The city of Amsterdam is facilitating and suporting the development of a previously industrial region in Amsterdam Noord, into a sustainable and circular district. The instruments with which the municipality wants to fulfill its sustainability ambition includes: free energy advice, land issue, layout of public space, mobility, financing and collaboration.

Circular district Buiksloterham

The Waste Implementation Plan contains three key points: (1) data-driven
cleaning (street cleaning teams will no longer work according to fixed
schedules and routes, but will make use of real-time data; (2) shared
responsibility with businesses and residents to keep their surroundings tidy;
and (3) smarter methods.



Waste Implementation Plan

Amsterdam offers energy loans to tenants and households, landlords and VvEs in
Amsterdam. This loan is intended for investments in energy saving and
sustainable energy such as double glazing, solar panels and floor and roof
insulation. The loan has an attractive low interest rate.



Energy Loan

The municipality of Amsterdam introduced the Puccini Method as a framework for the design of public spaces in Amsterdam.The city designs all its streets, squares and public gardens with it.&nbsp;The method has adopted a set of sustainability standards. Following the Puccini Method, any procurement should adopt at least the Piano sustainability criteria. The Puccini method stands for a high-quality, physical layout of the public space.&nbsp;A design that is user-friendly, accessible, safe, manageable, sustainable, affordable, coherent and beautiful.This standard for the Amsterdam street scene consists of a policy framework and 2 technical manuals. The&nbsp;Puccini Method Policy Framework&nbsp;is based on 5 beliefs:- the user benefits from simplicity and obviousness- craft at every scale level- durability- best practices and innovation- collaboration

Adoption of Puccini Method for Sustainability standards and Sustainable Procurement in Amsterdam

The Circular Innovation Program 2016-2018 provides insight into the most important innovation projects and developments in the city in the field of Circular Economy and the way the City of Amsterdam anticipates it. The programme contains a framework of innovation processes.

Amsterdam's Circular Innovation programme

In Amsterdam, a decentralised alternative has been developed for an improved separate sewer system. That alternative is not only cheaper; the cleaner effluent means that it is also better. In the project on Erasmusgracht, rainwater is discharged into a separate sedimentation reservoir in the canal, after which it passes through the helophyte filter. It is subsequently discharged into the canal. The pilot project shows that the effluent from the sedimentation reservoir alone is better than that of improved separate sewers. In the sedimentation section, suspended particles settle, with the heavy metals bound to them. The subsequent treatment in the helophyte filter further improves the quality of the effluent. The helophyte filter serves primarily to remove the organic nutrients nitrogen and phosphates from the water. The two oval helophyte filters seal the sedimentation reservoir off from Erasmusgracht. The helophyte filters are lined by rock-filled gabions. The helophyte filters are open to the public and a bench has been placed by them. A sign on the bank explains the purpose and workings of the system.

Improved separate sewer system at Erasmusgracht

When the Municipality of Amsterdam buys new office furniture, the supplier
takes back the old furniture, even if they did not supply it in the first
place, and repairs, refurbishes, or recovers materials for future projects.



Amsterdam circular procurement of office furniture

Aside from preserving the last remaining natural places, we need to create new ones—especially in cities. Amsterdam is making its first steps in this direction. The Structural Vision Amsterdam 2040 sets out the City of Amsterdam’s strategy in relation to green space. The Green Vision 2020-2050 outlines what the City will do until 2050 to become a greener city. Although the relationship between biodiversity and the circular economy is not entirely clear cut, it is becoming increasingly clear how circularity can be integrated in many of the solutions based, derived, and inspired by nature to upscale environmental, economic and social benefits.&nbsp;Amstedam is focusing on green space. The focus of the city's vision for green spaces is on parks, connections and accessibility, forest management, climate proofing and biodiversity and neighbourhood green space. Parks and forests, such as the Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos), with its unique combination of park, woodland, water and nature, should be used less intensively, maintained more frequently and be better connected and accessible to increase their value to the community. Green roofs are the ideal setting for circualr nature-based solutions that can absorb, store, filter and purify rainwater, in turn reducing flood risks and slow down the run-off into the street, transforming urban vegetated spaces into vibrant centres for the community, all while increasing climate proofing and biodiversity. In addition, when temperatures are high, green space has a cooling effect produced by evaporation. Finally, the city encourages residents to work on green space themselves, and provides subsidy where possible, for example for the planting of wall gardens (a narrow border for plants along the front of a house or apartment building), green façades or roof gardens, to grow vegetables or increase the neighbourhood green space.

A policy for green spaces in Amsterdam 

The district heating Amsterdam is a large scale district heating using heat
from industrial area and port.



District heating Amsterdam

Amsterdam developed an open-source Energy Atlas to provide detailed
information on the geographical distribution of energy demand and potential
supply (thermal production, geothermal, industry and private buildings’ waste
heat) and a basis for local energy strategies; to enable implementation of the
right combination of measures and technologies based on scenario modelling;
and to help build the business case for district heating, cooling and power.



Energy Atlas

Startup in Residence is an initiative of&nbsp;StartupAmsterdam&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Chief Technology Office&nbsp;(CTO) of the City of Amsterdam. The programme connects startups with key&nbsp;social challenges&nbsp;in Amsterdam. Founded in Amsterdam in 2015, the programme invites both Dutch and international entrepreneurs to tackle these challenges in collaboration with the local government. Their innovative solutions impact the City as well as its citizens.Most solutions incorporate circularity elements, such as supporting green and efficient deliveries or developing a procurable circular textiles product. The Programme offers startups an intensive&nbsp;training programme, as well as the support of professional&nbsp;coaches or mentors. The startups will also be provided with working space and have access to the municipality’s network.

CTO Office Start-up in residence

The municipality of Amsterdam introduced a flexible zoning law for the area neighbouring the port, so as to increase the flexibility of building functions and counteract structural vacancy. The broadened scope can also be used to include more matters in the zoning plan than is possible under regular legislation, such as natural gas-free developments. Such flexible zoning designations can support the experimentation in and development of a circular economy.

Flexible zoning plan for the Amsterdam city-port area

A free zone is a shopping street with more flexible regulations. Residents,
entrepreneurs, property owners and the municipality decide together which
rules must still apply.



Legislative 'Freezones'

Amsterdam experiences a major housing crisis, to a large extent due to a lack of buildable space in the city. One of the solutions to address this crisis is the "floating neighbourhood" Schoonschip, consisting of 46 houses swimming on the IJ river. Schoonschip will have completely local energy sourcing with solar panels and heat pumps, a third of houses will have rooftop gardens, and waste water is recycled to water plants and create gas and fertiliser through a floating biorefinery. The neighbourhood was in planning since 2010, and the first seven boats arrived in late 2018.

Schoonschip floating neighbourhood

Worm hotels can be a good way for the city of Amsterdam to deal with its biotrash on a decentralised basis. However, their implementation is somewhat hampered by efficiency problems due to the speed of the composting process, and the risk of climate bringing harm to the worms. The Foundation Buurtcompost and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences have developed a solution to this: a better worm hotel. It is situated underground, with the earth shielding the worms from climate, and equipped with a shredded that allows for more effective composting. The collaboration has also sparked a large amount of further research by the AUAS, ranging from the quality of compost to the social effect of neighbourhood worm hotels.

Improving the efficiency of composting with worms

Madaster, a circular construction organisation that aims to ‘make materials available forever by giving them an identity’, has partnered with the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area to initiate a materials passports pilot project. The enterprise strives to create value in materials used for construction—an industry characterised by excessive waste generation—and ultimately stimulate circular construction in the region. Madaster serves as a public, digital platform that catalogues the products and materials used in a building, thus creating documented ‘storage units’ of materials that are easy to recover and reuse. Circular and financial information flows are also linked, which records past, present and future values of such materials.&nbsp;So far under the project, eight Amsterdam municipalities have been awarded certificates for their implementation of materials passports.&nbsp;

Madaster and Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

Amsterdam offers a free 20L bag of compost made from local green waste to citizens who return green waste to local bulky points for a limited period, as part of the celebrations for the city's National Compost Day. The free compost is a thank you for the effort made by Amsterdammers to offer organic waste and green waste separately.

City of Amsterdam rewards organic waste returns with compost!

Amsterdam is implementing the Long-Term Bicycle Plan 2017-2022, which aims to make biking safer and more convenient by improving infrastructure (paths, bike parking) and reducing speed limits for cars.

Amsterdam's Long-Term Bicycle Plan to improve cycling infrastructure 

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eHUBS are on-street locations that bring together e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, e-scooters and/or e-cars, offering users a wide range of options to experiment and use in various situations. The idea is to give an high-quality and diverse offer of shared electric mobility services to dissuade citizens from owning private cars, resulting in cleaner, more liveable and pleasant cities.eHUBS draws on a wide range of multidisciplinary expertise. The 15-partner consortium, led by the City of Amsterdam, will run until 2021 and is composed of European cities, network organisations, shared e-mobility service providers, and universities.

eHUBS: Smart Shared Green Mobility Hubs piloted in European Cities

When you cycle through Amsterdam, you come across plenty of green roofs and green façades. But green tram stops? That’s a novelty. Tram shelters are increasingly being clad in greenery. Some of them across the city have a green roof and a green wall. These bus stops have their own irrigation system that uses rainwater. Underground there is a pump room where rainwater is collected. This rainwater is used to water the plants completely automatically. Green roofs on bus stops in Amsterdam are demonstrating how functional design can be combined with nature based solutions to improve biodiversity.&nbsp;

Green bus shelters in Amsterdam

Amsterdam water authorities have reportedly planned to collect urine and utilizing it for phosphate fertilizer. The campaign has been called 'Green Urine Campaign'. As collection site, the campaign uses outdoor urinals in Amsterdam's La Place de la Bourse. The tagline on the outdoor urinals reads: "Is our wastewater actually a goldmine?". Urine is then collected by the city's water company, Waternet.The campaign also aims to raise awareness about the benefits of recycling urine, about waste reduction and about the prospect of using urine for agricultural use since it contains mineral phosphorus. Urine can be used directly on plants when diluted with water, providing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. However, using human waste as fertilizer is considered a taboo in many parts of the world. Waternet hopes to process what it gleans into an upcycled fertilizer for public gardens and vegetated rooftops around the city. Farmers generally use mined phosphate to fertilize crops and to provide this vital nutrient. Since scientists believe that phosphate resources will run out in 50-100 years, converting urine into fertilizer rich in phosphate might produce a new revenue stream for Amsterdam and beyond.

Converting urine into fertilizer: Amsterdam starts Green Urine campaign

Together&nbsp;with actors&nbsp;from public and private institutions and organisations, the city of Amsterdam set the joint goal to make the denim supply chain more sustainable. During their participation at the REFLOW project, they formed the Denim Deal, an international alliance of more than 40 partners working to make post-consumer recycling of textiles the standard in the industry.

The Denim Deal - an alliance of international frontrunners 

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.

REFLOW

The municipality of Amsterdam, co-created the Amsterdam RELOW Booklet, which describes circular solutions for the textile industry, especially highlighting the aspects of, reuse, repair, refurbish and second-hand in the local context of the city. To illustrate how the pilot envisions moving from a linear to a circular textile flow, the municipality of Amsterdam co-developed the “Textile Wheel,” an infographic identifying the 16 strategic stages of circular textiles, which are described in the booklet. While working on an overarching roadmap for the upcoming years, the municipality of Amsterdam co-defined the following major focus points: The amount of correctly collected textiles needs to be increased, and incineration should be avoided (without people buying and trashing more) to provide feedstock for the recycling industry and products that contain recycled fibres.&nbsp;&nbsp;Use the&nbsp;increase&nbsp;of&nbsp;correctly&nbsp;discarded&nbsp;and&nbsp;collected&nbsp;textile&nbsp;to&nbsp;further&nbsp;design and&nbsp;operationalise&nbsp;the&nbsp;wheel&nbsp;involving&nbsp;different&nbsp;stakeholders of&nbsp;each&nbsp;step of the ‘Textile&nbsp;Wheel’,&nbsp;bringing&nbsp;supply and demand&nbsp;together.&nbsp;Discarding&nbsp;less&nbsp;and&nbsp;extending&nbsp;the life&nbsp;cycle&nbsp;of&nbsp;textiles&nbsp;by&nbsp;repairing,&nbsp;reusing&nbsp;and&nbsp;revaluing&nbsp;through&nbsp;a&nbsp;series&nbsp;of workshops and&nbsp;collaboration&nbsp;with educational institutes.&nbsp;&nbsp;Exploring&nbsp;design for&nbsp;circularity&nbsp;and&nbsp;circular&nbsp;textiles&nbsp;through&nbsp;a&nbsp;series&nbsp;of workshops and public activities.The publisher aim to assemble knowledge and educate stakeholders at every stage of the textile industry’s cycle. Firstly, they aim to extend the life of textiles currently in use through encouraging people to reduce consumption and repair or reuse items. Secondly, when items must be discarded, they want to encourage people to do so correctly and responsibly. Finally, the aim is to educate and encourage citizens, designers, retailers, and manufacturers to think sustainably when creating or buying new products.&nbsp;In a nutshell, the Amsterdam&nbsp;Reflow Booklet rethinks the lifecycle of textiles with citizens and stakeholders.&nbsp;The Amsterdam Reflow Booklet addresses the environmental impact of the textile industry through a grassroots initiative focusing on discarded consumer textiles in a municipal context. You can find the full Amsterdam Reflow Booklet following the link below.

The Amsterdam Reflow Booklet

A massive energy storage system that includes new and used electric vehicle (EV) batteries was built at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena, the home of the Dutch football club Ajax.

Europe’s largest commercial energy storage system using EV batteries provides sustainable energy for stadium events

The Amsterdam City Pass Clothing Repair Initiative demonstrates the city's commitment to reducing textile waste and promoting sustainable consumption. By providing a significant discount on clothing repairs for individuals with lower incomes or limited financial resources, the initiative tackles both environmental and social challenges.

Amsterdam City Pass Clothing Repair Initiative

The City of Amsterdam, which is one of the finalists in this year’s <a href="https://earthshotprize.org/winners-finalists-listing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Earthshot Prize</a>, first unveiled its <a href="https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/policy/sustainability/circular-economy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">circular strategy</a> in 2020, four years after the Dutch government set the same goals nationally. Amsterdam’s vision embraces what the British economist Kate Raworth calls the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90497442/amsterdam-is-now-using-the-doughnut-model-of-economics-what-does-that-mean" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“doughnut” model of economics</a>, which looks at both environmental and social goals. The outer edge of the doughnut represents the ecological limits of the planet, including biodiversity loss and climate breakdown. The inner ring represents basic human needs, from food to adequate housing, that everyone should be able to access. To live sustainably, society needs to exist inside both limits.“We don’t just talk about technical solutions, or what’s the best way to [move] materials from here to there,” says Ilektra Kouloumpi from <a href="https://www.circle-economy.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Circle Economy</a>, the organization that helped the city build its short-term road map, including which types of waste it’s focused on reducing over the next few years. “We also talk about, ‘Hey, how can we make a city that is inclusive and just for all, while respecting the planetary boundaries?’ That has become the new vision for the City of Amsterdam.” It still isn’t clear exactly how that long-term vision will work in practice. But multiple circular initiatives are underway. In one project, researchers are studying how concrete paving stones on streets can be recoated and reused, rather than replaced, when a road needs to be repaved. In another, they’re studying how plants that were once grown in the area—flax and hemp—could be used to make new biodegradable building materials. “We always look at, ‘Okay, how can science help?’” says Joppe van Driel, the program developer for circularity at the <a href="https://www.ams-institute.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS)</a>, an organization that connects university researchers with urban challenges, including the studies on pavement and bio-based building materials. “Different kinds of technological innovation are needed to move forward.” Another AMS Institute study is examining how building products could be made from organic waste, and is bringing potential manufacturers and customers into the R&amp;D process from the beginning. “When a new innovation is being developed, we try to make sure that it is being tested in a real-life environment as soon as possible,” says van Driel. The aim is to get new products to market quickly.

Amsterdam turning full speed on circularity, with partnering organisations

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.