 01 2025     We kijken terug op een bruisend weekend in Leeuwarden: drie dagen lang was het WTC Expo de thuisbasis voor vele…   Lees meer → 
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Leeuwarden

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Woningcorporatie Elkien

Municipality of Leeuwarden

Local Entrepreneurs

Bouwgroep Dijkstra Draisma

Van der Wal Sloopwerken & Asbestsanering

KWS Infra

Leeuwarder Betoncentrale

<p>A circular concrete chain has been established in Leeuwarden. Concrete from the demolition of 72 flats in the Heechterp district is being reused to build new homes in the same area. This process involves demolishing, converting concrete into granulate, and producing new concrete locally, reducing CO₂ emissions and raw material usage. The initiative is a collaboration between Elkien, the Municipality of Leeuwarden, and several construction and demolition companies, showcasing a scalable and sustainable approach to circular construction. This case showcases a unique example of a collaboration involving actors across all points of the concrete value chain to create a true closed loop concrete cycle in Leeuwarden.</p>