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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 quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Producing transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

Societal Services

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Other

Data, knowledge & information sharing

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

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Rethink

Businesses

Governments

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

Policies

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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

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

City Stakeholders

 Glasgow is demonstrating how cities can harness data that is already available but not yet universally accessible, and data that will be available in the future from sensors and smart devices such as Intelligent Street Lights. It has set its sight on a world where data from across the city is published as "open by default" - from real time traffic system data to large (more static) datasets about the built environment. As the shop window, the Data Catalogue provides users with the means to discover and gain access to raw ingredients - data. And like a shopper in a supermarket, users do not need to worry about how the content got there.
 Behind the scenes many Open Data Catalogues typically rely on people taking copies of data as files and manually uploading the files to the catalogue. It’s equivalent to a shop-keeper collecting his produce from all of his suppliers one-by-one. It’s fine if there isn’t much to carry and there aren’t many places to go to, but if there is a lot of content, a lot of destinations and a lot of change, it isn’t sustainable. Like in retail, if we want open data at a city-scale, where organisations are publishing their operational data (which is currently managed within their own mission-critical IT systems) as open by default, where more and more real-time data is available from smart devices, we needed to build a distribution centre for data (a “data hub”).  GLASGOW HAD to innovate and THINK BIG. No off-the-shelf solutions were available. Through the Future Cities Demonstrator, the city now has a data hub that allows organisations to automate the publication of their data, allows it to be stored and makes it available on a large scale so that it is easy to access via the catalogue. It helps make the publication of open data sustainable for all in the city. An example of this scale and the value it can provide is traffic data. The data hub platform is currently collecting data from 800 vehicle sensors embedded within traffic junctions in the city. These 800 sensors generate a total of 3Mbytes per minute. Historically our data catalogue just provided access to the latest file. Using the data hub platform we now store the history so that people can analyse traffic flow trends across the whole city over time more easily, allowing them to correlate it against other datasets such as weather events, disruption to public transport, major events in the city. But that’s not all. The data hub is designed to provide value to data users and developers, not just publishers. It provides advanced tools to help make data more accessible (for example through application programming interfaces (APIs), more visual, and provides advanced “Big Data” analytics technology which allows people to undertake complex analysis of the various datasets it makes available). From a technology perspective, the Platform uses some of the most advanced technologies and major industry trends available; bringing together Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics (Hadoop, Machine Learning) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The Platform is built to be modular so it can be expanded by developers using APIs, and where appropriate we have used open source to facilitate collaborative development. For example, the data catalogue itself uses an off-the-shelf open source product that should allow Glasgow to share development with other cities (and vice versa). We can make use of open-source software for these user interfaces to create opportunities for innovation and for sharing with other cities. 

Glasgow

Municipality of Glasgow

Funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board, Open Glasgow is a platform for the development of a Smart city in Glasgow. It should provide data to entrepreneurs, industries and businesses allowing them to create circular/smart opportunities.

Open Glasgow

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

Biodiversity

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

Producing building materials and finished and semi-finished building products for construction

Construction Materials and Products

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

Develop regenerative infrastructure

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

**Harmonize with nature** by promoting infrastructure, production systems and sourcing that allows natural ecosystems to thrive




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Regenerate

Prioritize solutions that use the power of functioning ecosystems as infrastructure to provide natural services to benefit society and the environment; consider nature-based replacements for grey infrastructure.

Promote solutions inspired and supported by nature

Ensure that infrastructure and built assets in the city are designed and upgraded to be as resource-efficient as possible.

Design infrastructure and the built environment for resource efficiency

           Transforming the canal corridor between Firhill and Port Dundas.        The project has two parts along the canal corridor between Firhill and Port Dundas. The Clay Pits Local Nature Reserve (LNR) project will change a 10ha derelict site into a Local Nature Reserve with a barrier free path and boardwalk network, mountain bike trail, disabled access fishing pegs, re-designed gateway entrances, viewpoints, and a feature canal pedestrian bridge linking Maryhill and Woodside communities with the Clay Pits and linking Hamiltonhill and Possilpark with Woodside and Maryhill. The other part of the project provides the surface water drainage solution for the regeneration of key vacant and derelict sites including Sighthill, Hamiltonhill and Cowlairs through dynamically managing the water level in the canal to provide flood storage.  This is an exemplar project where blue-green infrastructure underpins regeneration.       Caption Colin Watson talking about the Green Infrastructure project at Claypits LNR in Glasgow  Duration 01:36  
 Where did the idea for the project come from? Friends of Possilpark Greenspace was established in December 2008 by local people with the aim of tackling substantial blight of vacant and derelict sites in the area.  A Place-making workshop was held in 2011 at which local residents expressed an overwhelming desire to have a 'wild park' in this part of north Glasgow focused around the former Claypits area.       Robert Alston, Claypits Management Committee discussing the Green Infrastructure project at the Claypits LNR, Glasgow  Duration 01:15  
 How communities have helped us develop our ideas? The project partners held a charrette in 2015 which was a result of increased interest in the canal-side area and the claypits.  The charrette was very successful and since then the partners have been working behind the scene to try and bring a realistic project proposal and funding strategy forward. In 2014 a different charette at Port Dundas highlighted the support for green and blue infrastructure to play a key role in the regeneration of the area and to connect a Sustainable Drainage System to the canal. How our project fits into the bigger picture       Flood risk reduction through green infrastructure solutions  Duration 01:44  
 The Claypits LNR is an important part of Scottish Canals strategy of revitalising the Scottish canal network. North Glasgow has some of the worst SIMD statistics in Scotland and beyond. The NGIWMS is an exemplar blue-green infrastructure project that is at the international cutting edge of how to manage surface water and flood risk within the urban environment. The primary innovation is the strategy to dynamically manage the level of water both within the canal spine but also within each WMA, based on the concept of lowering the water level in advance of a severe storms based on predictive weather forecasting. This has the significant advantage of allowing water to be retained within SuDS features during normal weather conditions as the volume occupied by the water can be used for flood storage when the water level if lowered. This greater presence of surface water adds to place making and urban cooling compared to more traditional SuDS where flood storage areas require to remain dry during normal conditions. The green and blue infrastructure in this project will fit into the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership. This project’s ‘sister’ project at Greater Easterhouse is also part of the Strategic Drainage Partnership. How will the project improve the local area? The NGIWMS significantly improves biodiversity through the creation of new and varied habitats, primarily associated with blue-green infrastructure fingers that will extend from the canal corridor to introduce surface water into the heart of regeneration sites. The fingers will form a linked habitat network and wetland margins along which flora and fauna can move, helping extend the canal corridor link between the rural environment and the heart of the city. This ecosystem service will mitigate the predicted increase in rainfall and intensity associated with climate change. The diversion of surface water away from the combined sewer network will also help regulate water quality by reducing the frequency and magnitude of combined sewer overflows into rivers and watercourses during heavy rain. The proposal will bring a significant part of inner city Glasgow into a management regime to ensure users of the area use the LNR appropriately. At present the site suffers from fly-tipping and anti-social activities.  Increasing activities and management of the space will make the area safer for users and through habitat management will enable wildlife and ecology to thrive. These initiatives will bolster efforts aimed at redeveloping parts of inner-north Glasgow and relieve pressure on greenfield sites.      Duration 01:58 Sighthill Update Drone Footage (August 2020)  
  Last updated:09/07/2021
             

Glasgow, Scotland, is building a “smart canal” system to manage stormwater; the system is harmonized with/connected to a nature preserve, which creates green space and protects biodiversity.

Smart canals manage water in Glasgow

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Article / Report

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Scalability

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 and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

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

Reduce Energy Consumption

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy

Develop infrastructure to support sustainable lifestyles

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

Institutional design to enable circularity

Participatory governance mechanisms

Cross-departmental collaboration and engagement

Advocate for circular change

Monitoring & enforcement

Review and update regulation

Compact city development

Site planning for circular material use

Circular use of public-owned assets (land, buildings and equipment)

Maintenance to extend useful life

Awareness raising events

Other legislation

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Amsterdam

Copenhagen

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Municipality of Copenhagen

Municipality of Amsterdam

Utrecht University

Cities play a central role in the circular economy (CE) as they are important centres of production and consumption, responsible for 80% of global GDP. European cities are particularly important due to their position of power in the global economy as major markets and places of industrial and social innovation. Yet urban CE policies and discourses remain poorly researched and understood. This paper addresses this research gap by analysing and comparing the CE policies and discourses in different European cities to draw critical insights and recommendations. It does so by first reviewing academic literature on urban CE policies to develop a new conceptual framework to analyse CE discourses and policies. This framework is then used to analyse and compare the CE policies of three European cities: Glasgow, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. Results show that technocentric approaches to CE are dominant in the three cities. Moreover, they have very limited social justice policies for a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of a CE transition. Key policy recommendations to address these shortcomings are thus proposed. The insights brought about by this paper are valuable for both practitioners and academics seeking to improve urban CE policies.

Sustainable circular cities? Analysing urban circular economy policies in Amsterdam, Glasgow, and Copenhagen


The Vision for 2020 is a Glasgow that benefits from an improved environment,
and through education and awareness actions recycle more and reduce the waste
sent to landfill. The themes include the improvement in the way to communicate
with residents, visitors and business about the importance of recycling and
reducing waste; the attendance to community events to support and promote
recycling; the development of infrastructure to increase waste efficiency of
Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre; the maximization of opportunities
to recycle at Blockchain Materials Reclamation Facility; the enhancement of
"Recycling on the go" facilities across the city centre; and the
identification of 50 new public recycling points.



Cleansing and waste strategy & action plan 2015-2020

Glasgow's current Strategic Development Plan (SDP) is based around the four
planning outcomes contained in National Planning Framework 3 namely, a
Successful and Sustainable Place, a Low Carbon Place, a Natural, Resilient
Place and a Connected Place.

