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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

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

Increase Awareness

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

Jobs

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

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 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

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

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service

Extraction and reuse of parts from end-of-life products for use in new products

Part recovery

Activities to clean, decorate, and restore products back to working condition for original or new purposes

Refurbishment, remanufacturing, renovation

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution

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

Manage

Asset Management

Maintenance to extend useful life

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

Put enablers in place that allow circular businessesto grow, thrive and innovate (e.g. incubators, start-up funding, partnerships, innovation deals, business capacity building and testing groundsfor new business models).


Support circular and resource-efficient business innovations

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

Businesses

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

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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Cycle Salvation is co-located with re-Cycles, a volunteer-run non-profit community bike shop. Re-Cycles sells refurbished bikes and parts, takes donations of the same, and provides a space where people can learn to repair bikes - either their own or donated bikes.

     This article is part of a series called Six sustainability ideas that have gone mainstream in Canada. Each article explores an innovative sustainability idea that may have seemed radical a decade ago but is now considered a best practice. The series features inspiring ideas and projects being implemented in Canadian cities and towns of all sizes, plus resources to help you implement these solutions in your community.  Cyclists riding on Ottawa bike path in winter. A chilly challenge: The City of Ottawa, ON, was faced with the challenge of reducing automobile dependency in a winter city with far-flung suburban areas. Their response was to launch an ambitious transportation plan that combines high-quality transit with safe and accessible year-round cycling infrastructure, aiming for 66 per cent of all trips to the city core to be made via public transit or bike.Sustainable solution: Ottawa's innovative approach combines city-wide land-use planning that supports transit and cycling with integrated cycling-transit services such as bike racks for buses and a Bike and Ride program. The city has also developed dedicated cycling infrastructure, such as segregated bike lanes, "Complete Streets" and a winter cycling network.Green benefits: Integrating cycling with transit is effective because it provides options for cyclists during bad weather and increases the accessibility and reach of public transit by encouraging trips that combine both modes. And it's having a big impact: just one initiative — the award-winning Laurier Avenue Segregated Bike Lane Project — succeeded in quadrupling cycling trips on that road, reducing roadway operation and maintenance expenses and almost doubling the cycle mode share in the downtown core.Success secrets: Some of the reasons for Ottawa's success include promoting integrated options for biking and walking, focusing on key route connectivity and quality rather than total kilometres, and using electronic monitoring data to track and report on success.  Looking for ways to increase cycling levels in your community? Learn more about the City of Ottawa's projects with these resources:  Discover more sustainability ideas and project examples Read the other articles in this series for more sustainability ideas and project examples that you can use in your community: This series was inspired by "From Crazy to Common Sense: 'Radical' Ideas Whose Time Have Come," a workshop that was held at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' 2016 Sustainable Communities Conference. Move ideas to reality: Get funding and free resources from FCM's Green Municipal Fund Subscribe to email updates and get the resources, training, networking opportunities and funding you need from FCM's Green Municipal Fund to implement these sustainability ideas in your community. 

 ‘Tis the season to be cycling, and one Ottawa neighbourhood is taking advantage of a new bike-share program to do just that. Hear from the founders about how they turned this social enterprise dream into a reality and what they learned along the way. A fleet of bright purple bicycles has hit the streets of one Ottawa neighbourhood. It’s the city’s newest bike-share program, RightBike, and it’s a social enterprise that came about thanks to some creative thinking and an innovative partnership to encourage sustainable transportation, create jobs and promote local business.
Two years ago, when community environmental group Sustainable Living Ottawa West (SLOWest) was looking for ways to get more people on bikes, it called on the Causeway Work Centre, an organization that supports people facing barriers to employment. Causeway operates Cycle Salvation, a social enterprise employing people to rebuild and sell used bicycles. Two area business improvement associations got on board, and RightBike was launched.
SLOWest spokesperson Bill Shields explains that rather than bring in a commercial bike rental service, RightBike’s organizers decided to base the bike-share on partners’ strengths, resulting in a program that was “far more feasible, less expensive, more local, and more people-oriented.” The RightBikes are all used bikes donated by organizations like Habitat for Humanity and refurbished by Cycle Salvation. For a modest seasonal membership fee, members will receive a card they can use to borrow a bike. The benefits: more people getting exercise, buying local and getting to know their neighbourhood.
RightBike is just the latest creative endeavour for Causeway, which started in 1977 with a mandate to assist people with mental health issues to find work. Causeway now provides services for clients facing a range of challenges, and operates employment-generating social enterprises that include a catering company and a groundskeeping service. According to Don Palmer, Causeway’s executive director, “My philosophy’s always been if you can’t find somebody a job, make them a job. So that’s how we really started with our social enterprises.”
Focus on goals, but look for opportunities
Causeway stays focused on its goal of helping people obtain meaningful work, but is open to new ways to fulfill that mandate. Palmer knew that Cycle Salvation had the expertise that RightBike needed, but saw a further opportunity in RightBike to create bicycle mechanic jobs.
RightBike, like Causeway’s other social enterprises, came about after Causeway identified a demand for a service, and confirmed it had the necessary skills. Its first social enterprise, Krackers Katering, started in 1999 after visitors to Causeway commented on how good the food being prepared in its kitchen was. Its second social enterprise, Good Nature Groundskeeping, began as a partnership with a seniors’ centre to remove snow for their residents, but expanded to serve commercial clients.
Palmer says that Cycle Salvation grew out of his own love of bicycling. As a cyclist, he knew it was difficult to find second-hand bikes for sale. He also observed that many of Causeway’s clients cycled year round, even in winter, because they couldn’t afford bus tickets. They told Palmer they had learned how to fix their own bikes. “I realized that obviously people had the aptitude to fix bikes, and there was a need, because the market wasn’t filling that need,” says Palmer. After conducting a feasibility study and business plan, Causeway launched Cycle Salvation in 2007.
Foster innovation and an entrepreneurial organizational culture
“We’ve got all sorts of projects that have grown out of staff interest,” notes Palmer. “I think it just makes it more interesting for everyone to work in an organization that encourages innovation.” An example is an in-house vermiculture project that recycles Causeway’s food waste. “Eventually, we hope to grow that to the point where we can actually sell the product through our groundskeeping business,” he explains. Causeway also holds “innovation Fridays” where staff meet over lunch to brainstorm solutions to problems. “We’ve come up with some fabulous ideas,” says Palmer, including a program of financial literacy training and another to provide loans to clients who want to start their own businesses. “If you recognize the opportunity you just have to go for it,” he says. “Some things work, some things don’t work, but you can make almost anything work, I’ve found.”
“I came from Montreal, and social enterprise in Quebec has been going for a long, long time…I grew up in that culture,” adds Palmer. His arrival at Causeway in 1993 soon coincided with a board that was ready to take on social enterprise. “We had people on the Board that I think realized that as the funding environment was changing, organizations had to become more entrepreneurial to figure out ways to keep themselves going. As the needs in the community expand then you have to find another way to meet them. You have to become a little bit more creative, entrepreneurial.”
Spark creativity through partnerships
Each of the RightBike partners brought a different set of objectives and strengths, resulting in an initiative with a wide range of benefits. “We now realize that the future really is in these kinds of partnerships,” says Palmer. “One of our critical factors now is to really develop social enterprises that can engage more partners.”
“Managing partnerships is difficult. It’s a matter of balancing everybody’s priorities,” he adds. “Partnerships take a lot of work, but they’re worth it.”
Causeway has teamed up with several other organizations in Ottawa to create the Collaborative for Innovative Social Enterprise Development (CISED). “One of the reasons why we started our CISED project was to really help organizations discover social enterprise, and look at some of the links that they can make within their own communities,” says Palmer.
Causeway is now finalizing plans for a new organic gardening and sewing business, and has several other ideas in the works. “I think over time, you get one [social enterprise], then you get two and you just get better at it,” explains Palmer. “One idea sort of cascades into another idea and it opens doors and creates opportunities. So we’ll be certainly pursuing more social enterprises as the years progress.” Denise Deby is a freelance writer and program management and evaluation consultant who specializes in social, environmental and international issues. You can find her at denisedeby.wordpress.com. 

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.

Ottawa

Cycle Salvation is a social enterprise employing people to rebuild and sell used bicycles.

Cycle Salvation

City of Ottawa

Causeway is a not-for-profit agency that empowers all people by helping those with mental illness and other challenges find meaningful work. 

Causeway Group

<p>The City of Ottawa aims for 66% of all trips to the city core to be made via public transit or bike. It is supporting various projects. One of these is the Cycle Salvation enterprise, a repair and bike shop which strives to achieve a triple bottom line (people, profit, planet) by providing training and employment in the field of bike mechanics to people who are economically disadvantaged, while at the same time diverting bikes destined for scrap and landfill sites. In addition to selling used bikes, Cycle Salvation also sells bike accessories and parts, and offers&nbsp;a few small bike repair services. Refurbished bikes also make up the fleet of bright purple bicycles of the city’s newest bike-share program&nbsp;'RightBike'.</p>