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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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Article / Report

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

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)

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

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

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

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

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

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

Design for cyclability

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

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

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop infrastructure to support sustainable lifestyles

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

Visions and Ambitions

Govern the Transition

 Convene Towards Action

Advocate for circular change

Eliminate waste by maximizing the recovery of resources at the end of the use phase so that they can be reintroduced into production processes


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Recover

Incorporate extended use in project planning phases; create or update city policies to allow for extended use.


Design and regulate for separation and recovery

Ensure that household and business waste is collected and appropriately sorted (by type, label, etc.) to allow for maximum recovery of value.


Collect and sort waste to facilitate recovery

Process waste into valuable industrial inputs or consumer products; distribute processed waste to users.

Process waste and ensure its re-entry into industry at its highest value

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

Businesses

Communities

Governments

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

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

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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            Strategic Outcomes SO1 Reduced GHG emission, SO2 Creation of green jobs, SO3 Increased access to sustainable services    Start Date Q1  Jan 1 2019    End Date q1 Dec 31 2022    Funding Source Earmarked   Actual Budget (USD) 837,171   Budget Percentage 32%   Actual Expenditure (USD) 266,913   Status Active   GGGI Share (USD) 837,170   Poverty and Gender Policy Markers gender   Name of Client (Lead/Prime implementer if GGGI is part of a consortium) Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Senegal    Participating Organization (Funding/donor) Ministry of Environment, Climate & Sustainable Development of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg    Name of consortium members, if any    Thematic Area                Senegal has experienced a rapid pace of urbanization, influenced by the economic opportunities in urban centers. The population living in urban areas is expected to increase nearly 2.5% each year and reach 62% by 2025. In other words, Senegal will have 13.5 million urban dwellers by 2025. At present 45% of the country’s population of 15.3 million live in urban areas. This rapid pace of urbanization will severely test the national government and municipalities’ capacity to efficiently deliver basic urban services and management. 
Senegal already suffers from a chronic deficit of access to solid waste management services. The country produces over 2.4 million tons of solid waste per year, with a collection rate of 55%, below the sub-Saharan Africa average of 65%. Senegal’s national average waste production rate is 0.47kg per person per day which is higher than in larger and industrialized urban centers, such as Dakar where the production rate is nearly 0.60 kg per person per day. To make pilot secondary cities (Touba, Tivaouane, and Dakar) greener and cleaner, the project will promote efficient and affordable waste recycling and valorization business model. 
The project objective is thus to support Senegal’s efforts to implement three of the guidelines for the development of green cities, to achieve integrated and environmentally sustainable waste management and the acceleration of green secondary city development. The project will bring lasting impact in the lives of populations in Dakar, Thies and Diourbel through a range of interventions to improve efficiency in the whole cycle of waste management. The project will focus on three dimensions: i) plastic waste; ii) waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE); and iii) domestic wastewater. The project will contribute to strengthening national and sub-national/local (city level) green growth policy planning, financing and institutional frameworks. 
The project aligns with IO1. Strengthened national, sub-national and local green growth planning, financing and institutional frameworks, IO2. Increased green growth investment flows which enable partner governments to implement green growth policies; IO3. Improved multi-directional knowledge sharing and learning to empower local and external agents necessary to drive green growth processes in partner governments.    
       Impact: The climate impact of the project is the reduction of 616,000 tC0²eq reduction under 10 years period (average 61,600 tC0²eq reduction / annum), that will benefit 500,000 beneficiaries with the creation of 700 Green jobs cumulatively for the 3 dimensions of the projects over the 3-year period of the first phase of implementation. Over the 10-year lifetime of the infrastructures, the GHG emission reduction is estimated at 15 400 000 tC0²eq. 
Outcome: N/A 
Project Outputs completed in 2019:  
i. Green Growth Policies: 

Policy assignment: Situation assessment on the plastic waste value chain management completed. 
An official launch event and an annual planning workshop completed. 

ii.Green Investments:N/A
iii. Capacity Building and Knowledge Products:  

Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and exchange visit with Luxembourg’s partners completed.
   
         
     
      Start Date Q3 20190601   Funding Source    Actual Budget (USD) 86,668   Status Complete   Thematic Area       View 

    
         

Africa

Senegal

Dakar

Région de Thiès

Diourbel

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Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)

Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Senegal

Ministry of Environment, Climate & Sustainable Development of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The GGGI aims&nbsp;to support Senegal’s efforts to achieve integrated and environmentally sustainable waste management and the acceleration of green secondary city development. The project will bring a lasting impact on the lives of populations in Dakar, Thies and&nbsp;Diourbel&nbsp;through a range of interventions to improve efficiency in the whole cycle of waste management. The project will focus on three dimensions:&nbsp; i) plastic wasteii) waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)iii) domestic wastewater. The project will contribute to strengthening national and sub-national/local (city-level) green growth policy planning, financing and institutional frameworks (GGGI,2021).