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This collection was curated by the Circle Economy team from Knowledge Hub case studies for businesses, local and national governments around the world to find inspiration in practical examples of the circular economy. 

Visit the <a href="https://circle-economy.com" target="_blank">Circle Economy website</a> for more information and for more publications on the circular economy.

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Circle Economy

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Policy case

Circular Economy in school programmes

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

Innovation

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

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

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

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

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

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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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Italy is to become the first country in the world to make sustainability and climate crisis compulsory subjects for schoolchildren.State schools will begin incorporating the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development into as many subjects as possible from September, with one hour a week dedicated to themes including global heating and humans’ influence on the planet.Other subjects, including geography, mathematics and physics, will also be taught from the perspective of sustainability, announced Lorenzo Fioramonti, Italy’s education minister.“The entire [education] ministry is being changed to make sustainability and climate the centre of the education model,” said Fioramonti, a former economics professor who was criticised earlier this year for encouraging students to miss school to take part in climate protests.“I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school.”Fioramonti, a member of the pro-environment Five Star Movement, is the government’s most vocal supporter of green policies and has previously come under fire for proposing taxes on airline tickets, plastic and sugary foods in order to generate funds for education and welfare.However, the government’s 2020 budget, presented to parliament this week, included a tax on both plastic and sugary drinks.Fioramonti said that despite initial opposition to his ideas, the government seemed increasingly invested in greener policies.“I was ridiculed by everyone and treated like a village idiot, and now a few months later the government is using two of those proposals and it seems to me more and more people are convinced it is the way to go.”Surveys have shown that up to 80% of Italians back taxing sugar and flights, but industry producers oppose the plastic tax, arguing the “measure penalises products, not behaviour, and only represents a way to recover resources, while placing huge costs on consumers, workers and businesses”.Fioramonti’s proposals have also come under direct fire from Matteo Salvini, Italy’s climate science-denying former deputy prime minister, whose far-right League voted against almost all key climate proposals in the last parliament.However, Fioramonti said his ministry would stand strong against the opposition. “I want to represent the Italy that stands against all the things that Salvini does,” he said. “We have to build a different narrative and not be afraid of saying something Salvini may not like, because that’s why we exist.”

Italy

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Italian Government

<p>Lorenzo Fioramonti, Italy’s education minister, has created a policy whereby sustainability and the climate crisis will become central to all subjects in school—making Italy the first country to do so. One hour per week will be dedicated solely to the impact of humans on the Earth, and even subjects such as mathematics and physics will be taught from the perspective of sustainability. Fioramonti is a vocal supporter of green policies in a far-right government—so significant barriers generally have to be overcome before policies like these can flourish. The success of the new school program is yet to be seen, as the programme will be implemented in the 2020 school year.</p>

Italy to include sustainability in school curriculum 

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

 Fiscal Frameworks

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

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)

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

Use waste as a resource

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

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

Economic Frameworks

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

Rethink the business model

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

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

Reduce Energy Consumption

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

Innovation-oriented public procurement

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

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

Save Water (SDG6)

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency

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


Strengthen and advance knowledge

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

Water and Sewage

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

“Towards a Model of Circular Economy for Italy - Overview and Strategic Framework” is a document that defines Italy’s strategic positioning on the issue in line with the commitments adopted under the Paris Agreement, UN Agenda 2030, G7 Communiqué and within EU. 
The document calls for a "change of paradigm" for Italy's economy, for a new way to consume, produce and do business. There is a need for a new industrial policy aimed at sustainability and innovation capable of increasing the competitiveness of products and manufacturing. 
Considering the importance of the document, the Italian government decided to collect the contributions of all institutions, firms, experts and citizens who deal with the issue to develop a document that is the result of a shared and participatory process.


<p>"Towards a Model of Circular Economy for Italy - Overview and Strategic Framework” is a document that defines Italy’s strategic positioning on circular economy, in line with the commitments adopted under the Paris Agreement, UN Agenda 2030, G7 Communiqué and within EU. It is also an important part of the implementation of the wider National Strategy for Sustainable Development, contributing in particular to the definition of the objectives of a more efficient use of resources and of more circular and sustainable patterns of production also thanks to more aware and conscious consumption habits. The document calls for a "change of paradigm" for Italy's economy, for a new way to consume, produce and do business. It is composed of 4 main parts which describe respectively: 1) the principles and objectives of circular economy; 2) the paradigm shift needed to support new production and business models; 3) the regulatory and economic instruments required to shift the fiscal burden from labour to natural resources; 4) the transition phase based upon a new concept of waste, the role of public sector (e.g. GPP), and the monitoring framework.</p>