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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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This collection features a selection of case studies, mainly based on the [2024 Circularity Gap Report](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024). 

In this year’s Report, we shift from exploring the what to the how: exploring the different ways that we need to ‘change the rules of the game’ and create a set of conditions that discourage the overshoot of planetary boundaries and ‘undershoot’ of human development. This process has resulted in us spotlighting 12 of the original 16 solutions, highlighting the country profile that they are most relevant to, as well as placing people at the centre of this story for the first time. Based on extensive interviews and desk research, this Report aims to show governments and industry leaders that if they want to turn theory into action and scale an economy that delivers on needs within the safe limits of the planet, they need to dismantle harmful entrenched processes and align enabling elements. 

[Circle Economy](https://www.circle-economy.com/) is a global impact organisation with an international team of passionate experts based in Amsterdam. We empower industries, cities, and nations with practical and scalable solutions to put the circular economy into action. Our vision is an economic system that ensures the planet and all people can thrive. To avoid climate breakdown, our goal is to double global circularity by 2032. 

Through the *Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative*, our mission is to deliver an annual global Circularity Metric that measures the state of the world economy and identifies key levers to transition to global circularity. 

To learn more about these interventions to accelerate the circular transition, read the [latest Circularity Gap Report 2024](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024), as well as previous editions of the global [Circularity Gap Reports](https://www.circularity-gap.world/global).

Global Circularity Gap Report 2024

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Policy case

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

Jobs

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Scalability

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

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 and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Societal Services

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

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

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

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

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Other

'Regulate' changes the rules of the systems to achieve compliance through enforcement. 


Regulate

Legislation

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

Incentivise

 Fiscal Frameworks

Tax breaks

Other legislation

These countries are home to around a quarter of the global population, yet consume over one-third (34%) of raw materials. Shift countries’ material footprint per capita is 4.6 times that of Build countries (largely due to the overconsumption of consumer goods imported from Grow counties) and 1.6 times that of Grow countries.

These are high-income countries in the Global North, as well as in the Gulf, Australia, and Oceania. Examples include:
- Member States of the EU
- the US
- Japan
- the UK
- Canada
- Argentina, ...

While much of their infrastructure is already built, they still contribute heavily to the overshoot of planetary boundaries: they contribute 42% of climate change, 27% of nitrogen, 18% of phosphorus, 16% of freshwater use and 38% 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.  


Shift

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

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Reuse

Maintain and repair city-owned spaces and infrastructure to increase longevity, and support opportunities for residents to do the same for privately owned items and property

Support reuse, repair, remanufacturing, maintenance of existing resources, products, spaces & infrastructure

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

Recent years have witnessed a shrinking of the lifespans of consumer goods, following trends in fast-fashion and planned obsolescence in consumer electronics. These patterns of unsustainable consumption lead to many consumer goods being thrown away after only a small amount of time.

Repair initiatives can present a tangible solution to support the repair of consumer goods. Repair initiatives, such as repair hubs, provide a physical location with tools to allow people to repair their goods, as well as experts to help in the repair process. Consumer goods can range from furniture, to electronics, to clothing, and other consumer goods. Repair initiatives can be connected throughout a city to form a network to enable access to a wide range of goods and services. 

Local governments can promote such initiatives by providing space and equipment, financial support, recruiting staff or volunteers and raising awareness to local residents that such services are available and beneficial for society and the environment. Local governments can also introduce tax breaks for the costs of repair services to incentivise people to repair rather than purchase new goods


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👕📱 Promote repair initiatives for consumer goods

👕📱 Consumer goods

Based on extensive interviews and desk research, this Report aims to show governments and industry leaders that if they want to turn theory into action and scale an economy that delivers on needs within the safe limits of the planet, they need to dismantle harmful entrenched processes and align enabling elements - policy, finance, and people 

- Create a level of policy playing field: Set the ‘rules of the game’ through policies and legal frameworks that incentivise sustainable and circular practices while penalising harmful ones, thereby shaping the nature and scale of economic activities across industries and nations. 



Policy

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

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

Urban Opportunities

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

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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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The Swedish government is introducing tax breaks on repairs to everything from bicycles to washing machines so it will no longer make sense to throw out old or broken items and buy new ones. 
Sweden’s ruling Social Democrat and Green party coalition is set to submit proposals to parliament on Tuesday to slash the VAT rate on repairs to bicycles, clothes and shoes from 25% to 12%. 
It will also submit a proposal that would allow people to claim back from income tax half of the labour cost on repairs to appliances such as fridges, ovens, dishwashers and washing machines.
“We believe that this could substantially lower the cost and so make it more rational economic behaviour to repair your goods,” said Per Bolund, Sweden’s minister for financial markets and consumer affairs and one of six Green party cabinet members.
Bolund has been a key figure in driving through the new incentives. He estimates that the VAT cut will reduce the cost of a repair worth 400 SEK (£36) by about 50 SEK, enough to stimulate the repair industry in Sweden.



He hopes the tax break on appliances will spur the creation of a new home-repairs service industry, providing much-needed jobs for new immigrants who lack formal education.
The incentives are part of a shift in government focus from reducing carbon emissions produced domestically to reducing emissions tied to goods produced elsewhere.
Sweden has cut its annual emissions of carbon dioxide by 23% since 1990 and already generates more than half of its electricity from renewable sources. 
But emissions linked to consumption have stubbornly risen. Bolund said the policy also tied in with international trends around reduced consumption and crafts, such as the “maker movement” and the sharing economy, both of which have strong followings in Sweden. 
“I believe there is a shift in view in Sweden at the moment. There is an increased knowledge that we need to make our things last longer in order to reduce materials’ consumption,” he said.
The proposals will be presented in parliament as part of the government’s budget proposals and if voted through in December will become law from 1 January 2017. 




As of 2017 the value-added tax, or VAT, for repairing bicycles, clothes, household linen, leather goods, and shoes, has been slashed from 25 per cent to 12 per cent.The incentive was launched by the red-green government – the Social Democrats and the Green Party – in a bid to tackle throw-away culture. The idea is to make people repair more items instead of throwing them away and buying new goods.But shopkeeper Maher Ack, who has been running a dry-cleaning and clothing-repair shop for the past 25 years, says his customers will not notice a big price drop. "We already have lower rates in Stockholm compared to other cities in Sweden – and the prices have remained practically the same in the past 20 years – we haven’t raised them," he told Radio Sweden.Ack also said that in recent years the dry-cleaning business has been making up most of his income, as people tend to spend less on repairs these days."People used to come in to change the lining, or change the zipper. But that's gone down by nearly 70 per cent," he said.But shoe-repair shop owner Farah Lahdo thinks the reduced VAT could be a step in the right direction."I think this is a great opportunity for the whole of society to get away from buying new stuff all the time and throwing it away as soon as the slightest thing is wrong with it," he told Radio Sweden.

 To combat its ‘throwaway consumer culture’, Sweden has announced tax breaks on repairs to clothes, bicycles, fridges and washing machines. On bikes and clothes, VAT has been reduced from 25% to 12% and on white goods consumers can claim back income tax due on the person doing the work.

 The incentives are intended to reduce the environmental impact of the things Swedes buy. The country has ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but has found that the impact of consumer choices is actually increasing.

 The scheme is expected to cost the state some $54 million in lost taxes, which will be more than outweighed by income from a new tax on harmful chemicals in white goods. Moreover, Sweden’s economy is growing strongly and the government has an $800 million budget surplus.

 I interviewed the man behind the scheme, deputy finance minister Per Bolund, a member of the Green party and a biologist by training. He spoke about nudging people towards better choices; creating jobs for skilled manual workers; and Sweden’s six-hour working day.

 Will these tax breaks be big enough to change people’s habits?

 I think many of us have had a bike standing around broken and we don’t fix it and then start using other modes of transportation. This will expand the number of companies giving these kinds of services, so it’ll be easier for consumers to have things repaired.

 And sometimes you can be surprised by how a small change in fees can really change behaviour. We’ve seen that in the congestion charging here in Stockholm, how a fee of only 10 or 20 krona ($1-2) can really change the patterns.

 And in white goods, the tax break is actually quite substantial since most of the cost of repair is actually labour, so it can really make a quite big difference.
  Is part of that an increased tax on new fridges, washing machines and so on?

 It’s actually a tax on chemicals. So if the appliance has harmful chemicals in the production process or incorporated in it there will be a levy, but if, on the other hand, you decrease the amount you can actually get a much lower levy, or even a zero increase. So that will give an incentive to producers to decrease the use of harmful chemicals, and we know that appliances are a major contributor to the amount of them in the everyday environment.

 Does that mean you’re using ‘nudges’, that is, behavioural economics?

 Yes, we’ve just increased resources to expand our knowledge and expertise of nudging. The idea is to help the private and municipal sectors use nudges to make it easier for consumers to act responsibly and reduce their environmental impact with everyday choices.
         Can you give an example of a nudge you’re using?

 When choosing your pension scheme, we have an opt-out alternative, a fund where you have quite high standards of environmental and social sustainability, so even if you don’t make a deliberate decision to use a green fund, you actually get a good result from the big part of the population that does not invest the time and energy to make an active choice.

 Won’t it hurt the economy if people buy less?

 We don’t anticipate that this will make people avoid buying things overall, but hopefully it will be easier for people to buy high-quality products because they know it’s affordable to have them fixed if something breaks. So it’s a lessened incentive to buy as cheap as possible and then scrap something.

 And we also know that repairs are more labour-intense than production, which has been largely automised, so expanding repairs could actually contribute to an expanding labour market and a decrease in unemployment. Especially because repair services often require high skills but not very high education, so we believe there’s a currently unemployed part of the labour force that could benefit.

 And these jobs would be in Sweden rather than abroad?

 Of course it is a boost for the local labour market because repairs are by their nature done near where you live. So hopefully this will contribute to the growth of jobs locally all over the country. Whereas large-scale manufacturing is very centralised and can only happen in a few locations around the nation and internationally.

 Is the point of this plan also to cut emissions from other countries, which you can’t directly control?

 Absolutely. We’ve managed quite well to decrease emissions within Sweden – by some 25% since the early 1990s – but we see that the environmental effects of consumption are actually moving in the opposite direction, they’re increasing. And since Sweden wants to be a leader in sustainable development on a global scale, we feel a responsibility to do what we can domestically to decrease the impact of consumption. And increasing the purchase of environmentally labelled products and the sustainable use of the products we buy could make a valuable contribution to that.

 What do you think of the six-hour working day, which is being tried in Sweden?

 There’s no national scheme, but municipalities and private employers have tried it, and in general found it quite beneficial for the labour force. They experience better working conditions and you can see some effects when it comes to health, you get fewer sick days. We’re doing some research into it.

 How do you see shopping becoming more sustainable in the future?

 We see that consumers are increasingly concerned and also increasingly active, showing in practice that they want to be part of the solution. We’ve seen increases of 40% when it comes to sales of Fair Trade products, for example, and that’s a really strong statement. It’s really encouraging and I think something that is just starting.

 And what I think will really change consumption patterns is the growth of the sharing economy, which has so many benefits for the individual – getting easy access to things like vehicles without the responsibility of ownership and maintenance. That could be a game-changer.
 

     Under Sweden's new tax laws, taxes on repairs for apparel will be 50 percent lower starting Jan. 1, 2017.        If you wear your jeans a lot, eventually they’ll start to get a hole. What do you do? You throw them away and buy a new pair, of course. Everybody knows that.Sweden’s Minister of Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs Per Bolund says we need to change that mindset.  “Part of that is making it more affordable and economically rational to stop the buying and throwing away, instead repairing your goods and using them for a longer time,” says Bolund.He’s trying to push people in that direction through tax breaks; he's spearheading a 50-percent tax cut for Swedes to repair items like clothes, shoes and bicycles. The new rule takes effect on Jan. 1, 2017, with a goal of decreasing waste in the world’s landfills, which are filling up at an alarming rate.This idea — not just discarding stuff — it’s not exactly revolutionary.“Clothing used to be repaired,” says Robert Ross, a sociologist and expert in the apparel industry at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He says not long ago there were tailors and cobblers in every neighborhood throughout the US, “and if you had a tear in a sock, somebody in your family darned the toe and the heel.”   That sounds quaint today. But let’s say you’re Swedish and a zipper breaks on your jeans, and it costs $20 to repair that. On top of that, you’d also pay a 25-percent value added tax (VAT), or $5 more. After Jan. 1, that tax on repairs would be cut in half, and you’d save $2.50.Ross thinks this tax cut is a well-intentioned idea, but “I don’t think that’s going to make the difference between somebody getting a pair of pants let out or a heel on a shoe.”OK, fair enough. But the new Swedish law also applies to bigger-ticket household appliances: things like refrigerators and washing machines. If Swedes repair those items, they can take a 50-percent tax deduction off the cost of the labor. In high-tax Sweden, that can amount to substantial savings.But again, it’s all about the bottom line. Consider my ancient lawn mower. Every time I yank the string to start 'er up, once, twice, three times … I just don’t know if the lawn is getting cut that day.  Mike Daly, who teaches yard tool repair classes in Indiana, says hourly rates to fix a lawn mower there are about $70 to $80 an hour.“So you could be looking at $150 to $170 to repair that lawn mower,” says Daly. “It wouldn’t be worth it if it’s 10 years old and you paid $100 to begin with, unless maybe it had some sentimental value.”It doesn’t.But let me throw some numbers at you. Let’s say I have a $500 Craftsman deluxe mower. Now, I hire the Swedish version of Mike Daly at $80 an hour. With the tax break, he’ll really only be costing me half that much. If I’m a Swede, I’m probably thinking twice about getting a new mower. That’s largely the point of the new Swedish rule.Sociologist Robert Ross  — remember, he thinks the tax break is too insignificant to bother fixing a pair of jeans  — does think the new law can get Swedes thinking differently, moving in the right direction, about what they buy: more durable items worth keeping and repairing.“Fewer better, is better than more, cheaper,” says Ross.Better for the environment, and perhaps better for jobs too. Sweden’s consumer affairs minister Per Bolund says the new law will put more Swedes to work repairing stuff.  But isn’t the point of a modern, healthy economy to constantly produce — to buy and sell stuff? Bolund says there are other ways to grow, and it’s not helping Sweden’s economy when somebody in Stockholm buys a new TV.“Most of the electronic goods that we use are imported,” says Bolund. “Repairing your goods is quite labor intense as compared to production. So we believe if consumption behavior is altered, this can lead to a boost in the employment and the labor market.”Bolund adds that the tax cut for repairs is but one part of a larger strategy to promote sustainable consumption. He says the government’s role is to move the needle — so taking care of the planet becomes not just a moral decision, but an economically rational one too.  
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Sweden

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Government of Sweden

The Swedish government has introduced tax breaks on repairs for consumer goods, with the aim of inspiring people to fix their broken items rather than throwing them out. The government, composed of a Social Democrat and Green party coalition, submitted proposals to parliament in 2016 to cut the VAT rate on repairs from 25% to 12%. It will also submit a proposal that would allow people to get income tax deductions for repairs of larger household appliances. Through these measures, the government hopes to tackle emissions linked to consumption, buy both inspiring consumers to repair their goods and make it more financially attractive.

Swedish government tax break programme for repair

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

Sweden's goal with the transition to a circular economy is to achieve national and international environmental and climate objectives, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda. The focus areas discussed are sustainable production and product design, sustainable ways of consuming and using materials, products and services, non-toxic and circular material cycles, and circular economy as a driving force for the business sector and other actors through measures to promote innovation and circular business models. As this is also the overall goal of the transition to a circular economy, progress will be tracked through a selection of the indicators in existing tracking systems for these goals and objectives.

Circular Transition Strategy for Sweden

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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October. Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.

World Circular Textiles Day

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This collection comes from the <a href="https://www.circle-economy.com/circular-jobs-initiative/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Initiative</a>, an initiative of Circle Economy.

The workforce is an essential lever for transforming our economy from linear to circular. The Circular Jobs Initiative aims to maximise the employment opportunities offered by the circular economy. It provides practical support and insights to businesses and governments that want to adopt circular strategies that have a positive social impact.The Circular Jobs Initiative works through three focus areas: 

- Upskilling the workforce

- Quality of work

- Inclusive job opportunities 

CJI has defined circular jobs as any occupation that directly involves or indirectly supports one of the strategies of the circular economy. It distinguishes between three types of circular jobs: core, enabling and indirectly circular jobs.

**Core circular jobs** are all jobs that ensure the closure of raw material cycles, including jobs in repair, renewable energy, waste and resource management. 

**‍Enabling circular jobs** are jobs that remove barriers for and enable the acceleration and upscaling of core circular activities, including jobs that arise in leasing, education, design and digital technology. 

**Indirectly circular jobs** are jobs that occur in other sectors that do not play a direct role in furthering the transition to the circular economy but can still adopt circular strategies. They include jobs that provide services to core circular strategies, including jobs in information services, logistics and the public sector.

The Knowledge Hub Collection includes examples of circular jobs, publications, reports, case studies and policies different organisations, governments and businesses are already using to advocate for a person-centred circular economy. 

Visit the <a href="https://www.circle-economy.com/circular-jobs-initiative/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Initiative</a>

Visit the <a href="http://jobsmonitor.circle-economy.com/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Monitor</a>

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Circular Jobs Initiative

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Article / Report

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Engaging in discussions with industry stakeholders to share circular economy best practices and push the industry towards greater circularity

Guidance, dialogue with industry stakeholders

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Solidify definitions and create frameworks to support the understanding of the circular economy across contexts and maintain cohesive systems of data sharing, processing and storing.


 Knowledge Management

Research and facilitate new technological developments to aid the transition to a circular economy.

Research and Development

Raise awareness and run information campaigns about  strategies for and impacts of the circular economy in different contexts.

Communication and awareness

An inclusive labour market that provides opportunities for people in precarious work, that are distant from or at risk of being phased out of the labour market, as well as workers across skill levels, regardless of their location.

Inclusive job opportunities

CE Materials

Materials

Nace Sectors

Topics

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.

Ascertaining fair, equal and inclusive policies and working environments for employees plays a vital role in achieving circularity within the textiles and garment sectors. The ILO highlights the demand for gender equality within Asia's garment supply chain through the report 'Moving the Needle: Gender equality and decent work in Asia’s garment sector'. This report demonstrates the existing gender gaps, excavates the key issues impacting gender inequality within industry in Asia, and sets out Regional Road Maps in order to begin actioning the necessary changes needed.&nbsp;