Smart City Lab Basel

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Starter Kit collection

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 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

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

Productivity

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)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Providing specialist services to support consumers, businesses, andgovernments

Professional Services

Societal Services

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Producing and providing services that utilise the creative talent of individuals to generate intellectual property, including movies and television shows, music, live performances, advertising, marketing or public relations services, newspapers, magazines and books, and commercial printing services

Creative Services

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

The Value Chain opportunity space covers the activities of businesses across the whole value chain in the creation of a circular city that aids circular consumption. Municipalities create enabling conditions for businesses to offer circular products and services, and can become familiar with the range of solutions available to businesses that will encourage circular consumption and production in their locale. 

VALUE CHAINS

'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

Crowdsourcing and challenge mechanisms

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

Incentivise

 Direct Financial Support

Incubator and investment programmes

 Spatial Planning

Living labs

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

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Rethink

Facilitate cross-collaboration by engaging city departments, industries and businesses on ambitious, closed-loop circular projects.

Support closed-loop systems and cross-sectoral synergies

Businesses

Governments

Water is not only at the core of different public services cities provide, including application and sanitation, water also acts as a carrier of nutrients and energy which can benefit other urban systems. However, Global demand for freshwater will exceed viable resources by 40% by 2030, if we continue with business as usual ([ARUP](https://www.arup.com/-/media/arup/files/publications/w/water_and_circular_economy_whitepaper.pdf)). Exploring the synergistic link between water, food and energy in urban systems becomes central to sustainable development and the sustainable management of water. Urban changemakers in all three areas should start taking a more holistic approach to water management—from water resource management, to ecosystem protection and water supply and sanitation ([UN Water](https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-food-and-energy/)).

Bringing circularity within the food-water-energy nexus means recognising all urban water flows—drinking water, stormwater, wastewater and source water—as potential resources for use across these three sectors. Circular water systems can maximise synergies between food water and energy systems by protecting water availability to maintain agricultural production in water scarce regions, or by recovering energy from wastewater treatment, replacing fossil fuels used for cooking or heating. Solid organic matter, or biosolids, recovered from a sewage treatment can also be used as a fertiliser, preventing harmful chemicals from polluting water streams so that water sources are clean and safe to drink.

Local governments can govern the food-water-energy nexus by looking holistically at the city’s infrastructure. They can update city plans to integrate Green Blue Infrastructure (GBI) which can provide tangible benefits to each dimension of the food-water-energy nexus. Parks, green walls, waterways and greenways can, for example, provide food, water, fibre and fuel to support the urban ecosystem. Moreover, bringing different actors together, from the department of water resources, food safety, as well as energy and planning, is at the heart of any form of integrated planning. To spur cross-sectoral collaboration, for instance, cities can convene different actors on dedicated platforms and facilitate effective communication between different city departments and public organisations. Embedding a nexus strategy in municipal policy may lay a foundation for cross departmental budgeting and program implementation.


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💧 🍏 ⚡  Supporting solutions that maximise synergies between food water and energy systems

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

Urban Opportunities

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

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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“Smart City: SBB’s contribution.” offers detailed information on smart city approaches and can be found here: Download PDF Smart City Lab Basel. Innovations come about when different parties gather together to share their skills and pool their knowledge: the Smart City Lab Basel links up partners from the worlds of business, science and administration, as well as interested members of the public, to form one community.  Together, its members experiment, learn from one another and develop new ideas and projects for a smart district and a smart Switzerland of tomorrow. Technical specialists and innovation experts support the community in its endeavours. The Smart City Lab Basel is a space for testing ideas, prototypes and services in the areas of mobility, logistics and more. It brings smart solutions to life, both for experts and interested members of the public, and discusses these with a wide audience at public events. The lab, which is a joint initiative by SBB and the Canton of Basel Stadt, is located on the Wolf site close to Basel SBB station. Some 160,000 m2 will be available for the pioneering application by 2024. Smart City Lab Basel Website  Why does SBB operate in the Smart city sector? Welcoming over 1.26 million passengers per day, SBB is the most important transport provider for the smart cities of tomorrow. The company operates its own electricity grid including seven power stations, and produces a large amount of the energy it needs itself. As much as 90 percent of this power is already produced using renewable resources, a figure which is set to rise to 100 percent by 2020. As the driving force of Swiss public transport and an environmental pioneer among European rail companies, SBB is playing an important role in the mobility of the future. With modern development and infrastructure projects, SBB is making an important contribution to turning Switzerland into a more attractive and competitive country. As a mobility service provider and real estate developer, the company serves as a successful interface between spatial planning and traffic management, making it a key driving force behind a smart Switzerland.
   

The city of Basel is championing the transition towards a circular economy. Through the Circular Cities Switzerland project, Circle Economy and ecos, guided municipal officials and local businesses through a Circle City Scan process to create a strong narrative for cities to engage in the circular economy, by demonstrating economic and commercial feasibility, as well as clear social and environmental benefits. The project has been supported by the MAVA Foundation. The collaborative Circle City Scan process has highlighted the potential to promote circularity in Basel, such as developing a digital marketplace for secondary construction materials to boost local value creation through material cycling, catalysing circular innovations through establishing a circular living lab in a neighbourhood, as well as reducing plastic waste through reusable food container scheme, among other initiatives. The documents below present the methodology, results and conclusions of each phase of the Circle City Scan process.

Basel

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The Smart City Lab Basel connects partners to a community and is a space for testing ideas, prototypes and services in the areas of logistics, mobility and more.

Building and Transport Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt

SBB AG

<p>The Smart City Lab Basel connects partners with a community and provides a space for testing ideas, prototypes and services in the areas of logistics, mobility and more. The lab allows experts and interested members of the public to experience smart solutions for a circular economy.</p>