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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

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)

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

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

Use waste as a resource

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

Solidify definitions and create frameworks to support the understanding of the circular economy across contexts and maintain cohesive systems of data sharing, processing and storing.


 Knowledge Management

Data, knowledge & information sharing

Raise awareness and run information campaigns about  strategies for and impacts of the circular economy in different contexts.

Communication and awareness

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

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


Design and regulate for separation and recovery

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

Governments

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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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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Schoolteacher Marta Pérez stands in front of her house near the solar thermo panel that has allowed her and her family to enjoy hot water again, because the high cost of electricity made it unaffordable in the past. There are a total of 70 beneficiaries of the solar water heater project in the town of Renca, to the north of Santiago, Chile. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPSby Orlando Milesi (santiago)Friday, October 29, 2021Inter Press ServiceSANTIAGO, Oct 29 (IPS) - More than 90 percent of Chile's 17.5 million people have access to electricity. But many live in energy poverty because they do not have access to hot water, have unsafe connections, houses without thermal insulation and with indoor pollution, or can't afford to pay the monthly bill.This description came from Nicola Borregaard, who holds a PhD in natural resource economics and is manager of EBP Chile, a sustainability consultancy in the field of energy, water resources and climate change. The consultancy takes on projects that range from strategic to concrete initiatives that reflect what is happening around the country.Borregaard is promoting a Latin American energy inclusion programme (PIE) that aims to address energy poverty reflected in low thermal comfort, high energy costs, risk of fire and electrocution, respiratory diseases and lack of access to clean energy.She explained in an interview with IPS that the consultancy applies financial engineering to address the needs and requirements with alliances and connections through networks with different actors, in order to make the projects viable.In Chile "we are very close to reaching 100 percent access to electricity. This does not always mean that people have access 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many have intermittent access that lasts a couple of hours, with interruptions," she said.For Borregaard, energy poverty is a multifaceted issue and is not only overcome by having access to electricity."More than 10 percent of the population does not have access to hot water. And there is no electrical safety.... in many homes there is a risk of electrocution and fire due to poor installations," she said.She added that "66 percent of homes do not have adequate thermal insulation. They suffer from heat and cold and spend on heating and air conditioning. The most vulnerable do not have adequate houses and suffer from the heat. And there are no parks in most of their municipalities.""The other kind of energy poverty is the inability to afford to pay the bill which often is huge, with as much as 20 percent of a family's income going towards electricity and gas," she added.The picture is completed "with indoor pollution because many people heat with coal, wood or kerosene in very small spaces and this contributes to respiratory diseases."Solar water heatersMarta Pérez, a 50-year-old primary school teacher, lives with her parents in the low-income Nueva Victoria neighbourhood in the municipality of Renca, on the northern outskirts of Santiago, some 22 kilometres from the city."I had health problems. We have an electric water heater, but because the bills were so high we disconnected it….but because the water was so cold I got pneumonia. I got really sick. That was until last year when they installed a solar thermal panel in my house. Since December I have been using hot water to bathe," she told IPS at her home.Her family used to pay 125 dollars a month on their electricity bill, but now they pay 75 dollars a month. In Renca, the project installed 40 solar systems consisting of a solar panel and a tank that holds 80 litres of hot water.Each beneficiary family paid approximately 250 dollars for the installation and received the thermo panel - which costs 1,125 dollars - as a donation.A total of 70 households made up of 292 people received five types of energy improvements aimed at energy efficient homes. In addition to the thermo panels, other families received refrigeration and thermal insulation systems for their homes."I wish that all of Chile could have access to a solar thermo panel, and that they could become widespread for showers and basic needs. It is the energy of the future and takes advantage of what we have most: sunlight," said Pérez."And I hope they soon install solar panels on the rooftops because it cuts down the electric bill and harnesses the sun's energy for power. We must use sources such as wind, geothermal and solar energy. That would be a present with a vision for the future of humanity," said the kindergarten teacher. On two hectares of this rugged land in Rungue, a town of 1,200 inhabitants some 54 km from the Chilean capital, a community Renewable Energy Cooperative hopes to install rows of solar panels close to the electricity grid in order to transfer the surplus. The 50 kW photovoltaic plant will generate 102,000 kWh per year and will initially lift 40 families out of energy poverty. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPSCooperative to the rescueIn Rungue, a village 54 kilometres north of Santiago, EBP Chile promoted the creation of a cooperative for low-income households to install a community solar plant.The solar panel plant will have a nominal capacity of 50 kW and will generate 102,000 kWh per year, providing energy for 40 households."We started two years ago, with the encouragement of a pioneer, to help alleviate the costs paid by the most vulnerable families," said Leandro Astudillo, the 41-year-old manager of the Rungue Renewable Energy Cooperative.At a meeting with IPS in Rungue, he explained that "based on people familiar with the needs of local residents, the Cooperative organised people born and raised in this community. The Neighbourhood Council, the school's Parents' Centre, the Housing Centre, the sports club and Rural Potable Water are represented, all of them sensitised to the project.""We have already registered 40 families who will benefit. Priority was given to senior citizens who have very small pensions and to people who find it difficult to pay their electric bill. Also to women and single mothers with large families," he explained.Each beneficiary is supposed to pay a little over 300 dollars, but the Cooperative is taking steps to waive this payment and reduce each beneficiary's monthly contribution to zero.The dry, arid village is still suffering the consequences of a metal refining plant called Refimet, which is no longer operating but contaminated with arsenic the waters of a dam and reservoir built in the 1950s for the irrigation of local agriculture.Rungue is home to 1,200 people who mainly work in nearby companies and in several markets set up in the area, because there is almost no local agricultural production anymore. View of the Santiago Solar Photovoltaic Park near Rungue, on the freeway linking the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso in central Chile, which the members of the local renewable energy cooperative are seeking to partially imitate. The Park takes advantage of the strong sunlight in the area by means of 33,600 solar panels installed on 202 hectares, with nine MW of power and a generation capacity of 210 GWh. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPSEnergy inclusion and clean sourcesTo address the energy insecurity in Renca, Rungue and numerous other Chilean localities, Borregaard proposes an energy inclusion programme aimed at affordable, sustainable, safe, equitable and clean energy."Energy inclusion implies identifying, networking, implementing concrete projects, fomenting and promoting. The idea is to scale all of these up," she said.The EBN programme, she said, "is carried out in partnership with several institutions, including the Swiss Embassy, the Energy Poverty Network (RedPE), the EGEA (Emprendimientos y Generación de Energías Alternativas - Alternative Energies Generation and Ventures) foundation, and numerous companies in the energy sector, including ENEL (an energy holding company) and AME (focused on solar energy and gas)."Borregaard explained that "energy inclusion projects seek to democratise investment in renewable energy, accelerate the energy transition, reduce energy consumption and costs, encourage investment in projects with an environmental impact and contribute to sustainable development."Non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE) represent 24.5 percent of Chile's energy mix. In September 2021 they accounted for 31.8 percent of electricity generation. In total there were 2071 GWh of generation, of which 952 came from solar power and 767 from wind power.Installed NCRE capacity totalled 10,842 MW in September.Distributed or decentralised generation, which allows self-generation of energy based on NCREs and efficient cogeneration, reached 95.3 MW in August in 8759 installations throughout Chile, of which 2354 are in Santiago.Borregaard proposes raising the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction tax from five to 30 dollars for each ton of polluting gas emitted to generate offset projects or finance pilot initiatives such as those of Renca, Rungue or similar ones.Other ongoing initiativesOne example of such projects is a community modular refrigeration plant on Juan Fernandez Island, 800 kilometres off the coast of the city of Valparaiso in central Chile.It consists of a refrigeration system using solar energy to preserve marine products and foment sustainable artisanal fishing. It was built in conjunction with the Confederation of Artisanal Fishermen of Chile and is aimed at the conservation of lobsters, fish, octopus, and crab.The facilities have 3015 Watts of installed power and the refrigeration chamber is 10 cubic metres with 1.5 HP equipment.In towns near Mamiña, in the desert region of Tarapacá in the extreme north of the country, there is an adaptive infrastructure project to promote community resilience and optimise the management of resources, based on water, energy and waste.In the indigenous communities of Quipisca and Macaya, near the Cerro Colorado mine in the same region, the plan is to install solar panel systems to exchange surplus energy.Monitoring systems and flexible battery systems are aimed at reducing the cost of energy, providing access to clean energy efficiently and generating new ventures.In all the localities where the projects are being carried out, the objective is the same: to provide greater autonomy and reduce energy poverty through community empowerment and improved resource management capacity in this long, narrow South American country sandwiched between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean.© Inter Press Service (2021) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service Related news  Latest news  In-depth Read the latest news stories:Carbon Tax Over-Rated Tuesday, November 09, 2021UNs Indispensable Partners Barred from Entering Secretariat Building Monday, November 08, 2021Optimizing Sustainable Groundwater Management Calls for a System Thinking Approach Monday, November 08, 2021Ethiopia: Future of Tigray and Horn of Africa ‘in grave uncertainty’ Monday, November 08, 2021Myanmar: 3 million in need of humanitarian aid, ‘world is watching’ UN relief chief warns generals Monday, November 08, 2021A Possible Childcare Solution Monday, November 08, 2021A matter of life or death: At COP26, vulnerable countries tell developed nations it’s time to keep their promise on climate finance Monday, November 08, 2021Rights experts urge Singapore to halt execution of man with mental disability Monday, November 08, 2021Half World’s Population, Exposed to Floods, Storms, Tsunamis, by 2030 Monday, November 08, 2021UN system generated 25% fewer greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 Monday, November 08, 2021Share thisBookmark or share this with others using some popular social bookmarking web sites: Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp RedditLink to this page from your site/blogAdd the following HTML code to your page:<p><a href="https://www.globalissues.org/news/2021/10/29/29209">Combating Energy Poverty in Chile with Community Inclusion</a>, <cite>Inter Press Service</cite>, Friday, October 29, 2021 (posted by Global Issues)</p>… to produce this:Combating Energy Poverty in Chile with Community Inclusion, Inter Press Service, Friday, October 29, 2021 (posted by Global Issues)

New York

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NYSERDA

<p>The New York&nbsp;State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) provides a Model Solar Energy Local Law, intended to be an “all-inclusive” ordinance to allow for a thorough review of all aspects of solar energy systems under typical zoning and land use regulation. It also provides information for local governments and landowners on the decommissioning of large-scale solar panel systems.</p>