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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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Business case

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social 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

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

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 agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Producing and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

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

Use waste as a resource

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

Do better with less by using and supporting infrastructure, processes and products that are designed to minimize material, water and energy use and waste generation from production to end of use


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Reduce

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

Put enablers in place that allow circular businessesto grow, thrive and innovate (e.g. incubators, start-up funding, partnerships, innovation deals, business capacity building and testing groundsfor new business models).


Support circular and resource-efficient business innovations

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

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

Communities

Businesses support the innovation and implementation of circular strategies. Yet innovations and startups that close loops and facilitate reuse often face additional challenges, due to the lack of infrastructure that supports circular initiatives for example physical and digital infrastructure to support reverse logistics.

Sustainable business ecosystems connect circular businesses around common problems and provide coordinated support, education and financing opportunities for these businesses to operate and scale together. This solution stimulates the local economy, which can promote local circular job opportunities in the future, and provides an attractive and supportive environment for more circular businesses to start up and scale the city.

The local government may partner with innovation ecosystems and circular domain experts to create training modules and facilitation programmes for small businesses, making knowledge resources available to small businesses looking to go circular. Local governments may also provide financial support - either directly or in partnership with financial institutions - to target and stimulate ecosystems around specific circular business models. 


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🍏  Sustainable food and agriculture business ecosystems

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

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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 Bella Dentro nasce dall’idea di una coppia di fulminati, Camilla e Luca (entrambi classe 1988) che nel lontano 2017 si imbattono in un reportage di National Geographic che illustra le dimensioni e l’impatto socio-economico degli sprechi nella filiera agroalimentare, e decidono di mandare per aria le loro carriere (e la salute psico-fisica dei loro genitori) per iniziare a fare ricerca sul campo (letteralmente) e creare da zero una filiera ortofrutticola parallela a quella esistente, interamente incentrata sulla lotta allo spreco.
Il concetto di spreco infastidisce entrambi, più per indole ed educazione che per idealismo, ma la cosa che li manda davvero in tilt è scoprire, grazie al suddetto reportage, che gran parte di questo spreco viene generato solamente da canoni estetici e dimensionali insensati e del tutto “innaturali”, completamente slegati dall’effettiva qualità e sapore dei prodotti.
Mettici la testardaggine patologica di entrambi, l’incoscienza dei 28 anni, e quel tanto di presunzione per insaporire il tutto, e la frittata – pardon, marmellata – è fatta. Dopo essersi licenziati e aver trascorso mesi di studio e ricerca in giro per le campagne e le aziende agricole italiane, come operai volontari della raccolta o come “infiltrati” all’interno delle grandi cooperative o della grande distribuzione, a gennaio 2018 fondano ufficialmente Bella Dentro.
L’obiettivo (raggiunto!) è quello di ridare il giusto valore, sia ai prodotti ingiustamente scartati, che al lavoro dei produttori che fino ad oggi non si vedevano riconosciuto alcun compenso per questa merce non ammessa sul mercato della grande distribuzione, ritrovandosi costretti a lasciarla sul campo e sprecarla.
Il sistema è molto semplice (a parole!) comprare direttamente dalle aziende agricole di tutta Italia, solo la produzione “Bella Dentro” riconoscendo un prezzo equo, e poi cominciare a rivenderla così come è, nella sua meravigliosa “bruttezza”, a chiunque abbia voglia di fare un acquisto di buon senso, ad un prezzo ovviamente conveniente. Come cominciare? Come combinare i pochi soldi e la necessità di capire in fretta se ci fosse davvero qualcuno disposto a comprare questi scherzi della natura? Come creare un progetto pilota  “agile” ed efficace? Semplice: abbandonando completamente il concetto di comfort, sobrietà, credibilità, serietà e quel briciolo di pudore o orgoglio rimasto, decidendo di mettersi in prima persona a vendere frutta e verdura storta in giro per le strade di Milano su un baraccone traballante a tre ruote interamente ricoperto di erba finta. Ovvio. Ed è così che è nato il più grande incubo dell’automobilista milanese del ventunesimo secolo: L’Ape Bella Dentro (agevoliamo diapositiva). La poderosa Ape Bella Dentro
Fine della storia, o meglio, fine del primo capitolo. Un amante della sintesi avrebbe scritto “due pirla si sono licenziati per vendere frutta bacata su un Apecar”, sarebbe stato egualmente efficace, ma ogni volta che pronunciamo una frase simile un pezzo delle nostre madri muore. Beh, ma quindi? È finita qui? Eh no gente! Il bello (dentro) deve ancora arrivare, anzi, pandemie permettendo, arriva proprio adesso! Realizzato che l’idea funziona e ha del potenziale, è giunto il momento di fare le cose sul serio e pensare in grande. La vita da ambulanti è finita, e siamo pronti per una fissa dimora, a ottobre 2020 apre il PRIMO negozio Bella Dentro di Milano e a giugno 2021 il secondo! (gli haters diranno che ci siamo imborghesiti-ed è vero). Ma non è finita qui! Per poter aumentare sempre più i volumi di frutta e verdura salvati/acquistati dai produttori (senza correre il rischio di sprecarli perché vanno a male prima di riuscire a venderli tutti) e aumentarne ulteriormente il valore non solo economico, ma anche etico-sociale, abbiamo avviato un laboratorio di trasformazione di frutta e verdura imperfetta insieme a quei “belli dentro” de L’Officina Coop Sociale di Codogno (sì, proprio quella Codogno), una meravigliosa realtà produttiva dedita alla formazione e all’impiego lavorativo di ragazzi autistici e altre fragilità…dei veri Belli Dentro insomma! È da questo laboratorio che esce la prima linea di prodotti Belli Dentro: marmellate, conserve, succhi e soprattutto…essiccati!! Dove trovarli? Nei nostri negozi, ovviamente, ma anche sul nostro e-commerce e perché no, in qualche occasione speciale anche sull’Ape Bella Dentro! (Speravate che l’avessimo rottamata eh?!) 

Milan

Bella Dentro

<p>Bella Dentro, born in 2018, saves 'ugly foods' (too small, too big, weirdly coloured, etc.) and gives them a second chance. The company buys directly from farms throughout Italy, recognizing a fair price for agri-food products that do not meet market requirements. They then resell 'ugly' products, to anyone who has the desire to make a sensible purchase, at an affordable price. The organisation has now two stores in Milan. Moreover, to increase the volumes of fruit and vegetables saved / purchased by producers and further increase not only their economic value, but also ethical and social, they have launched a Food Lab for experimenting ways to upcycle 'ugly foods' into new products like jams, juices, and dried fruits, among others. Production is dedicated to the training and employment of autistic children and other vulnerable groups in society. Events organised by the organisation then, offer delicious aperitivo around the city. So far they saved over 83.349 kg of food products. </p>