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Starter Kit collection

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

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Scalability

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)

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and 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

Providing goods on the Internet, through mail order, or television, or providing goods in stores, including apparel, electronics, furniture, food and drug, etc.

Retail

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

Deliver products through business models that ensure maximum value

Product business models

Selling parts of modular products that can be refilled

Sale of refillable parts

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

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

Single-use packaging is ubiquitous in food services and retail, yet it is increasingly linked to multiple health, sanitation and environmental problems - polluting both the city, its waterways  and surrounding ecosystems. 

Reusable food and drink containers can help to design out and eliminate, where possible, the use of single-use packaging in food services and retail. Reusable containers can be used, washed and reused multiple times to mitigate plastics pollution at its source.

Commonly, the implementation of reusable food and drinks containers relies on a strong collaboration with businesses to adopt such schemes. Yet, local governments can play an important role in promoting and supporting these behaviours. This support can come in a variety of forms, for example, awareness raising campaigns aimed at residents, as well as  promoting businesses that are engaging with reusable food and drink containers. Experimental zones can also be used to test and encourage the use of reusable containers. Local governments can, in partnership with regional and national governments, regulate the use of certain materials and packaging in the city, which incentivises reusable packaging for food and drink.

*Caution: with their often higher per-unit impact when compared with single-use alternatives, implementing reusable container schemes must be balanced with behaviour change away from a throw-away mindset to ensure that these containers are used multiple times, otherwise the expected environmental impact may not be realised. *


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🍏  Reusable food and drink containers

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

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

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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Algramo, a Santiago-based startup, offers affordable quantities of everyday products without single-use packaging, which have a detrimental effect on biodiversity. Targeting economies where recycling infrastructure is limited and packaging items often end up in the environment, Algramo introduces a reusable packaging system involving smart technology, dispensers, and affordable containers. Algramo’s refill-on-the-go system in Santiago has proven resilient to shocks: sales increased by 356% between April and June 2020 while the city was in full lockdown. After their success in Chile, Algramo is working with Walmart, Unilever, Nestlé’s Purina and other players to expand their services and scale up. At the international level, they already have pilot programs in the US and Indonesia, and are looking to enter new markets, including Mexico and the UK. Biodiversity benefitsDuring their one-year pilot in partnership with Unilever, some of Algramo’s customers refilled their detergent bottles 15 times, with each refill eliminating the need for an HDPE bottle and its associated impacts on biodiversity, whilst keeping the original refillable bottle in use and out of the environment.


Maxine Perella Published 2 years ago.
About a 6 minute read.
Image: The Algramo 2.0 tricycle delivery system | Algramo

Algramo’s unique, refillable packaging system allows customers to buy as much or as little of a product as they want, in reusable containers, with no difference in the price per gram — then recycles all packaging at the end of its life.

In recent weeks, the streets of Santiago have been awash with protestors
expressing their anger over the cost of living in the city. The high levels of
inequality in the Chilean capital and more broadly across the country have
resulted in mass upheaval and unrest, leaving the ruling elites struggling to
restore public order.
Against this backdrop, it’s perhaps not surprising to understand how successful
one circular startup, Algramo, has become since its
launch in 2013. Algramo’s purpose is not only to help consumers rethink grocery
shopping, but to use its model as a force for social good. In Santiago, that
means tackling what Algramo’s Brian Bauer calls the “poverty tax” faced by
shoppers on low incomes.
“When you live in the bottom of the pyramid in Latin America, you tend to buy
your food from small, family-owned grocery stores,” he says. “People often don’t
have money to buy food in large amounts, so they are forced to buy it in small
amounts.”
Store owners will repackage bulk staple items such as rice, lentils and cleaning
products into smaller packages — so, instead of buying a kilogram of product, a
customer might purchase a 250-gram bag.

 Join us as the Clorox Company, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health and Grounded.World discuss how brands and retailers are coming together to inspire sustainable behavior change by making it easy for consumers to close the intention-to-action gap — June 8 at Brand-Led Culture Change. 
“That smaller weight significantly increases the cost of the product, typically
anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent,” Bauer says. “It also produces more
packaging waste.”
Bauer works on circular economy and strategic alliances at Algramo. He is
helping to scale up the original model, Algramo 1.0, that founder Jose Manuel
Moller set up. Moller wanted to not only address these prohibitive prices
faced by low-income food shoppers, but enable them to access the right amount of
product they required without the need for single-use packaging.

Algramo, which literally means "by the gram," combines a number of circular
principles —
refill, reuse and optimized reverse logistics. It is basically a
refillable packaging system allowing customers to buy as much or as little of a
product as they want, in reusable containers, with no difference in the price
per gram. Once the containers reach the end of their life, they can be traded in
by shoppers for a new container — this deposit ensures packaging goes back to
Algramo, for recycling at end of life.
Since its inception, the Algramo 1.0 model has expanded to 2,000 stores in
Santiago, reaching roughly 350,000 customers. In 60 of those stores, Algramo has
installed vending machines, which automatically dispense the products. In the
others, Algramo’s own reverse logistics team visits on a regular basis to stock
up product while collecting any empty packaging containers, which are
subsequently cleaned and refilled for delivery back to the stores.
“We always strive to offer products that are in demand and used a lot,” Bauer
says. “If you’re going to the trouble of doing reuse, you want to make sure you
do that with fast-moving products to create more impact.”
Bauer says when the model was first rolled out, initial reuse rates weren’t even
hitting 10 percent, but they now stand at over 80 percent: “We played around
with the price of the packaging and got people more interested about the
benefits of reuse.”
In 2018, these impressive reuse rates attracted the interest of major brands
including Unilever and now
Nestlé. Interest from global
brands has paved the way for Algramo 2.0 — in which, as Bauer explains: “We are
taking the technology and distribution systems that we created with the 1.0
model and integrating those into the supply chains of global brands.”
Both models target different markets. Algramo 2.0 is aimed more at middle-income
neighbourhoods, and will be built on brand partnerships. The startup is working
with Unilever on the first Algramo 2.0 model, which launched in May on the
streets of Santiago. It’s a mobile home-refill service selling cobranded
Algramo-Unilever products such as laundry detergent and dish soap — the
dispensing machine is mounted on an electric tricycle — and can be hailed to
your home, free of charge, for onsite refill.
“It’s kind of like an ‘Uber Eats’ service,” Bauer says. “For people in cities
who don’t have cars, this creates a compelling value proposition. If you have to
walk several blocks to the grocery store, you don’t want to be carrying back
heavy items. With us, you can get refill at your house and have transport
provided for the bulkier items. This is especially valuable for our next
product, Nestlé dog and cat food.”
The system encourages cashless payments through RFID
tags
on the containers and an app; but until the app is fully developed, tricycle
drivers also have the ability to take cash payments and transfer the funds
digitally onto the packaging. A ‘sustainable consumption credit’ offers a
discount on the next purchase when shoppers bring the containers back,
incentivising reuse rates further.
“A key part of the rationale is that, to make reuse popular, you need to lower
the product cost — the more the better,” Bauer says. “A lot of evidence I’ve
seen says a 30 percent to 40 percent discount is a critical threshold number to
get people interested in reusable packaging. You also need to make reuse
convenient, and the tricycle provides that.”
Brands who sell through the Algramo system can also expect to see significant
cost benefits due to reduced packaging and optimized logistics, enabling them to
offer products at a lower price.

Algramo founder José Manuel Moller with Nuria Hernández, CEO of Unilever Chile, and the Algramo 2.0 tricycle | Image credit: Algramo
“With our Unilever model, Omo laundry detergent is about 30 percent less
expensive then what you’d pay for them in a corporate supermarket at the regular
price,” Bauer says. “Brands are excited to be able to lower their product costs,
as this gives them a significant competitive advantage.”
Algramo funded the first tricycle and Bauer says Unilever has agreed to fund a
further nine tricycles, which should all be on the streets by the end of the
year. Going forward, the company intends to expand into international markets —
first and most notably, the US — before expanding across Latin America; Bauer
says expansion into certain markets will depend on the right implementation
partners.
“We have a strategic implementation partner set up for the US, and that is
enabling us to move a lot faster than originally planned,” he intimated. “In the
second half of 2020, we’re hoping to be in the US. Shortly after that, we hope
to enter into other geographies, as well.
“We’re keen to give this opportunity to as many people as possible, in as many
countries as possible. In the higher-income markets, that’s where most of the
consumption and packaging waste occurs, so we can have a big impact on reducing
the plastic
footprint
there.”
In scaling up, Bauer anticipates a few issues along the way, one of these being
co-innovation risk.
“We’re working with a lot of different brands, technology providers, government
regulators … and we need them all to be working together optimally and
efficiently as possible to ensure the system is robust.”
Circular business models that can deliver both sustainability and social impacts
are still thin on the ground, which is what makes Algramo’s proposition so
compelling. As Bauer aptly puts it: “What we are doing has never been done
before.” 

                 Your browser does not support HTML video.                Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.   Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.       Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.   Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.       Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.   Algramo es la nueva forma de reutilizar.             Tomamos los aprendizajes del pasado, la innovación del presente, y las ganas de recargar el futuro. Con todo esto, creamos una plataforma circular que te permite comprar tus productos favoritos en envases reutilizables, y sin pagar de más.                           


              José Manuel Moller, Fundador y CEO de Algramo.                                     Compra el último envase de tu vida y deja de generar desechos       Podrás ver y gestionar tus envases      Revisa el impacto que has generado      Podrás comprar tus productos favoritos en envases reutilizables (ya sea a domicilio o en la estación de recarga más cercana) y revisar el plástico que has evitado en semanas, meses y años. Te encantará.                 Compra el último envase de tu vida y deja de generar desechos         Podrás ver y gestionar tus envases        Revisa el impacto que has generado                                                                                 Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.   Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.       Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.   Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.       Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.   Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro. Recarguemos el futuro.                  
 

United States

New York

Santiago

Chile

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Unilever 

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Algramo

<p>Algramo, a Santiago-based startup, offers affordable quantities of everyday products without single-use packaging, which have a detrimental effect on biodiversity.</p>