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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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Business case

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)

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

Increase Awareness

Communities

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

Inform

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Infrastructure

Businesses

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

Design and regulate for extended use

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

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

Manage

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

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

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Reuse

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

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

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

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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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We are ever so grateful and impressed by the enthusiasm with which our Toronto community embraced Wisebox and supported efforts to make Toronto cleaner, greener and more sustainable.Wisebox was the first reusable takeout container program for Toronto's restaurants and cafes that provided consumers a waste-free option for takeout.Toronto has shown that it wants and is ready to tackle the single-use disposables, and together we proved that waste-free take out is possible. While the pandemic has reshaped our realities, health professionals have reassured us of the safety of reusables, and we trust that Toronto will continue to be a leader in the reusables movement. The Wisebox pilot was a great opportunity to test the model, and the lessons learned will help us continue our work to make sustainability the norm in Toronto. We have enormous gratitude for the forward thinking restaurant partners that worked with Wisebox to launch the first reusable takeout container program in Toronto. Please continue to show them support during these challenging times.We look forward to continuing to work with our friends in the sustainability community towards a low-waste circular economy in new ways.Remember: we can use the collective power of our buying choices to cast a vote for a healthy future, and our great city, Toronto, provides many ways to show our love for planet earth. We look forward to crossing your path in those second hand shops, refill and package-free stores, and in share and repair spaces. Stay strong!If you would like to connect with the former Wisebox team to learn more about the project, complete the form below.

Toronto

City government of Toronto

Wisebox

Wisebox was the first reusable takeout container program for Toronto's restaurants and cafes&nbsp;that provided consumers a waste-free option for takeout. The Wisebox pilot launched in February 2020 and conducted a test run for 4 months. The pilot project allowed customers to order their meal in a Wisebox reusable container from a restaurant partner just by paying a deposit in addition to the menu price. Customers could then return the container to any participating location to exchange it for a new one, or to receive the deposit back in full. Or simply wash the container and have it refilled. Although the pandemic reshaped the conditions for the project to work and put an end to the pilot, the initiative has demonstrated that safety of reusables and waste-free take out are possible. The lessons learned will help continue the city's work to make sustainability the norm in Toronto. If 1% of Torontonians would use Wisebox, more than 1 million disposables could be offset in one year.&nbsp;

Toronto's first reusable takeout container program

Policy case

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

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Rethink

Information campaigns

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 industrial production and consumption of meats and animal-based products places increasing pressures on land- and water-use, and is a driving cause of global greenhouse gas emissions. Local governments can play an important role in encouraging residents to shift towards local and plant-based diets that can improve the health of the planet, as well as residents and local economies if the food is sourced regionally.

For example, local governments can help to raise the awareness of the positive ecological and health impacts of a locally sourced and plant-based diet through information campaigns in the city. Local governments can improve access to locally produced plant-based foods throughout the city by allocating space for, and supporting local markets and suppliers. To lead by example, canteens managed by the public sector, for example, in schools and municipal offices, can develop menus that offer plant-based and seasonal choices. 


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🍏  Seasonal plant based diets

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

Participatory governance mechanisms

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

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

Biodiversity

Governments

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

Rethink the business model

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

Agriculture

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Toronto improved access and diversity of locally sourced food with the World Crops and Learning Gardens project as part of the GrowTO Urban Agriculture Plan. The World Crops and Learning Gardens project is a network of over fourteen community-based sites growing some of these world crops and engaging urban newcomers through crop testing. The Learning Gardens are spread across the city and several are even on rooftops. This project ensures that a variety of community-based educational opportunities are available for citizens, such as growing ethno-culturally diverse crops from their home country in their gardens, promoting and commercializing these “world crops”, and&nbsp;improving access to a more diverse range of fresh local food.

World Crops and Learning Gardens projects bring local food to Toronto 

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


Design and regulate for separation and recovery

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

 Direct Financial Support

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

Managing municipal food wastes at scale may require complex and costly infrastructures to collect, transport and process these residual materials. Large-scale composting facilities are challenging to place and zone appropriately in space-scarce cities.

Community-based initiatives, for example, community composting, can provide a localised solution to managing urban food wastes. Community composting initiatives are small(er)-scale solutions that are distributed throughout the city, located close to the sources of food waste, reducing the need for complex logistics and collection systems. Community composting schemes can take a variety of forms, for example, in-vessel composting (IVC), as well as vermicomposting (which utilises insects to break down organic materials). Community composting initiatives can generate valuable by-products for use in (urban) agriculture, in gardens and in parks, as well as support community building. 

Local governments can support the development and implementation of community composting schemes through the provision of equipment and infrastructure, for example,  composting boxes. The formation of public-civic partnerships can help formulate the relationships and validate the valuable role such activities can play in the management of organic waste streams. Awareness raising can be facilitated through collaboration with schools. 


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🍏  Community composting

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

Grant funding

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

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

Use waste as a resource

'Incentivise' sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.

Incentivise

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

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

 The City’s Long Term Waste Management Strategy (Waste Strategy) envisions a zero waste future and includes recommendations about how to get there. Today, the City is delivering on a number of those recommendations through the implementation of various new programs that support waste reduction, reuse and the move towards a circular economy.     Community Reduce & Reuse Programs   To help foster a culture of waste reduction, sharing, repairing and reuse in Toronto, the City is implementing five new Community Reduce & Reuse Programs. Together, the programs will help to build sustainable communities and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
These programs support the Waste Strategy by:

Promoting waste reduction and providing sharing and reuse opportunities
Involving community partners to deliver the programs
Focusing on the multi-residential sector where opportunities for greater diversion exist.
     The City’s TOwaste app provides residents with access to their collection schedule, the Waste Wizard sorting tool and drop-off depot and donation locations right from their phone or tablet.
The app was recommended as part of the Waste Strategy and supports its waste reduction, reuse and waste diversion goals as well as its focus on providing a user-friendly waste management system and enhanced information and public education tools.     Waste Reduction Community Grants   A pilot program in 2018, 2019 and 2020 offered Waste Reduction Community Grants of up to $25,000 to support innovative community-based efforts to reduce residential waste and increase waste diversion.
The grants reflected the Waste Strategy’s guiding principles of:

working with community partners to enhance access to waste diversion programs
increasing public engagement
working together to deliver services.
     The City of Toronto has partnered with the National Zero Waste Council, and other Canadian cities and major food retailers on a national effort to reduce food waste.
The campaign is called Love Food Hate Waste. and supports the Waste Strategy’s recommendation to create a food waste reduction strategy that focuses on information and outreach programs to educate residents about the economic, environmental and social benefits of food waste reduction.     Artist-In-Residence Pilot Program   
 Join the Long Term Waste Management Strategy e-mail list:
Subscribe 

A pilot program in 2018, 2019 and 2020 offered&nbsp;Waste Reduction Community Grants&nbsp;of up to $25,000 to support innovative community-based efforts to reduce residential waste and increase waste diversion.The grants reflected the Waste Strategy’s guiding principles of:- working with community partners to enhance access to waste diversion programs- increasing public engagement- working together to deliver services.

Community waste management in Toronto

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Current dominant, globalized food systems trigger far-reaching detrimental socioeconomic and environmental effects. As such, they struggle to meet the food demands of a growing population and face external shocks, such as resource scarcity, climate change and health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Local governments are directly or indirectly connected to all stages of the food value chain. For this reason, it is importanto for them to leverage this strategic position and develop an initial and collective vision, setting out transformational targets, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and key action areas and solutions urgently required to transform food systems—from food consumption and production to waste prevention and management.

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🍏  Targets and roadmaps for a circular food system

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

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

National Zero Waste Council

The City of Toronto has partnered with the National Zero Waste Council, and other Canadian cities and major food retailers on a national effort to reduce food waste. The campaign is called&nbsp;Love Food Hate Waste&nbsp;and supports the Waste Strategy’s recommendation to create a food waste reduction strategy that focuses on information and outreach programs to educate residents about the economic, environmental and social benefits of food waste reduction.

Toronto food waste reduction strategy

Asset Management

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

Social Impact

Societal Services

The demolition of old buildings and construction of new buildings require vast quantities of heavy materials, and significant amounts of energy and water. Where possible, it is preferable to renovate and refurbish an existing building in a circular manner rather than demolishing it to build a new one. Additionally, underutilised and vacant buildings and spaces represent an enormous untapped value, which could be leveraged to finance investments in other areas and revitalise neighbourhoods. This could include ‘meanwhile use’ or ‘intermittent use’ of buildings, which involves making temporarily empty spaces, properties and land available for use as work spaces, pop-up cafes, shops, and more. Such projects help to rethink the design of the surrounding urban space, creating attractive, safe and user-friendly areas, thus revitalising neighbourhood economies and encouraging local retail networks. 

Local governments—along with multidisciplinary teams of finance, human resources, technology, and corporate real estate stakeholders—can identify idle or underutilised spaces and determine their value, and then consider this in relation to current and future requirements of their citizens (for example, shortage of affordable housing or cultural spaces). Measures to address the underuse of buildings and spaces could include flexible zoning plans, economic disincentives for new greenfield developments in favour of refurbishing and manufacturing, as well as piloting projects with public vacant buildings.

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🏢  Make the best use of existing buildings and infrastructure

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

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

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


Construction and Infrastructure

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

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

Circular use of public-owned assets (land, buildings and equipment)

The City of Toronto launched an initiative to repurpose 11 city-owned surplus properties into affordable housing units. This is part of a broader target of building 40,000 new affordable units over 12 years.