Business 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

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

Increase Awareness

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 agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

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

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Designing products to be reused for the same or different purposes in multiple lifecycles

Design for reuse

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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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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The active service life of a disposable coffee-to-go cup is about 15 minutes. Once it's over, it gets chucked into a dustbin, or onto the street or into some bushes. This daily phenomenon plagues cities everywhere. It entails significant on-going clean-up costs, and it's an eyesore. Disposable plastic cups are an extra-big problem - their remains can last indefinitely in the environment. According to data from Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), a German environmental organisation, almost three billion cups land in the trash in this country every year. On average, each of Germany's 82 million people uses 37 cups a year, and the production of plastic cups or plastic-sheathed paper cups causes CO2 emissions of more than 100,000 tonnes per year in Germany. Trend toward reusable cups? Public discomfort about disposable cups is increasing. Consumers, café operators and cities are looking for solutions.  People often bring their personal cups along on the morning commute to work. More and more canteens, bakeries and cafés are now offering reusable cups as an alternative to disposables.     Overflowing rubbish bins like this one, photographed in January 2015 in Berlin, are an all-too-common sight  The city of Berlin is now preparing to attempt a great leap forward: soon, coffee consumers in Berlin will be able to enjoy their coffee-to-go from a refillable cup supplied by coffee retailers. You have to pay pay a deposit, which will be quickly and easily refundable when the cups are returned to participating retailers. The Berlin administration's proposal for the introduction of a multi-use returnable cup system is now being discussed by its Environment Committee. The initiative is scheduled to be voted on within the next few weeks by the city's municipal parliament. "We see a clear trend in the direction of reusable cups, starting with small initiatives in cafes, projects at German universities or with the Berlin S-Bahn. The decision by the city's politicians paves the way for a multi-reuse future," said Stefanie Otterstein of DUH.     About 3.8 million disposable paper or plastic cups are thrown away in Germany each day - more than a few of them become litter  Cheaper for both consumers and retailers Every year around 2,400 tonnes of coffee-to-go cups are produced in Berlin. Berlin's policy initiative aims to support a shift from disposable to reusable cups with incentives: a discount of at least 20 cents on the retail price of a cup of coffee, for consumers who use reusable rather than disposable cups. If it succeeds, the measure will have a double benefit: it'll be better for the environment, and it will save the government money on cleanup costs for parks and public places. It's an echo of the deposit system on many glass and plastic bottles that has been in place in Germany for many years. Feel-good coffee-to-go A pilot project in Berlin called 'Just swap it' has already generated encouraging early results. The initiative's organizers developed a reusable mug made of bamboo, cornstarch, and synthetic resin, which is lent to customers in participating Berlin cafés for a 4 euro ($4.32) deposit. The customers can take the cup with them, and give it back at other cafes.     Freiburg has its own reusable, refundable coffee cups (on the left)   "The mugs are catching on," project manager Ulrike Gottsauk told Deutsche Welle. "Our goal is responsible consumption with a good feeling. We don't want to point our fingers at consumers and induce a guilty conscience." According to Gottschau's data, reusable cups and the deposit system also make financial sense for cafés: a plastic cup including lid costs coffee sellers about seven cents, whereas the cost of washing reusable cups is less than half that amount. Incentive for environmentally friendly consumption Other German cities want to promote the use of reusable cups too. In Freiburg's city center, the reusable "FreiburgCup" has been available in cafés and bakeries since last November. Freiburg was the first city in Germany with a multiple-reuse cup deposit system. "We want people to produce less waste and throw fewer coffee cups onto the streets," says Gerda Stuchlik, Freiburg's mayor. The city's quarter of a million residents currently go through about twelve million disposable cups annually.


Germany

Berlin

Munich

Düsseldorf

Hamburg

Cologne

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Recup

RECUP is a German store equipment supplier that offers refillable cups and bowls, mostly for cafes, restaurants and canteens. Costumers can buy the refillable cup or bowl supplied by cafes and restaurants as well as a deposit. The deposit will be quickly and easily refundable when the cups are returned to any participating retailer in the RECUP network. Customers can also use the cups in non-RECUP stores or swap used cups for clean ones at RECUP partners. This system reaches a large customer base as reusable cups are easily accessible in places needed and could help to decrease the number of throw-away coffee cups which reached in 2017 an amount of 320,000 disposable cups.

RECUP & REBOWL: Deposit system for cups and bowls 

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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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Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Providing air, water, rail, and land transportation and related services for the distribution of goods, such as air freight, air courier and logistics services, maritime freight, marine courier and logistics services, rail freight, rail courier and logistics services, land freight, land courier and logistics services, including package and mail delivery and customs agents, as well as storage and warehouse facilities

Logistics Services

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

Agriculture

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

Ensure that biological products are properly managed and preserved

Maximise lifetime of biological products

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

Initiatives with disadvantaged communities, minorities, people distanced from the labour market

Give-back programmes

Participatory governance mechanisms

Voluntary agreements around circular ambitions

Matchmaking platforms

When edible food is wasted, this wastes not only the food product itself, but also all of the energy, resources and emissions that were required to produce the food. 

Surplus food from food services, manufacturing, and retail operations should be used at its highest and best value. Platforms (both on- and offline) can help to connect surplus food between, for example, households, retail, food services and manufacturing. This may result in increased revenues for businesses, and lower landfill costs. 

Redistributing food surplus is not a solution to address the root causes of food insecurity, and establishing reliance on this stream by vulnerable communities can bring problems in the future. Nevertheless, food surplus may in some instances be appropriately redirected to social enterprises, for example, food banks.  

Local governments may work with local businesses who link surplus food from restaurants and supermarkets to edible reuse by citizens. Other businesses may process and redirect food streams to animals who can in turn feed on it. Awareness raising, platforms, and dedicated space in the city can support these operations.


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🍏  Redistribute food surplus

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

Businesses

Communities

Governments

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

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 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

   
Recup è un progetto che agisce nei mercati della città per combattere lo spreco alimentare e l’esclusione sociale. Recuperiamo il cibo prima che venga buttato via, lo dividiamo tra commestibile e non, infine lo redistribuiamo a chiunque voglia prenderlo.
I beneficiari sono gli stessi esecutori del lavoro: in questo modo si crea un concetto di collaborazione e comunità tra persone diverse, una possibilità di scambio interculturale e intergenerazionale che prima mancava.
      
   	

   	

   	   Mercoledì dalle 13.00 alle 16.00   

   	

   	

   	

   	

   	   Sabato dalle 14.30 per 1:30/2 ore   

   	   Sabato dalle 13.00 alle 16.00   

   	

   	

   	

   	   Domenica dalle 13.30 per circa 1 ora   


      Enti e associazioni con cui collaboriamo  

      

Rome

Milan

Recup project counteracts food waste through participatory and inclusive action. Volunteers, on a weekly basis, at the end of specific open air markets, receive from dozens of merchants crates of unsold products. Each participant then select the edible food and redistribute it mostly on-site for free. Anyone who supports and helps during the recovery and selection process is entitled to receive a portion of what has been “saved”, obviously with the utmost respect for others and their needs. The association is supported by the Municipality of Milan.

RECUP - Association of Social Promotion counteracts food waste through participatory and inclusive action

RECUP is a German store equipment supplier that offers refillable cups and bowls, amongst others, for cafes, restaurants and canteens. Costumers can buy the refillable cup or bowl supplied by coffee retailers and have to pay&nbsp;a deposit, which will be quickly and easily refundable when the cups are returned to participating retailers. This system could help to decrease the amount of throw away coffee cups which reached in 2017 an amount of 320,000 disposable cups.