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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)

Societal Services

Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities

Processing waste streams into fuels such as biogas, biofuels, pellets, etc.

Processing waste into fuel

Derive chemicals and fuels from organic waste matter, for example, wasted fats, grease and oils can be used for biodiesel production. Food waste such as corn starch and sugar cane can be used for PLA (Polylactic Acid) to replace plastic packaging, liquid fats and solid meat products can be used as raw materials in the rendering industry (animal food, cosmetics, soap, etc.).


Derive fuel and materials

Other

Infrastructure

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

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

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility 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

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

Nace Sectors

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

Thematic Areas

      Umwelttechnik vom Feinsten: In unserer hochmodernen Biogasanlage im Berliner Stadtteil Ruhleben vergären wir jedes Jahr fast 70.000 Tonnen Bioabfall zu klimaneutralem Biogas.    
      Effizient und klimafreundlich: BSR-Biogasanlage in Berlin-Ruhleben  Wir nutzen das Gas anschließend zum Betanken unserer gasbetriebenen Müllfahrzeuge, von denen schon 160 auf den Berliner Straßen unterwegs sind. Über 60 Prozent des Berliner Restmülls und Bioabfalls holen wir mit ihnen ab, klimaneutral und rußfrei. Deutschlandweit ist das wohl einmalig.
    
    Modernste Umwelttechnologie mit sauberer Bilanz   Das in unserer Anlage produzierte Biogas zeichnet sich gleich durch mehrere Vorteile aus: Es erspart uns zum einen jedes Jahr den Kauf von rund 2,5 Millionen Litern Diesel. Damit sind wir unabhängiger von schwankenden Kraftstoffpreisen, was uns hilft, unsere Gebühren stabil zu halten. Zum anderen müssen jetzt nur noch wenige Berliner Bioabfälle kompostiert werden, was dem Klima hilft. Denn beim Kompostieren von Bioabfällen in offenen Anlagen, wie es andernorts üblich ist, werden große Mengen Methan und Lachgas freigesetzt. Das sind starke Klimagase, die unsere Atmosphäre enorm belasten. Anders als bei der herkömmlichen Biogasproduktion müssen wir für den Betrieb unserer Anlage auch keine Energiepflanzen wie Mais oder Roggen anbauen. Dadurch bleiben knappe landwirtschaftliche Flächen für die Nahrungsmittelproduktion erhalten. Die viel gescholtene Konkurrenz zwischen Tank und Teller vermeiden wir so.
  Runde Sache: geschlossener Kreislauf bei der Verwertung von Bioabfällen  Wussten Sie schon …  … dass wir durch die Verwertung des Berliner Bioabfalls in unserer Biogasanlage jedes Jahr den Ausstoß von 9.000 Tonnen Kohlendioxid vermeiden? Das ist ungefähr so viel, wie 3.000 Pkw der Mittelklasse im Jahr durchschnittlich ausstoßen.
    
    Wie unsere Biogasanlage funktioniert   Quelle: bioökonomie.de Unsere Anlage zur energetischen Verwertung von Biogut arbeitet nach dem Prinzip des Trockenvergärungsverfahrens. Dabei produzieren Mikroorganismen durch ihren Stoffwechsel aus dem Biogut Biogas. Diese Methode eignet sich optimal für Bioabfälle mit einem Wassergehalt von 58 bis 65 Prozent, wie er vorwiegend in den Küchenresten der Berliner Haushalte vorkommt. Gereinigt, aufbereitet und dadurch konzentriert, besteht unser Biogas zu 98 Prozent aus Methan. Es ist damit chemisch identisch mit Erdgas und kann nach entsprechender Aufbereitung ins Gasnetz eingespeist werden. Auf derzeit drei Betriebshöfen entnehmen wir es dem Netz, um damit an eigenen Gastankstellen unsere gasbetriebenen Müllsammelfahrzeuge zu betanken.
   Aus Bioabfall wird Biogas: So funktioniert die Vergärungsanlage der BSR 
   
    Blick hinter die Kulissen unserer Vergärungsanlage   Unsere Vergärungsanlage für das Berliner Biogut setzt deutschlandweit Maßstäbe in Sachen Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit. Werfen Sie im Video selbst einen Blick hinter die Kulissen der Anlage.
    
   Noch Fragen? Wir sind für Sie da!   
  

Berlin

Municipality of Berlin

Organic waste management is heavy on emissions due to two factors: the collection vehicles are typically powered by gas or diesel, and composting is one of the most emitting parts of traditional waste management. The city of Berlin installed its own anaerobic digestion plant to create biofuel that powers the city's collection vehicles. This makes the city less subject on fuel prices and minimises the amount of open composting that is necessary. At the same time, it saves 9000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, and produces biogas that is not in competition with food production over land and resource use.

Berlin turns waste into biofuel for municipal use

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

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

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

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

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

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

Inform

Implement innovation programmes

'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

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

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Reuse

Maintain and repair city-owned spaces and infrastructure to increase longevity, and support opportunities for residents to do the same for privately owned items and property

Support reuse, repair, remanufacturing, maintenance of existing resources, products, spaces & infrastructure

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

Businesses

Governments

City Stakeholders

In 2013, the City-State of Berlin launched a pilot project with the aim of encouraging greater reuse of recycled concrete in building construction. A total volume of around 5,400m3 of certified ‘circular economy’ recycled concrete was used in the construction of a slurry wall and building shell of the new life science laboratory building at the Humboldt University. In comparison with concrete made from primary aggregates, the recycled concrete alternative saved 880m2 of virgin gravel, 66% of the energy required for production and transport, and 7% of the associated CO2 emissions.

Recycling concrete in building construction in Berlin

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

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

Biodiversity

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


Construction and Infrastructure

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

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

Water and Sewage

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Legislation

Review and update regulation

 Spatial Planning

**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

Communities

Water system refers to the water supply network for storing and supplying water for use by the community.

One of the greatest challenges of a city is to provide its inhabitants with safe, clean water from a limited fresh water supply. Improving the city’s water infrastructure efficiency, such as minimising leakages, reduces the strain put on the limited supply, which in turn, helps to ensure inhabitants gain access to clean and affordable water.

The water infrastructure of a city typically consists of components such as surface water diversions, wells, pumps, transmission pipes and canals, treatment and storage facilities, and distribution network elements (Burian et al.). Options for improving the efficiency of the system include investing in water loss reduction systems, creating and following a regular maintenance program, and better matching water supply and demand (Global Water Partnership).

Cities can improve the efficiency of their water system infrastructure by conducting a water audit, in which all water flows are traced and losses in the system are identified to map where the most efficiency improvements can be gained. Alongside this, asset management can be used to create a short-term and long-term strategy of investing in new equipment, refurbishing existing equipment and developing maintenance programmes to ensure infrastructure is as efficient as possible, and leaks are minimised. Such management programmes create financial transparency amongst all stakeholders and provide useful long-term planning for larger infrastructure changes (US EPA)

💧 Water Systems

Cities worldwide are facing significant water-related challenges, including urban water runoffs, flooding, reduced water quality and severe water scarcity—exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and more frequent extreme weather events. On top of this, urban water runoff continues to be a major cause of water pollution in urban areas, carrying trash, bacteria, and other pollutants through gutters and stormwater systems into local waterways, typically without treatment.

City governments can pursue a “sponge city” approach by redesigning the urban fabric and integrating blue and green infrastructure (BGI) (e.g. rain gardens, permeable pavements, storage ponds, etc.) along traditional grey infrastructure (e.g. pipe networks, storage tanks, flood walls). This can help to absorb, store, filter and purify these water flows, in turn replenishing aquifers, reducing the need for expanding grey water management and minimising flood risk, while also reducing the heat island effect. 

Cities can do so by, for example, integrating requirements for BGI into municipal urban planning rules for newly built up areas of city districts, industrial parks and development zones, and integrating sponge city building requirements into municipal urban planning rules. Then, local governments could also strengthen collaboration between all relevant stakeholders—from real estate developers to engineers, to water-utility organisations—to identify locally relevant opportunities for sponge cities. 


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💧  Blue and green infrastructure for sustainable urban drainage

 If you’re like me and have never heard of the term “sponge city” before, then you might have a strange image of skyscrapers covered in small kitchen sponges in your head (which would be wrong, BTW). So for those who are familiar with the term, allow me a moment to discuss the origins of this phenomenon before focusing in on Berlin. A sponge city, simply put, is a city that absorbs rainwater through a series of green infrastructural projects rather than an impermeable system across which rainwater runs into storm drains. It promotes natural measures that allow the water system of the city to operate more naturally and, well, like a sponge (Li et al. 2017). This concept made its way into the limelight after China launched a programme in 2014, starting with the goal of adapting 16 cities across the country, before a further 14 were added in 2016. Since then, this idea has spread around the world and Berlin has become of the latest places to embark upon transitioning into a sponge city.  The main issues that a sponge city aims to eradicate include an urban flooding, the degradation of urban ecosystems and, most importantly for Berlin, the urban heat island effect (World Future Council, 2016). Berlin, like many other European cities, has been experiencing more and more heatwaves and rainstorms in recent years due to worsening climate change. A plan was therefore created to plant green infrastructure across the rooftops of the city and prevent storm drain buildup by increasing the permeability of pavements (Zimmerman, 2016).  Figures 1 & 2: Examples of courtyard and roof greening in Berlin (Velazquez, 2017) What steps have been taken? Building owners have been encouraged to re-green courtyards of apartment blocks, and plant grasses and mosses on rooftops to absorb rainwaterMore ponds and wetlands are being established across the citySwales have been installed at the side of roads in place of a storm sewer system.  The overarching goal of the scheme is simply to keep water within the city. Carlo Becker, the architect for the sponge city scheme has said that rainwater is too useful a resource to allow it to flow out of Berlin, and instead should be allowed to absorb into green infrastructure, before evaporating and producing a natural cooling effect (Bloomberg Quicktake, 2017). Rummelsberg, a neighbourhood that was developed around 20 years ago, has become a key example of how Berlin can best adapt to climate change. The area has 6-8cm deep green roofs on all buildings, and an 80cm deep layer of soil under buildings and pavements. There is also an intricate swale network, to allow rainwater to run into vegetation at the sites of the road rather than storm drains (Bloomberg Quicktake, 2017). Rummelsberg was therefore somewhat of a pioneer for the city in regards to green infrastructure, but today there are city wide management schemes being undertaken to replicate these positive effects across all of Berlin (Lui & Jenson, 2018).  This has been an introduction to the concept of sponge cities and how Berlin is making this transition, and next week I’ll be looking more at the players involved with this movement. Who is most benefiting from the scheme? I’ll also be looking at how successful the green infrastructure has actually been and discuss whether this is the future for all urban areas.  

Figure 2: Berlin is becoming a sponge city (Bloomberg Quicktake, 2017) References Bloomberg Quicktake (2017) Berlin is becoming a sponge city. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWjGGvY65jk. Last accessed: 03/12/20 Griffiths, M; Spooner, S; Brueckmann, S & Theochari, D. (2017). Berlin, Germany: Sponge City- Preparing for a hotter climate. EC Link Working Papers. p. 1-4. Li, H; Ding, L; Ren, M; Li, C & Wang, H. (2017). Sponge City Construction in China: A Survey of the Challenges and Opportunities. Water. 9 (9), 594.  Lui, L & Jenson, M. (2018). Green infrastructure for sustainable urban water management: Practices of five forerunner cities. Cities. 74, p. 126-133. Velazquez, L. (2017). Register Now and Become a Part of the World Green Infrastructure Congress 2017 in Berlin, by the FBB. Available: https://www.greenroofs.com/2017/04/26/register-now-and-become-a-part-of-the-world-green-infrastructure-congress-2017-in-berlin-by-the-fbb/. Last accessed 03/12/20. World Future Council. (2016). Sponge Cities: What is it all about?. Available: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/sponge-cities-what-is-it-all-about/. Last accessed 2/12/20. Zimmermann, N. (2016). Sponge City: Berlin plans for a hotter climate. Available: https://www.dw.com/en/sponge-city-berlin-plans-for-a-hotter-climate/a-19420517. Last accessed 02/12/20. 

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A sponge city, simply put, is a city that absorbs rainwater through a series of green infrastructural projects rather than an impermeable system across which rainwater runs into storm drains. It promotes natural measures that allow the water system of the city to operate more naturally. This concept made its way into the limelight after China launched a programme in 2014, starting with the goal of adapting 16 cities across the country, before a further 14 were added in 2016. Since then, this idea has spread around the world and Berlin has become of the latest places to embark upon transitioning into a sponge city. The main issues that a sponge city aims to eradicate include an urban flooding, the degradation of urban ecosystems and, most importantly for Berlin, the urban heat island effect. Berlin, like many other European cities, has been experiencing more and more heatwaves and rainstorms in recent years due to worsening climate change. A plan was therefore created to plant green infrastructure across the rooftops of the city and prevent storm drain buildup by increasing the permeability of pavements.

Berlin: A Sponge City

Berlin - Revealing an untapped resource

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Starter Kit collection

Business case

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

Increase Awareness

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

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

Innovation

Scalability

Operating networks and software that enable the exchange and broadcasting of information, such as entertainment and internet software, television, cable, satellite or radio broadcasting systems, and cellular, wireless and/or fixed-line telecommunications services

Software and Communications

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

Construction and Real Estate Services

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

Use waste as a resource

Recover waste energy or generate fuels and energy from waste streams

Energy recovery from waste

Recovering and reusing waste heat, gas, etc. for energy

Recovery and reuse of waste energy

Data, knowledge & information sharing

Increase standardised data collection

Research and facilitate new technological developments to aid the transition to a circular economy.

Research and Development

Conduct research

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

We welcome innovators, dreamers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and researchers who are creating tangible solutions to urban issues. Through becoming a member of our community you will join our ecosystem of shared resources, knowledge, and practical solutions to accelerate the transition towards circular cities.

The technology enabling the capturing of the energy potential of wastewater heat is no innovation. Nonetheless, this energy source is mostly overlooked in European cities, as portraying and making this potential&nbsp;is no urban standard yet.&nbsp;During its participation in the REFLOW project, Berlin developed a web application that allows urban planners, real estate developers, and architects to identify the locations with the greatest potential for capturing heat from wastewater.&nbsp;

REFLOW

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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October. Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.

World Circular Textiles Day

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Article / Report

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

Jobs

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

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

Productivity

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

REFLOW was an EU Horizon 2020 innovation action project running from 2019 to 2022, with the aim to increase circularity in European cities. Through REFLOW, the 28 project partners developed a range of solutions to make the material flows more circular within the six pilot cities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan, Cluj-Napoca, Paris, and Vejle. The cities' social, environmental, and economic impact was assessed, and a range of solutions enabling the circular transition were developed through active citizen involvement. The project combined the expertise of the project partners spanning municipalities, scientific and research institutions, technology providers, design and grassroot organisations, and small and medium-sized enterprises.