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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

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

Producing and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

Using <a href="https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals" target="_blank">materials that are not toxic or hazardous</a>.

Non-toxic materials and inputs

Bans

Includes measures that protect and enhance ecosystems and biodiversity both within and beyond city boundaries, as well as actions to restore degraded ecosystems.


Protect and restore local ecosystems

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.

Prioritise renewable resources 

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

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

Businesses

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

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

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Montreal

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Municipality of Montreal

The city of Montreal adopted a regulation on the sale and use of pesticides, which enter into force on September 2021 and January 2022 respectively.The regulation prohibits and controls the sale of certain pesticides, including glyphosate, allowing only for the use of biopesticides. The new regulation will ban the sale of the most toxic household pesticides, but also pesticides used in agriculture. In all, 36 molecules will be prohibited by the regulations. 109 pesticides will be banned from sale to citizens from 2022, of which 35 are glyphosate base. The City will ensure that products banned from use are not sold to citizens. Human resources have been hired to ensure the application of this part of the regulation. Montreal will become the first city in Canada to ban and controls the sale of these products. To operate on the territory of the City, any commercial pesticide applicator must obtain an annual permit beforehand, for a sum of $200. All commercial pesticide applicator must keep an annual record of their uses during the year and send it to the City. Sanctions are provided for in the event of breach. These sanctions can vary between $500 and $4,000, depending on the case. The license can be revoked in the event of a repeat offense. The uses of synthetic pesticides will only be permitted for specific cases that represent threats to health (e.g. poison ivy) or tree survival (eg: emerald ash borer). No other use of pesticides, other than biopesticides authorized by the rules, will not be tolerated. The uses of synthetic pesticides will only be permitted in the following cases: outside buildings: rats, field mice, mice, wasp nests or carpenter ants. With regard to rodents, for example, it will be prohibited to use the most common and toxic rodenticides (brodifacoum, bromadiolone, bromethalin, chlorophacinone, difethialone, diphacinone, phosphine).

Montreal bans synthetic pesticide

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 increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Producing transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

Providing air, water, rail, and land transportation for passengers, such as airlines, airports, ferries, cruise-ships, tour boat operators, marine ports, railways, train stations, tour bus operators, vehicle rental, and taxi companies, travel agencies and related services

Passenger Transport Services

Producing transportation equipment for the movement of goods and people by air, rail, sea, and land, including airplanes, spacecraft and military equipment, ships, boats, rail locomotives and rolling stock, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, and related equipment, as well as repair services for such equipment

Transportation Equipment

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 leasing, rental, or pay-per-use models instead of sales

Leasing, rental, pay per use

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

Matchmaking platforms

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

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Rethink

Includes a variety of actions (e.g. campaigns, information sharing, public events) that encourage city residents and visitors to build sustainable practices into their daily lives

Enable sustainable lifestyles

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility Systems

Communities

Governments

On average, mobility is responsible for around half of the energy that is consumed in cities (excluding industry), and with it, a large share of the greenhouse gas emissions that are generated in cities. At the same time, many mobility assets, such as private cars can remain parked for up to 92% of the day ([Ellen MacArthur Foundation](https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy-opportunity-and-benefit-factsheets)). 

A combination of shared mobility options (such as public transport, bike and car sharing) and low-carbon mobility systems (such as walking and cycling) can significantly reduce the energy demand and associated emissions of moving people and goods in cities. If implemented effectively, these solutions can reduce the overall demand for vehicles by alleviating the need for personal car ownership, and consequently also reducing the extraction of virgin materials required for the production and fuelling of private vehicles.

Local governments can make low-carbon and shared mobility options a viable and preferred alternative to private vehicle use. They can improve the availability and accessibility of electric charging infrastructure for private electric vehicles. Moreover, cities can play a role in the connection and integration of different forms of shared mobility (such as bike sharing, public transport, and car sharing) through a city-wide or national online platform. Then, to discourage private car use, parking bays can be replaced with pocket parks, parking costs can be increased (in certain parts of the city), cycling lanes can be expanded, and car free zones or congestion charges introduced.


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🚌  Low-carbon and shared mobility systems

Mis à jour le 11 juin 2021Temps de lecture : 2 minLocoMotion est une plateforme numérique qui facilite le partage d’autos et de vélos à l’échelle des quartiers montréalais. L’objectif : réduire la dépendance aux moyens de transport individuels polluants et créer des milieux où il fait bon vivre.
Développée par l’organisme à but non lucratif Solon avec le soutien de la Ville de Montréal, la plateforme LocoMotion facilite le partage et l’échange de véhicules entre voisins tout en améliorant la vie de quartier. En quelques clics, on peut réserver et emprunter un vélo électrique, une remorque à vélo, un vélo-cargo ou encore louer la voiture d’un voisin. LocoMotion permet aussi de faciliter le transport d’objets volumineux du quotidien dans nos quartiers à l’aide de véhicules zéro carbone.
L’inscription à LocoMotion est gratuite et aucun abonnement n’est nécessaire pour utiliser le service. Emprunter une voiture est le seul service qu’il faut payer : le prix est équivalent à celui des services d’autopartage ou moindre. Pour le moment, LocoMotion est accessible dans certains secteurs des arrondissements d’Ahuntsic-Cartierville et de Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie.
LocoMotion vise à encourager la mobilité de quartier, une façon de repenser nos déplacements pour moins polluer. En partageant autos et vélos, on contribue à réduire l’impact des transports sur la planète. L’autopartage permet de réduire l’utilisation de l’auto de 40 à 60 %. Au Québec, il permet de diminuer les émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 1,2 tonne par usager.
En réduisant la dépendance à l’auto-solo, on diminue les besoins en places de stationnement. L’espace libéré peut alors être utilisé pour des aménagements qui rendent le quartier plus agréable. 
LocoMotion est un projet citoyen conçu en tenant compte des besoins et des réalités des quartiers. En valorisant la participation de la population, la Ville veut stimuler l’innovation et la créativité pour trouver des solutions aux enjeux urbains.C’est le temps d’agir ensemble pour changer nos habitudes, tisser des liens, se solidariser, puis faire un pas vers la transition socio-écologique, ensemble, dans nos quartiers.
Montréal en commun est une communauté d’innovation pilotée par la Ville dont les partenaires expérimentent des solutions en accès à l’alimentation, en mobilité et en réglementation municipale dans un désir de repenser la métropole. Les 13 projets de Montréal en commun sont mis en œuvre grâce au prix de 50 M$ octroyé à la Ville par le Gouvernement du Canada dans le cadre du Défi des villes intelligentes.

Solon

Developed by the non-profit organization Solon with the support of the City of Montreal, the LocoMotion platform facilitates the sharing and exchange of vehicles between neighbors while improving neighborhood life.&nbsp;By reducing the use of vehicles through sharing, the platforms has the potential to contribute to circular mobility by using fewer physical and energy resources.&nbsp; With just a few clicks, you can book and borrow an electric bike, a bicycle trailer, a cargo bike or even rent a neighbor's car.&nbsp;LocoMotion also makes it possible to facilitate the transport of bulky everyday objects in the eighborhood using zero carbon vehicles. Subscription to LocoMotion is free and no subscription is necessary to use the service.&nbsp;Borrowing a car is the only service you have to pay: the price is equivalent to that of carsharing services or less. By sharing cars and bicycles, the platform aims to help reduce the impact of transport on the planet.&nbsp;Carsharing can reduce car&nbsp;use&nbsp;by&nbsp;40 to 60%&nbsp;.&nbsp;In Quebec, it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.2 tonnes per user. Moreover, by reducing dependence on self-driving, the need for parking spaces is reduced and more space is given back to the community. LocoMotion is a citizen project designed taking into account the needs and realities of neighborhoods. By promoting the participation of the population, the City wants to stimulate innovation and creativity to find solutions to urban issues.

Montreal facilitates the sharing of vehicles between neighbors

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 agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Societal Services

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


Construction and Infrastructure

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

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

Manage

Govern the Transition

 Spatial Planning

Asset Management

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




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Regenerate

Use longer and more often by extending and intensifying use of existing resources, products, spaces and infrastructure

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Reuse

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

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

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

Support closed-loop systems and cross-sectoral synergies

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

Create and support online platforms and physical spaces for sale, sharing and exchange of spaces, items and materials.

Facilitate second-hand markets, sharing & exchange platforms

Incorporate extended use in project planning phases; create or update city policies to allow for extended use.

Design and regulate for extended use

Ensure that infrastructure and built assets in the city are designed and upgraded to be as resource-efficient as possible.

Design infrastructure and the built environment for resource efficiency

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

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

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Mixed household waste - consisting of textiles, electronics, organic and other consumer goods - can be contaminated and difficult to separate, and hence limit the  recovery of materials and value.

Source separation reduces the upstream sorting cost and ensures that downstream recyclers receive clean feedstock, thus improving their ability to capture the value from post-consumer material streams. Source separation systems can take a variety of forms, such as providing a distributed network of collection points throughout a city for residents to drop off various types of waste materials. The most successful examples of this include: collection of electronics, plastics, waste oil, fabrics, metals, bulky goods, paper, cardboard, batteries, amongst others.

Local governments can support the implementation of the solution by developing and providing the necessary infrastructure throughout the city or engage in public-private partnerships to provide source separation systems. What is more, information campaigns can help to inform residents on which types of consumer goods can be recovered, and the most effective means of disposal. 


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👕📱  Source separation and collection systems for consumer goods 

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

In response to the climate emergency, Montréal is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions with the objective of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. The 46 measures in the Climate Plan will set Montréal on the path to being a resilient, inclusive and carbon-neutral city.