Business case

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

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

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency

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

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


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


Key elements of the circular economy

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

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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With 22 million inhabitants, Cairo is by far the most populous, most crowded and most polluted city in the Middle East.“Turning Cairo's roofs into gardens is unique and expected to expand to other cities” says Osama El Beheiri, one of the founders of this agricultural innovation called "Rooftop Gardening". This project helps people produce their own organic vegetables, get an income or simply fulfil leisure time. Greening Cairo’s roofs with nutritious vegetables and fruits 
In a suburb area of Heliopolis, about 15 km from Cairo, Latif plants eggplant, spinach, cabbage, oranges, mandarins, parsley, dill, lettuce, tomato and, occasionally, cucumbers. He 'employs' two scarecrows dressed in traditional Egyptian attire to keep away raptors and other birds that come to steal his prized vegetables. 
Once the plants have matured, Latif gathers small bunches of herbs and his fruits and vegetables which he proudly sells on a small stand in front of the building to residents and passersby who have been his friends for years. The idea of growing food on Cairo's roofs began a few years ago because of a problem. People in the suburbs were not eating enough healthy fruits and vegetables and their diets were pretty poor in nutrients. And so the Egyptian government launched a programme encouraging roof gardening to get people to grow and eat their own food (fruits and vegetables) improving their diets.
The programme was specially designed for poor families in the suburbs of Cairo and Alexandria. The objective was not only to facilitate production and consumption of fresh vegetables but also to ensure a stable income for families and women who quickly and enthusiastically adopted the method 
FAO has supported rooftop gardening, training 48 families in the use of hydroponics systems and other techniques to grow fruits and vegetables on their roofs. Through the project families also learnt the “green productions,” techniques decreasing or eliminating the use of pesticides.
Since then, the project has become an urban and peri-urban horticulture model. Many families have started using unusual containers to grow vegetables and herbs - water tanks, tables even truck tires. People grow many varieties of herbs, citrus, fruits and vegetables and with a smart system for irrigation, made up of pipes and tanks - these men and mostly women gardeners are greening the roofs of their suburb.
Fatima, one of Latif's friends, has been growing her roof garden for years and knows all the secrets to doing it successfully. This 76 year old woman with a big heart, has such vast knowledge of growing vegetables and herbs, she now voluntarily provides agricultural advice to new 'roof farmers and growers' .
Other Residents of this populated suburb of Cairo have quickly realized the additional benefits of roof gardening - access to healthy and seasonal food using a minimum of fertilizers,  but also the environmental benefit - fresher air  to breathe  in a very polluted city and potentially cooler climes, as these roof gardens can decrease temperatures by 8 to 10 degrees.
These roofs and terraces have also become venues for relaxing with friends and neighbours who love to be surrounded by all the greenery.  
But most of all the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation so happy at the results obtained is considering implement the programme in other Egyptian cities.

  We design and install medium sized
hydroponic urban farms with varying levels
of technological complexity to cater to the
different needs of our customers.
We set up farms in urban areas so they are
in close proximity to the consumers and
support with remote monitoring and control
to make the farming process enjoyable and
profitable.

 Marina Makary of Scoop Empire writes:What’s better than a clean and properly-organized rooftop? A green rooftop! Apart from its numerous environmental and economic benefits, rooftop gardens offer a beautiful sight, and decrease high temperatures caused by pollution.
In recent years, there have been several initiatives and campaigns, promoting urban gardening on rooftops and elsewhere, to encourage more eco-friendly solutions across the country. Fortunately, there has been a positive response from both Egyptian residents and the government in following and implementing such initiatives.
Founded by brothers, Sherif and Tarek Hosny due to their interest in plants and nature, Schaduf is a social enterprise that initially started off by offering microloans in the form of rooftop gardens for low-income Egyptians, and later expanded to creating more green spaces on rooftops of the entire country.
It aims to “provide inspired urban green solutions that elevate the quality of life through environmental and social change”.
Today, Schaduf is a leader in designing and implementing green walls and roof gardens, as well as vertical and roof landscaping.
In 2019, Egypt’s Ministry of Environment launched a nationwide green-roof initiative to encourage planting roofs of buildings and facilities, reducing pollution levels in the country and providing an eco-friendly use of space. Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal had also previously introduced an initiative to plant gardens on the rooftops of Cairo’s buildings, as part of the governorate’s sustainable development plan.
​AUC’s Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment (RISE) has also been working on designing and implementing green roofs in Cairo, to support sustainable agriculture.
Learn more:
Don’t miss the excellent Keynote video “Green Walls and Green Roofs in Arid Egyptian Climates” by SHERIF HOSNY, Schaduf Principal now playing at our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2019 with Free Registration through the end of 2020.

Read more: Urban Gardening: The Rooftop Gardens of Cairo and The Goal for a Greener City 

Shaduf

<p>Green rooftops and vertical gardens are two examples of how cities can effectively tackle the problems arising from the lack of green spaces in urban areas.</p>