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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 increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

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

Jobs

Scalability

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 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

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

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

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

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

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Rethink

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




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Regenerate

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

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

Communities

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

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

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

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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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        We are sold out of the bulk of our main stock for 2021 however we have a few surplus trees and also some quirky unlovable trees that were left over from the hubs.These are available for collection from the farm in Orpington, BR6. And use the code UNLOVEABLES at checkout to get 20% discount You can also follow us on social media for updates, photos and news.InstagramFacebookLinkedin   
      
 

Cleveland

City of Cleveland

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is the largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health in the US.

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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

Starting with a recycling program, Cleveland's residents became invested in a more sustainable approach for their health and for the environment. Circular Cleveland is now working to transition the city to a circular economy—collaborating regionally to design out waste and pollution, shorten supply chains, and protect the environment, while creating new business and job opportunities that strengthen community resilience. Learning from leaders in Toronto, Canada, where a circular economy and regenerative food systems are in place, Circular Cleveland is working with motivated residents and a committed city government to build more equitable and climate resilient systems and economies.Cleveland is one of the six US cities that have received funding ($3 million investment in grants) from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to foster global learning and lead innovative, community-driven approaches that mitigate the health and equity risks posed by climate change.

Circular Cleveland

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

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Societal Services

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

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

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

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

Use waste as a resource

Ensure that biological products are properly managed and preserved

Maximise lifetime of biological products

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Managing and enriching biological products such as soil, land, etc.

Management, enrichment

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within other industries

Open loop collection

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

Working together with industry peers to engage in business activities or exploratory projects that advance the circular economy

Joint industry ventures, projects, pilots

Govern the Transition

Cross-departmental collaboration and engagement

 Convene Towards Action

Crowdsourcing and challenge mechanisms

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

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Reuse

High-level changes to policy and practice (such as taxation systems, investment and procurement guidelines and criteria) that disincentivize activities that perpetuate linear economic systems, as well as vision-setting (goals, roadmaps) to catalyze
action on circularity across the city

Eliminate linear incentives and set goals and incentives for circularity

Create and support online platforms and physical spaces for sale, sharing and exchange of spaces, items and materials.

Facilitate second-hand markets, sharing & exchange platforms

Ensure that household and business waste is collected and appropriately sorted (by type, label, etc.) to allow for maximum recovery of value.


Collect and sort waste to facilitate recovery

Managing municipal food wastes at scale may require complex and costly infrastructures to collect, transport and process these residual materials. Large-scale composting facilities are challenging to place and zone appropriately in space-scarce cities.

Community-based initiatives, for example, community composting, can provide a localised solution to managing urban food wastes. Community composting initiatives are small(er)-scale solutions that are distributed throughout the city, located close to the sources of food waste, reducing the need for complex logistics and collection systems. Community composting schemes can take a variety of forms, for example, in-vessel composting (IVC), as well as vermicomposting (which utilises insects to break down organic materials). Community composting initiatives can generate valuable by-products for use in (urban) agriculture, in gardens and in parks, as well as support community building. 

Local governments can support the development and implementation of community composting schemes through the provision of equipment and infrastructure, for example,  composting boxes. The formation of public-civic partnerships can help formulate the relationships and validate the valuable role such activities can play in the management of organic waste streams. Awareness raising can be facilitated through collaboration with schools. 


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🍏  Community composting

When edible food is wasted, this wastes not only the food product itself, but also all of the energy, resources and emissions that were required to produce the food. 

Surplus food from food services, manufacturing, and retail operations should be used at its highest and best value. Platforms (both on- and offline) can help to connect surplus food between, for example, households, retail, food services and manufacturing. This may result in increased revenues for businesses, and lower landfill costs. 

Redistributing food surplus is not a solution to address the root causes of food insecurity, and establishing reliance on this stream by vulnerable communities can bring problems in the future. Nevertheless, food surplus may in some instances be appropriately redirected to social enterprises, for example, food banks.  

Local governments may work with local businesses who link surplus food from restaurants and supermarkets to edible reuse by citizens. Other businesses may process and redirect food streams to animals who can in turn feed on it. Awareness raising, platforms, and dedicated space in the city can support these operations.


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🍏  Redistribute food surplus

The food system nourishes populations and employs 50% of the global workforce, but:
- it currently drives a quarter of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) production, 
- animal farming alone uses over one-quarter of all land, equivalent to the size of the Americas,
- nearly a quarter of freshwater resources are lost due to rampant food waste, and
- it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss.

A circular food system must address the whole value chain, from production to consumption to waste management. The four key solutions for the food system are:
- Put healthier, satiating foods first: Prioritise satiating and healthy foods with a lower environmental impact—ideally shifting calories from meat, fish, and dairy towards cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
- Go local, seasonal, and organic: Prioritise the production and consumption of local, seasonal, and organic produce (sometimes in combination with GMO to reduce pests and disease loss on crops), which can lead to a significantly reduced need for chemical inputs, fuels, and processing services that contribute to environmental impacts.
- Mainstream regenerative agriculture: Scale up agricultural practices that regenerate ecosystems, recirculate nutrients and sequester carbon by design. 
- End avoidable food waste: Minimise food loss and valorise waste following the food waste hierarchy along the supply chain and at the consumer level through better management of transport and storage, more refrigeration and smart planning, and technology at the consumer and food service levels.



🍏 Food Systems

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

Businesses

When organic wastes are landfilled, the value and nutrients are lost and irrecoverable. Landfilling also causes additional environmental pressure, for example, the decomposition of food and organic waste in landfills emits greenhouse gases into the climate. Reducing the space required for landfills creates opportunities for better use. 

Local governments have an important role to play in the elimination of the landfilling of organic wastes. Municipalities with the legislative authority to do so can introduce legislation that bans organic wastes from being landfilled and fines non-compliance.

Municipalities can ensure that municipal organic wastes are collected and diverted from landfill by mandating certain processing techniques, for example, composting or anaerobic digestion. 
 


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🍏  Phase out landfilling of organic waste

Current dominant, globalized food systems trigger far-reaching detrimental socioeconomic and environmental effects. As such, they struggle to meet the food demands of a growing population and face external shocks, such as resource scarcity, climate change and health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Local governments are directly or indirectly connected to all stages of the food value chain. For this reason, it is importanto for them to leverage this strategic position and develop an initial and collective vision, setting out transformational targets, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and key action areas and solutions urgently required to transform food systems—from food consumption and production to waste prevention and management.

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🍏  Targets and roadmaps for a circular food system

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Thematic Areas

    Apr 15, 2021, 1:00 PM, Posted by  Sharon Roerty      
  Earth Day will be 51 years young this April 22nd—and I have been a witness to every one of them. The environmental activism that it launched and inspired has shaped me as an individual, shaped culture in the U.S. and beyond, and shaped the planet we all share. And it continues to evolve, as evident by the present-day focus on environmental justice and disproportionate health impacts felt by low-income communities and communities of color. As a child of the 1970s, I have seen momentous changes—environmental policies and discoveries that pointed in the right direction, setbacks and disappointments, and profiles in courage.
As a youngster, I drew inspiration from the boldness of Jacque Cousteau, the brilliance of Jane Goodall, and the courage of Norma Rae. As an adult, I look to the power of local change agents like Majora Carter of South Bronx, NYC and Margie Eugene-Richard of Southern Louisiana. In my lifetime, I have seen the institution of recycling, lead removed from gasoline and paint, asbestos banned from buildings, and consumer preference shift toward plant-based cleaning products and chemical-free food. I am excited by the burgeoning international movement for green schoolyards. I have also seen devastating environmental crises in places like Love Canal, N.Y., Flint, Mich., the Gulf of Mexico, and Prince William Sound. All of these represent both the incredible harm and good we can do when we act collectively.
I hope in my lifetime to witness less David vs. Goliath battles for the environment and a reckoning of environmental injustices. I have hope to share.    A year ago, a national emergency was declared in the wake of the pandemic. To curb the spread of COVID-19, the world as we knew it was suspended. A short time in, it was hard not to notice how nature was emerging in places we previously wouldn’t have expected, how our roads grew quieter, and our air cleaner. Birds appeared everywhere—even in industrial neighborhoods. Demand surged for equitable access to green and open public spaces. Some cities expanded bike lanes and closed streets to traffic—all of this and more helped us see that the way we’ve always done things isn’t the way we must continue to do things. We have demonstrated that we can be more resourceful, creative, and inclusive in solving the competing crises of our time. 
  While I would never wish this pandemic on this or any future generation, there is value in assessing what we are capable of when we marshal our resources across borders and cultures to meet a common threat. It makes me wonder about our other existential threats, like climate change. How do we muster the same collective will to overcome this challenge and to do it with a commitment to equity?
How Cities are Taking Action to Address Health, Equity and Climate Change
At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we know that good ideas have no borders and I’m excited that we’re supporting six projects in U.S. cities as they translate and adapt approaches tested in cities around the world to curb the health impacts of climate change. It demonstrates the power that we have to meet the challenges of extreme heat, climate displacement, and rising sea levels—that our communities are incubators of change. Here’s how a few of our grantees are taking action:   
  “In Lawrence, Mass., we’ve known that a lack of access to adequate and diverse transportation options, health care, green spaces, healthy food, and social connections—compounded by high poverty levels and environmental concerns—have given way to marked health inequities.
That’s why the city partnered with residents, the Conservation Law Foundation, and Groundwork Lawrence to look abroad—to Brazil, Italy and elsewhere—for innovations to create climate resilient parks and corridors in our city. It’s our opportunity to address health and climate inequities while capitalizing on our rich local natural resources and deep partnerships.”   
  “Jackson, Miss., is the capital of the poorest and most unhealthy state in the U.S. It is also among the most segregated cities in the nation, where lack of health insurance, obesity, and diabetes are directly correlated with residence in Jackson's redlined areas. These inequalities dramatically increase vulnerability to climate change, a reality ignored or outright denied, by many state officials. By contrast, we are supporting climate action to address health vulnerabilities by developing heat-mitigating green infrastructure in our city. Inspired by innovative solutions developed in Japan and Spain, we are working to transform Jackson into the greenest, healthiest, and most equitable city in the South!”   
  “Seattle’s Duwamish Valley is a microcosm for how the combined impacts of existing health disparities and the looming threat of climate change disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities. That’s why we’re working with community stakeholders to develop and implement a strategy to mitigate and adapt to sea level rise and other climate change impacts, while prioritizing keeping people and businesses in the areas they call home. 
Drawing from solutions in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand, our sea level rise adaptation strategy will be driven by the community, rooted in racial equity, and will foster health and equity today and into the future.”
   
  “In Cleveland, we’ve made tremendous progress in improving water quality and reducing carbon pollution, but we still have work to do in bolstering our resilience to climate change, creating green jobs, and scaling up social and racial equity. To accelerate our goals, we’re committing to an equitable transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050 and to building a circular economy in Cleveland, where solid waste and pollution management are redesigned to improve community health and economic opportunity. Inspired by circular initiatives in Toronto, we’re excited to join other circular cities from Europe, Asia and Latin America.”   
  "While the City of Detroit may be a little slow to act on climate change, health, and equity issues, we have a bunch of amazing people in our neighborhoods working to move things in the right direction. Through our Composting for Community Health project, our Detroit Compost Champions will advocate for policies that create a just environment where the benefits of our waste diversion efforts are kept in the communities—both in terms of the compost produced and the jobs that are created. Collaborating with our international partner, the Mother Earth Foundation in the Philippines, we will be able to accelerate the work that we need to do here by learning from their incredible example of community scale composting."      The changemakers from these cities aren’t alone. In response to our funding proposal, Cities Taking Action to Address Health, Equity, and Climate Change, we learned of promising solutions to air pollution, heat stress, and food insecurity taking root in over 100 cities across 60 countries—from Accra to Athens, Seoul to São Paulo. It gives me hope to see that so many are centering racial equity in their work, increasing community power over the systems and environments where they live, and prioritizing the needs of those who are most affected by the climate crisis.
We can lead momentous change when we set our sites on a common cause—and we all have a role to play in improving health and equity where we live. There is much we will learn from these cities as they build power and marshal resources—both local and global—in the fight against climate change. Along with other communities we’re supporting to advance health and climate solutions, it feels that we are on the precipice of real and durable change.
When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, decrying the unsustainable and environmentally degrading practices of industrial societies, she set a course for change and changemakers. We have great challenges ahead, but I have seen change and I have hope.
Learn about countless equitable and inclusive climate actions we can take today to propel change. About the Author    Tags: Built Environment and Health, Health Disparities  
  

Detroit

Eastside Community Network

There are neighborhoods in Detroit where disinvestment and pollution are longstanding, where residents have fewer resources to improve their health and environment. To radically reverse this trend and put the community at the center, the Eastside Community Network is working with residents and community partners to bring a city-wide food waste diversion and composting system to Detroit. Modelling approaches in Malabon City, Philippines, Detroit Composting for Community Health will pioneer community-based composting systems throughout the city, including in backyards, parks and green areas, and larger-scale spaces. The communities most affected by decades of disinvestment are positioned as the experts— identifying solutions, leading zero waste campaigns, and advancing a climate health agenda.Detroit is one of the six US cities that have received funding ($3 million investment in grants) from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to foster global learning and lead innovative, community-driven approaches that mitigate the health and equity risks posed by climate change.