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This collection features a selection of case studies, based on the global *Circularity Gap Reports*, that can mitigate climate breakdown by reducing virgin material consumption, waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The latest **[Circularity Gap Report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download)** reveals that the global economy is now only 7.2% circular and outlines how circular solutions across four sectors can bring global planetary boundaries back within safe limits. 

In the six years of the *Circularity Gap Report*, the global economy has extracted and used unprecedented amounts of materials. The first edition of the *Report *in 2018 found that global circularity was 9.1% and it has decreased every year since—leaving a Circularity Gap of over 90%. If this trend continues, we will have to find more and better solutions to combat the negative effects of climate change. This is why we have identified case studies from across the globe—based on the needs of society and planetary health—that serve as real-world examples of the circular economy in action.

Circle Economy is a not-for-profit organisation working to accelerate the circular transition. 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. With nature as our guide, we work alongside cross-sector stakeholders from academia, businesses, NGOs and governments to provide a powerful combination of practical and scalable interventions that transform circular opportunities into realities. 


To learn more about these interventions to accelerate the circular transition, read the latest [Circularity Gap Report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download), as well as previous editions of the global [Circularity Gap Reports](https://www.circularity-gap.world/global).

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Global Circularity Gap Report 2023

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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

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

Jobs

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

Scalability

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)

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

Societal Services

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

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

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within the same industry

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

The second biggest category in terms of resource use is the need for nutrition. Agricultural products such as crops and livestock require 21.8 billion tonnes yearly. Food products have short lifecycles in our economy, being consumed quickly after production.



Nutrition

- Replace traditional polluting stoves with clean ones

Saving: 0.97 Gt emissions and 0.41 Gt material use

🍎  Clean cooking stoves

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

Archetypes

CE Materials

Impacts

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Industries

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Materials

Nace Sectors

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

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.

Browse case studies by type of implementing stakeholder.

Implementing stakeholders

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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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

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An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

The framework consists of 21 complementary interventions, across six scenarios - one for each of the six societal needs we model. These interventions can mitigate climate impact by curbing GHG emissions

Note: interventions are currently focused on:
- 🏠 Housing 
- 🍎 Nutrition
- 🚗 Mobility
- 👚📺 Consumables
- 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ Healthcare
-  🔊 Communication

These 21 interventions are spread across six societal needs and wants, with a set of solutions. Within these solutions are strategies on ’how to get there'.  

The framework moves beyond incremental action and provides solutions that will require behavioral change (dietary shifts towards less meat consumption, for example) and the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in the industry to mitigate emissions in hard-to-abate sectors (such as steel manufacturing). It illustrates how continued globalisation can benefit from the uptake of digital solutions. The combined interventions showcase the mitigation potential that begins where the current country pledges end; illustrating the additional impact our interventions can bring to the NDCs. In short, the interventions provide input for a more profound fundamental transformation than the more current pathways that make up the vast majority of NDCs. 

Together, the combined interventions can almost double the current global Circularity Metric of 8.6%, bringing it to 17%. 

This results in:
• Shrinking global material use and extraction by 28%. 
• Cutting global GHG emissions by 39%—fully closing the Emissions Gap as defined in our report and taking into account the updated NDCs.
• Allowing the world to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping at 1.5-degrees of warming by 2032.

*This framework was developed in the Circularity Gap Report 2021. Read more about it [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/resources/circularity-gap-report-2021)*






Global Circularity Gap Report

An intervention-based framework for nations and stakeholders working towards circular countries

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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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Amin Sulley, founder of Zaacoal
Ghanaian company Zaacoal, launched in 2016, manufactures charcoal from coconut waste. We speak to founder Amin Sulley about how he started the business and some of the mistakes he made along the way.
1. How did you come up with the idea for Zaacoal?
I came up with the concept as early as 2011 but at the time it didn’t have a name. I had been looking for ways to make use of the coconut waste that was found everywhere in Accra. My university was in the centre of Accra and every day, on my way to class, I was confronted by many people selling coconut in the street. I was curious and wondered what they did with their coconut waste. I engaged with the sellers and many told me they paid companies to collect the waste. Some of them would drive their carts to the beach and dispose of it there.
I was so intrigued, I went to almost every neighbourhood to find out where they were dumping it. At that stage, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the information, it was just thoughts rattling around in my head.
One time we went to buy local food from a vendor and I discovered the woman was cooking using coconut waste for the fire instead of firewood. That was when the idea for Zaacoal was conceived: firewood is the raw material for charcoal … would it be possible to use this coconut waste to make charcoal?
Coconut waste ready for processing into charcoal
2. Tell us about the manufacturing process.
I had no clue how to make charcoal so I travelled to the northern part of the country where I learnt about the procedure. I came back to Accra and decided to modernise the process. To make charcoal, you set a material alight and block off oxygen to the fire. If oxygen gets to the fire, it burns to ash; if you limit the oxygen flow, it turns to charcoal. I found a tomato can, put some pieces of coconut in it, lit it and covered it with sand. It worked really well.
During a university vacation, I decided to experiment. I moved from the tomato can to a bucket and from the bucket to a small barrel and then drums. Soon, we were lining up 10, 15 drums. Every sample we produced we gave to the neighbours to use. They liked it and offered us much-needed feedback so we were able to continue improving our method.
I met with the wood charcoal sellers to learn more about the charcoal business and asked so many questions. One of the most crucial learnings was that people don’t buy in bulk. When the average Ghanaian household is about to cook, they send someone to buy two or five cedis’ worth of charcoal. I realised I had to enter the market with packaging that was small and convenient.
Production of charcoal from coconut waste
I invested my university class fees in small machines to perfect the process and, when my school fees were depleted, I couldn’t go back. I had to be self-reliant but wasn’t yet selling anything. I searched for investors and finally convinced a few family members to jump on board. I had to keep at it because it is something I am so passionate about it. I always have pieces of coconut charcoal in my pocket so that I can show it to people I meet.
3. Where do you source the coconut waste?
Initially, we asked a few coconut sellers to drop off their waste with us. Very quickly, the whole place was filled with coconuts. Disposing of the waste was a big problem for coconut sellers and word soon got around.
Zaacoal has never paid for coconuts. We provide the coconut sellers with a way to dispose of their waste. It’s a win-win for everyone.
4. Where are your products sold? How competitive is this industry?
Our target market is the average Ghanaian household that uses charcoal for cooking.
For now, the wood charcoal sellers are our only competition but we anticipate there will be more competitors, considering the success of Zaacoal.
We started by convincing the neighbourhood wood charcoal sellers to stock our product. Their customers trust them and we had to win them over so they could convince the customers to change to coconut charcoal. We handed sellers free bags of Zaacoal. In return, they gave us their feedback and we improved the product. Once they saw how well it performed, they became our ambassadors and we used their existing network to get into the market. We price Zaacoal to enable the charcoal sellers to make more money selling Zaacoal than selling wood charcoal.
We do have other retailers: big stores situated in shopping malls, but this represents only about 5-10% of our market.
Packaged charcoal ready for sale
5. Tell us about your biggest mistake.
We made a lot of mistakes because we did not fully understand our customer. We started out selling to the everyday Ghanaian charcoal user. Along the line, we found that retailers in shopping malls were importing charcoal and selling it at higher prices. We opted to target some of these retailers and moved away from the everyday consumer which was a big mistake. Even though the product sells for a higher price in the big retail stores, the people who buy there aren’t regular users: they maybe buy once a week for a barbeque versus the everyday charcoal user who cooks with it every single day.
We strategised and brought out separate packaging and products for the two markets. The casual buyers require slow-burning charcoal for a barbeque whereas the everyday charcoal user wants a high, long-lasting heat for cooking. As you know, most African meals need to be on the fire for a long time. So we revised the formulation for these two markets.
Because we had no data on this industry, we are forced to do everything on our own and it took a long time to get to where we are. If there had been people who knew the industry well and were prepared to share their experiences and expertise, we would have gotten here much earlier. 



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Africa

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Accra

Ghana

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Zaacoal

<p>Ghanaian company Zaacoal is a social enterprise that converts ubiquitous city waste into clean-burning fuels. Their products protect the environment by reducing deforestation and empower women by providing them jobs. By offering coconut waste charcoal the advantages are cleaner cities due to the disposal of coconut waste, protect the forests, reducing indoor air pollution while cooking.</p>