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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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Policy 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 health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

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

Construction and Real Estate Services

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

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Providing upgrade programmes or upgrade services for products or parts of products

Product upgrade

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

Manage

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

Mobilise

 Convene Towards Action

Matchmaking platforms

'Incentivise' sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.

Incentivise

 Direct Financial Support

Asset Management

Use longer and more often by extending and intensifying use of existing resources, products, spaces and infrastructure

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Reuse

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

Design and regulate for extended use

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Communities

Governments

The demolition of old buildings and construction of new buildings require vast quantities of heavy materials, and significant amounts of energy and water. Where possible, it is preferable to renovate and refurbish an existing building in a circular manner rather than demolishing it to build a new one. Additionally, underutilised and vacant buildings and spaces represent an enormous untapped value, which could be leveraged to finance investments in other areas and revitalise neighbourhoods. This could include ‘meanwhile use’ or ‘intermittent use’ of buildings, which involves making temporarily empty spaces, properties and land available for use as work spaces, pop-up cafes, shops, and more. Such projects help to rethink the design of the surrounding urban space, creating attractive, safe and user-friendly areas, thus revitalising neighbourhood economies and encouraging local retail networks. 

Local governments—along with multidisciplinary teams of finance, human resources, technology, and corporate real estate stakeholders—can identify idle or underutilised spaces and determine their value, and then consider this in relation to current and future requirements of their citizens (for example, shortage of affordable housing or cultural spaces). Measures to address the underuse of buildings and spaces could include flexible zoning plans, economic disincentives for new greenfield developments in favour of refurbishing and manufacturing, as well as piloting projects with public vacant buildings.

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🏢  Make the best use of existing buildings and infrastructure

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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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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 HausHalten e.V. Like hardly any other German city Leipzig is characterized by its rich architectural heritage which originates from the end of 19th century. Since 1990 approximately 80% of the original buildings dating from this period have been redeveloped ensuring that the architectural heritage of Leipzig's buildings, which are a unique part of its cultural identity are protected against further decay. Nevertheless, in the same period Leipzig has lost more than 100,000 inhabitants, of this 50,000 due to Sub-Urbanization, which has had serious consequences for the city's development. Despite recent growth in the population since 2001, approximately 45,000 apartments are still vacant.  In view of the rapidly progressing decay of approximately 2,000 of the existing historic buildings in Leipzig, which threatens some parts of the east and west quarters of the city, it is clear that a new strategy is necessary for managing and rebuilding vacant buildings, in order to preserve and rehabilitate Leipzig's architectural heritage. The Wächterhäuser scheme Wächterhäuser which directly translated means House Guardian, is an initiative of the Leipzig HausHalten association. The scheme was set up with the intention of protecting and maintaining existing building. The goal of the association which was founded in 2004, is to ensure the safety and preservation of endangered buildings and the acquisition of new tenants for these buildings on a non-commercial basis. The background to the initiative is the concentration of listed buildings from the end of the 19th century which are currently empty and are located on major roads and are important for the local urban context. Due to the large number of vacant houses, classical refurbishment is often very impractical and uneconomic from the view of the owners. For the owners it is very often difficult to find alternative ways of dealing with this problem and this often results in insolvency for the building owners, and the buildings being demolished. However there is potential in the situation for making use of these premises outside of the usual rental market. This is particularly applicable for creative individuals with alternative lifestyles and living requirements which typical rental conditions cannot accommodate. Such individuals require premises whose conditions are below or different from what typical users would be interested in. Although there is obviously a need for accommodations for such individuals, there is typically very little on the market. Individuals or groups such as this therefore can benefit from the opportunity the housing situation provides. The Households Association views both problems as a chance to unite owners and users in order to solve both problems.  The basic principle of the Wächterhäuser is the provision of houses through usage. The houses occupants become the guards of the house. Their presence helps prevent vandalism, limits weather damage and insures general maintenance. Since general wear and potentially damaging problems are discovered by the occupants early, they are minimized.  The users take responsibility for the preparation, operating costs and refurbishment of the property. In most cases the owners allow the users to inhabit the flats free of rent. For Haushalten e.V. people who have a special social, cultural, or commercial attraction for these quarters of the town are of special interest as guards for these houses. "More Area for Less Money" is the goal of the project which also fits the interest of the users. Since there is an abundance of space available users are able to have access to space they would not otherwise be able to afford. Such users are free to design and refurbish the houses according to their needs and aesthetics. This makes them bring their craft and arts skills to the improvement of the buildings. The labour and maintenance of the apartments and remaining areas of the house become the reimbursement to the owners of the house in lieu of rent.The owners benefit, by being relieved of the running costs and concern of the day to day maintenance of the house. The owners responsibility rests with arranging for the provision of electrical, heating and water supplies to the houses. In some situations owners are able to secure funds for contribution towards making the house basically usable.  The legal framework for the Wächterhäuser is an agreement undertaken between the houses owner and the HausHalten association. This agreement outlines the rights of use which the association undertakes for between five and ten years. Vested titles, rights and responsibility for the house ownership are not affected by this agreement, a sale or a change in use is possible at anytime. If the users in the house become established, the basic contract between the users and the housing association will be replaced by a direct agreement between the owners and the users.  Example: Lützner Straße 30 The first Wächterhaus Lützner Str. 30 is in the so-called MuKo block in Leipzig Lindenau which was selected as a pilot project, because it was highly endangered and important in the urban context. This corner building is listed and had suffered from many years of being empty, as well as the almost complete lack of maintenance. It had significant rot in the timber structure, the roof was breaking and parts of the roof and facade were threatening to collapse onto the sidewalk. The owners had acquired the house in the middle of the 90's. After some initial negotiations they were convinced to enter into the Wächterhäuser agreement. With funds secured by the Office for Urban Redevelopment and Housing Promotions of the City of Leipzig the roof and the external walls were made secure. Since May 2005 two floors of the house have been converted into studio lofts used by students attending the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig.  The large corner shop on the ground floor serves a cultural meeting place and has been well received. The household association has in addition established a further shop on the ground floor with a tool rental business for new Wächterhäuser clients. English flyer with more information  

  The main goals of the association HausHalten e.V., founded in 2004, are to secure endangered old buildings in important urban areas by finding new users on a non-commercial basis and to preserve the buildings’ value. Astrid Heck was a co-initiator and long-time board member of the association. The aim of HausHalten e.V. is to engage with the two challenges Leipzig faced in the early 2000s – vacancy in unattractive areas and creative people seeking adequate spaces. HausHalten e.V. viewed this as an opportunity to bring potential users closer to owners.
Until September 2009, HausHalten e.V. received funding through the “Nationalen Stadtentwicklungspolitik” National Urban Development Policy by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS).
Main goals:

Establishment of a training and competence centre “HausHalten” in Lützner Straße 39
Further development of the Guardian House Model – Wächterhausmodell
Transferability of the model to other cities which also face vacancy

Function: Co-initiator and long-time member of the board of the association
Period: 2004-2009  

Leipzig

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City of Leipzig

HausHalten

<p>In Leipzig, Germany, people referred to as “house guardians” are matched with vacant properties, which they are free to design and refurbish according to their needs and aesthetics. The care and maintenance work on the buildings replaces any rent obligation to the owner. The Office for Urban Redevelopment and Housing Promotions of the City of Leipzig provided funds to support a pilot project under this initative. This is an initiative of the Leipzig HausHalten association, which, until September 2009, received funding through the “Nationalen Stadtentwicklungspolitik” (National Urban Development Policy) by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS).</p>