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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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Business case

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

Jobs

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

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

Biodiversity

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

Personal Products and Services

Providing goods on the Internet, through mail order, or television, or providing goods in stores, including apparel, electronics, furniture, food and drug, etc.

Retail

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

Agriculture

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Grow countries globally account for 55% of all raw material extraction and 52% of the material footprint, while housing around 37% of the global population.

These are larger Southeast Asian countries and countries in Latin America and Northern Africa, as well as those with an economy in transition in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

Examples include :
- China
- Indonesia
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Vietnam
- Myanmar
- Egypt, ...

Large contribution to the overshoot of planetary boundaries—largely due to the consumptions of local materials in higher-
income (Shift) countries: these countries contribute 50% of climate change, 62% of nitrogen, 60% of phosphorus, 53% of freshwater use and 42% of land use change.

To find out what country profile your country belongs to, explore [this interactive story](https://circularity-gap.world) and search for your country on the final map.

Grow

Business

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

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

Whilst no two countries are the same, there are still obvious similarities between some of them, with discernible development patterns and parallels in evidence. Common problems and shared solutions help place unique country identities and individual issues in context.

Whilst this classification is far from clear-cut and exhibits some overlap, it does underline how the discourse on transitioning to a circular economy needs to account for both differences and commonalities, if we are to arrive at a more strategic and instructive analysis. It also allows to highlight a set of key themes that are likely to be central to the countries that fall under the respective profiles. 

Country profiles (Build, Grow, Shift)

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A framework to distinguish between different country profiles and their circular transition needs.

Browse case studies by type of implementing stakeholder.

Implementing 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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Argan oil has gone from a natural, tribal ingredient to one of the most prized oils in the world as cosmetics companies have woken up to its anti-ageing properties. The plant oil is produced from the kernels found inside the argan nut, which is found inside the fruit of the argan tree, endemic to Morocco. Women’s co-operatives have sprung up throughout the argan-producing region but not all are as co-operative as they make out. The argan tree remains under threat from overuse, deforestation and even goats. What is argan oil?Traditionally, argan oil was used extensively in Morocco to treat various ailments, such as dry skin, acne, wrinkles and joint pain. Toasted, it is also a common ingredient in cooking, with health benefits ranging from lowering cholesterol to easing arthritis. As western countries cottoned on to this apparently magical resource, demand has shot up, with argan oil appearing in everything from shampoo bars to instant eye-tightening serum. The argan tree is grown almost exclusively in the barren lands of south-western Morocco. A natural barrier against the advance of the desert, it prevents soil erosion and protects water resources. Goats climbing up an Argan tree, near Essaouira. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty ImagesThe tree is so beneficial to the environment that Morocco’s argan forest was declared a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco in 1998. Still, the forest has been threatened with deforestation, as local people chopped down the trees for building materials and firewood. This has diminished in recent years as locals became involved in the production of argan oil. Dana Elemara founded Arganic, a UK-based supplier of Argan oil, and works with Sidi Yassine, an argan oil producer in the region. “One key thing to sustainability is getting local people involved and paying them fairly. That stops them from cutting down the Unesco-protected trees.” The production of the oil is, she says, helping preserve the tree. “You don’t damage the tree at all by producing argan oil. We only pick fruit from the ground.” Getting oil from the fruit of the argan tree involves drying it, extracting the nuts, cracking them to reveal the kernels, and pressing them to release the oil. The byproduct of pressing is a thick argan paste, which is sold locally for cosmetic products. Nothing else is wasted, as the outer pulp provides food for village animals, while the shells are burned for fuel. Empowering womenPreviously, women in small family businesses of two or three people would collect the argan fruit and extract its oil. Their husbands or brothers would then sell the oil in local markets or exchange it for sugar and other goods. In recent years, however, women’s co-operatives have been created to meet the surge in demand. These co-operatives provide the women with an income, as well as a social experience and improved status.Women gathering argan in Ait Baha, Morocco. Photograph: Hemis/AlamyL’Oréal, together with its supplier BASF, has set up a sourcing programme in Morocco to foster corporate social responsibility in the argan supply chain. The programme works with an umbrella body involving six women’s co-operatives producing argan oil. As well as access to education and healthcare, the cooperative also provides the women with an opportunity to earn money. Professor Zoubida Charrouf of the Université Mohammed V-Agdal in Rabat, says some women earn up to $250 (£164) a month, plus bonuses that are paid out at the end of the year. With more financial independence, the women are able to choose how to spend their earnings, changing the status of women in the family. Charrouf says: “Women regain the capacity to decide, to manage their income and to invest in the future by sending their children to school.” Others recognise a shift in attitudes towards women in general in this Arabic country due to their newfound independence. Elemara says: “The argan oil trade has made changes that will have an influence over the way that society sees women there.” Berber woman hitting argan nuts on a stone anvil with a rock to get to the kernels. Photograph: imageBROKER/AlamyChallenges in the supply chainThere are, however, problems with this burgeoning industry. The Berber women in the co-operatives are ill-equipped to conduct business with international organisations, leaving plenty of scope for exploitation. Charrouf says the big problem co-operatives still face is that the women have long remained marginalised and illiterate. “A lot of training is necessary. If they are well-trained, it works. But if not they end up being managed by the husband or father of the co-operative’s president, and in this case they benefit very little.” L’Oréal says its work with the NGO Yamana was crucial to overcome these challenges. Rachel Barré, who is responsible for sustainable sourcing within L’Oréal Research & Innovation says: “To lead this cooperative, [the women] have to get access to education. They have to understand what is business, what is a purchase order, what is governance, what is democracy, what is transparency, what is accounting. With the help of the NGO that worked with them, we managed to organise this way of functioning and professionalise the way that every woman could have a voice in the decision-making process.”There are also concerns about the standard of oil coming out of the co-operatives. British cosmetics retailer Lush uses argan oil in several of its products, which it sources from a supplier working with 22 women’s co-operatives across the region. Lush’s creative buyer Lyndsey Fisher-Cooke says some kind of leadership is required to protect standards. “[The co-operatives] are headed up by an elected president. Someone is put at the helm of that organisation and supports them with visits to each village, in terms of ensuring quality standards.” The co-operatives are improving standards all the time, she says, with help from Lush. “Our unit is working with each village to increase standards to be recognised by [certification body] Ecocert. Any co-operative needs some sort of accredited control to increase those standards; it’s an area that has potential for downfall.”Argan oil is rich in vitamin E. Photograph: Chromorange / Tscherwitschke / AlamyIt is thought that co-operatives can suffer from a lack of professionalism towards their international customers. Ulysses Müller, a Swiss national who gave up his life as an advertising executive to pursue a dream in Morocco, runs Sidi Yassine with his Berber wife. He believes their combination of skills makes their facility unique in the region, and the farm counts Weleda and L’Occitane among its clients. Sidi Yassine does not aim to be a co-operative but says it pays fair wages to the women it employs. It can, however, only produce so much argan oil and Elemara says it has had to cut ties with some cosmetic companies that were pushing for it to produce more at a lower quality. Cosmetic companies are desperate to ensure their supply of argan oil, she says, and some of the larger ones are trying to buy up farms and co-operatives across the region. The beauty industry is, of course, notoriously fickle and there is a danger that the fad for argan oil will pass like so many others before it. Elemara is not concerned. “At the moment, people are learning more about it,” she says. “Once you try using the real stuff you realise it really works. It does have scientifically proven properties and it has the whole scarcity factor and African romance around it.”The nuts series is funded by Olam. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here.

                                                                                  Valorisation des produits d’arganier  L’huile d’argan est très utilisée en médecine traditionnelle pour la peau. Son utilisation est relatée dans plusieurs ouvrages de plantes médicinales. Selon une enquêtes réalisée en 2004, la totalité des personnes enquêtées affirme que l’huile d’argan est utilisée à des fins cosmétiques. Elle est préconisée comme huile hydratante pour le visage, les mains et les pieds. Elle est aussi utilisée comme antiride, contre l’acné juvénile, contre la desquamation de la peau.    Amélioration des conditions socio-économiques  Le but de notre coopérative est d’améliorer les conditions socio-économiques des femmes rurales par l’augmentation de leurs revenus, leur alphabétisation (cours obligatoires pour être sociétaire) et un travail hors de leur foyer dans un local commun.    Développement de la femme rurale  Le but de notre coopérative est d’améliorer les conditions socio-économiques des femmes rurales par l’augmentation de leurs revenus, leur alphabétisation (cours obligatoires pour être sociétaire) et un travail hors de leur foyer dans un local commun.                 

This report by the Circular Jobs Initiative finds that combining the social and the circular economy agendas can facilitate an inclusive, just and safe labour market. Based on case studies of social enterprises and cooperatives engaged in circular activities, the report explores how the circular economy can benefit from integrating and collaborating with social economy organisations. While the social aspects of the circular economy remain underexplored, the social economy holds vital expertise that is needed to create the conditions, frameworks, and protections to ensure a just transition to circularity. The report provides recommendations for entrepreneurs, local and national policymakers to help them understand how they can be part of an ethical and inclusive circular economy.

Morocco

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The Taitmatine cooperative is a cooperative of over 100 women producing very high quality culinary and cosmetic oils, while improving the socio-economic conditions of rural women in Morocco by increasing their income and their literacy. 

Coopérative Agricole Féminine Taitmatine

<p>Argan oil has gone from a natural, tribal ingredient to one of the most prized oils in the world as cosmetics companies have woken up to its anti-ageing properties.&nbsp;Women’s co-operatives have sprung up throughout the argan-producing region to meet the surge in demand. The all-women agricultural Cooperative Taitmatine owns more than 20,000 palm trees in the rural province of Taroudant, in southern Morocco. By employing over 100 women, the cooperative produces very high quality culinary and cosmetic oils while also improving the socio-economic conditions of rural women, increasing their income, their literacy (compulsory courses to be a member), work conditions, and social status. Additionally, as locals became involved in the production of argan oil, deforestation diminished, preserving the natural environment in the barren lands of south-western Morocco.</p>

TAITMATINE -  Women Cooperative for Argan Oil Production

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This collection is part of Footprints Africa's work to build a comprehensive database of circular economy initiatives in Africa. 

This is a result of the collaboration with the <a href="https://www.acen.africa" target="_blank">African Circular Economy Network (ACEN)</a>, as part of the programme to support the circular economy transition in Africa. Footprints Africa's vision is that businesses can be a force for good at scale. Their mission is to advance sustainable, scalable and inclusive approaches to development of local African economies. Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, such as those inspired by the circular economy, to address the challenges of growth and create jobs. 

This open-source dataset features well over 500 cases and 200 examples of policies and laws and intent to collect inspiring examples of initiatives from across Africa, in order to inform the global dialogue, which is largely focused on the European and American context. 

To learn more about Africa's initiatives and content to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, visit https://www.footprintsafrica.co/



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Footprints Africa

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Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

Archetypes

CE Materials

Materials

Nace Sectors

Topics

Urban Opportunities

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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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

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

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

Test Framework

Challenges

Based on the ongoing ISO standardisation process, a taxonomy has been defined under which to cluster indicators to measure circularity. 

ISO Taxonomy

If managed well, the transition to the circular economy will have multiple benefits for the labour market, including the opening up of job opportunities, raising job standards and reducing inequalities through a global redistribution of value. But a positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three pillars: upskilling the workforce, quality of work and inclusive job opportunities. Find out more and explore cases that illustrate these pillars below.

Circular Jobs Initiative Pillars

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A positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three core pillars.

This is a survey that dives into understanding the policy environment around specific circular solutions. 

The survey is divided into five sections, based on the five key elements of the Circular Cities Action Framework. 
Each section asks 2-3 questions to explore which policies may or may not be present within your city to support a transition towards a circular economy. 

You are not alone! Each question provides some practical examples from cities around the world that have adopted a certain policy to support their transition. This can help to compare with your city - is your city doing something similar?

The survey answers should be based on your current knowledge, and not illicit additional research - ! Please make use of the Not sure option as appropriate.


Ganbatte Cities Policy Tracker [Food]

Ganbatte Cities - Policy tracker policy instruments

Policy Tracker - TEST

Africa

Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, address the challenges of growth and create jobs, using supply chains as a tool for development. 

<p>Coopérative Agricole Féminine Taitmatine is an all-women agricultural cooperative that produces argan oil. As part of their work, they engage the community in reforestation and ecosystem restoration in the barren lands of south-western Morocco. They produce high-quality culinary and cosmetic oils, while also improving the socio-economic conditions of rural women by increasing their income, literacy, work conditions, and social status.</p>