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This collection is part of Footprints Africa's work to build a comprehensive database of circular economy initiatives in Africa. 

This is a result of the collaboration with the <a href="https://www.acen.africa" target="_blank">African Circular Economy Network (ACEN)</a>, as part of the programme to support the circular economy transition in Africa. Footprints Africa's vision is that businesses can be a force for good at scale. Their mission is to advance sustainable, scalable and inclusive approaches to development of local African economies. Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, such as those inspired by the circular economy, to address the challenges of growth and create jobs. 

This open-source dataset features well over 500 cases and 200 examples of policies and laws and intent to collect inspiring examples of initiatives from across Africa, in order to inform the global dialogue, which is largely focused on the European and American context. 

To learn more about Africa's initiatives and content to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, visit https://www.footprintsafrica.co/



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Footprints Africa

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Business case

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

Innovation

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 building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Providing residential and non-residential construction services, such as architectural, engineering, planning, real-estate, contracting, and inspection services

Construction and Real Estate Services

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

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

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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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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      Property & Construction  Spotted: A team of recent graduates and young professionals have won first place in the Green Building Council of South Africa’s (GBSCA) design, which takes place in Cape Town. The My Clean Green Home competition challenges teams of designers to create the ultimate “clean, green home”. Team Mahali won the competition for their “Mahali Hub” – a net-zero carbon home. This was not the first time Team Mahali had demonstrated their prowess with sustainable design. In 2019, the team was awarded second place for architecture and design at Solar Decathlon in Morocco, an international design competition that challenges university students to develop an architecture that incorporates renewable energy. Team Mahali’s design for the My Clean Green Home competition consisted of a modular “house in a box” made from upcycled and locally available materials. It includes rainwater harvesting, solar power generation, passive cooling and a food garden. A full-sized Mahali Hub will be constructed and displayed as part of the festival. Sharné Bloem, team leader of Team Mahali, described the design in a festival press release as inspired by, “the typical African tradition of community formal and informal gatherings under an expansive tree canopy. The design tries to recreate the communal space by creating a courtyard-like space between two more private spaces for sleeping and living.” It is no longer enough to add a few sustainable features; architects and designers are increasingly aiming for net-zero carbon emissions in new builds. Springwise has seen this in innovative designs such as backyard net-zero tiny homes and flat-pack carbon-negative homes. Written By: Lisa Magloff Explore more: Property & Construction Innovations | Architecture & Design Innovations  10th March 2021 Website: capetownfutureenergyfestival.co.za Contact: capetownfutureenergyfestival.co.za/connect  

My clean green homeThe My Clean Green Home competition is an initiative of the City of Cape Town and the Green Building Council of South Africa. The contest challenges students and professionals of the built environment to design a net zero energy house, which also considers efficient water-waste-food flows.  ​ There were 18 teams who submitted their designs for the MCH contest. The 'MAHALI HUB' was nominated as the overall winner for the most sustainable house and will be constructed towards the end of January 2021 in Greenpoint Urban Park, Cape Town, South Africa.  The house will be exhibited to the public to demonstrate how sustainable energy, water, waste, and food systems function in practice. ​ ​

South Africa

Africa

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Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, address the challenges of growth and create jobs, using supply chains as a tool for development. 

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Mahali Hub

Green Building Council of South Africa

<p>South Africa-based Mahali Hub has designed a modular "house in a box" made out of upcycled and locally available materials. The house design incorporates features that allow for rainwater harvesting, solar power generation, passive cooling, and a food garden. Mahali Hub’s net-zero carbon home concept took first place in the My Clean Green Home competition held by the Green Building Council of South Africa.</p>