The REFLOW Operating System 

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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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This collection features a selection of case studies, based on the global *Circularity Gap Reports*, that can mitigate climate breakdown by reducing virgin material consumption, waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The latest **[Circularity Gap Report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download)** reveals that the global economy is now only 7.2% circular and outlines how circular solutions across four sectors can bring global planetary boundaries back within safe limits. 

In the six years of the *Circularity Gap Report*, the global economy has extracted and used unprecedented amounts of materials. The first edition of the *Report *in 2018 found that global circularity was 9.1% and it has decreased every year since—leaving a Circularity Gap of over 90%. If this trend continues, we will have to find more and better solutions to combat the negative effects of climate change. This is why we have identified case studies from across the globe—based on the needs of society and planetary health—that serve as real-world examples of the circular economy in action.

Circle Economy is a not-for-profit organisation working to accelerate the circular transition. Through the *Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative*, our mission is to deliver an annual global Circularity Metric that measures the state of the world economy and identifies key levers to transition to global circularity. With nature as our guide, we work alongside cross-sector stakeholders from academia, businesses, NGOs and governments to provide a powerful combination of practical and scalable interventions that transform circular opportunities into realities. 


To learn more about these interventions to accelerate the circular transition, read the latest [Circularity Gap Report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download), as well as previous editions of the global [Circularity Gap Reports](https://www.circularity-gap.world/global).

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Global Circularity Gap Report 2023

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Article / Report

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

Innovation

Scalability

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

Agri/Food

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

Producing electrical equipment and machinery for industrial use

Capital Equipment

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

Transportation and Logistics

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Providing specialist services to support consumers, businesses, andgovernments

Professional Services

Societal Services

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


Construction and Infrastructure

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

Communication and connectivity is becoming an ever-more important aspect of today’s society, provided by a mix of equipment and technology ranging from personal mobile devices, to data centres. Increased connectivity is also an enabler of the circular economy, where digitisation can make physical products obsolete, or enable far better use of existing assets, including consumables, building stock or infrastructure.


Communication

- Buy smaller and lighter electronic devices
- Increased digitalisation 
- Cloud computing services

Saving: 0.19 Gt emissions and 0.33 Gt material use

🔊 Efficient design of ICTS

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

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

The framework consists of 21 complementary interventions, across six scenarios - one for each of the six societal needs we model. These interventions can mitigate climate impact by curbing GHG emissions

Note: interventions are currently focused on:
- 🏠 Housing 
- 🍎 Nutrition
- 🚗 Mobility
- 👚📺 Consumables
- 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ Healthcare
-  🔊 Communication

These 21 interventions are spread across six societal needs and wants, with a set of solutions. Within these solutions are strategies on ’how to get there'.  

The framework moves beyond incremental action and provides solutions that will require behavioral change (dietary shifts towards less meat consumption, for example) and the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in the industry to mitigate emissions in hard-to-abate sectors (such as steel manufacturing). It illustrates how continued globalisation can benefit from the uptake of digital solutions. The combined interventions showcase the mitigation potential that begins where the current country pledges end; illustrating the additional impact our interventions can bring to the NDCs. In short, the interventions provide input for a more profound fundamental transformation than the more current pathways that make up the vast majority of NDCs. 

Together, the combined interventions can almost double the current global Circularity Metric of 8.6%, bringing it to 17%. 

This results in:
• Shrinking global material use and extraction by 28%. 
• Cutting global GHG emissions by 39%—fully closing the Emissions Gap as defined in our report and taking into account the updated NDCs.
• Allowing the world to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping at 1.5-degrees of warming by 2032.

*This framework was developed in the Circularity Gap Report 2021. Read more about it [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/resources/circularity-gap-report-2021)*






Global Circularity Gap Report

An intervention-based framework for nations and stakeholders working towards circular countries

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Copenhagen

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The Copenhagen Business School

Dyne

The Reflow Operating System (OS) is an open-source operating system, which with its combination of components allows organisational flows to be facilitated within an organisation and beyond. It is based on Distributed ledger technology where the ownership and access of data are distributed and potentially anonymised. Reflow OS is thereby "an operating system for communities who want to create federated and secure economic networks to foster the creation and coordination of distributed value chains". The OS provides the backbone for the development of web-based and phone applications and allows for e.g., features like matchmaking and Track &amp; Trace of materials to facilitate circular business models such as sharing platforms.&nbsp; The components of Reflow OS allow for the following features:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Cryptographically Verification of information: In a multi-partner situation, Reflow OS can cryptographically certify actions along the value chain, allowing separate actors or companies to trust that the correct information has been provided by the other parties.&nbsp;Selective Sharing System: Allows for actors to participate and manage information in terms of common information flows. You can share information, but you do not have to share all your information, which is difference from Blockchain.&nbsp;&nbsp;Because of these key features of Reflow OS, users can set up the following systems:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Track &amp; Trace: Materials can be tracked between actors in the value chain.&nbsp;Material Passport: The journey and identity of the materials can be certified.&nbsp;Matchmaking: Materials and actors can be matched automatically.&nbsp;&nbsp;Verified signatures: Actors can sign transactions at every step, and thereby certify that they or the product/material complies to external legal and environmental requirements.&nbsp;&nbsp;Privacy: Despite this detailed tracking and identification, users retain privacy due to the distributed identification coming from the Distributed Ledger Technology, and data can flow between different actors in a secure way, allowing inter-organisational relations and collaboration.&nbsp; The Reflow Operating System is relevant for the implementation of circular economy for two main reasons: The growth of digital platforms, and the potential in distributed ledger technology for granular track &amp; trace and matchmaking. The growing phenomenon of digital platforms has led to the creation of new modes of organising a considerable range of human activities and materials. Digital platforms have contributed to the transformation of multiple industries, including transportation (e.g. Uber), hospitality (e.g. Airbnb, CouchSourcing), and food (e.g. Too Good To Go) (Asadullah and Kankanhalli, 2018). This digitalisation of society produces a large amount of data on a range of aspects, such as the flows of humans and materials. Following this shift becomes increasingly important for municipalities aiming for sustainability goals, emission reduction, citizen awareness and energy efficiency.&nbsp;In the context of circular economy, this data can be used to improve collaboration and connection between actors up and down the value chain and between sectors. Access to such detailed and secure information on supply, quality, and availability of resources is expected to ease the transition to circularity, as it reduces information asymmetries, improves information standards and market transparency. Such an infrastructure of information sharing and platforms for collaboration can thereby facilitate transactions enabling reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and waste management (Hellemans et al. 2021). In this regard, distributed ledger technologies are considered to provide such infrastructure to stakeholder such as local authorities or municipalitites (Böckel et al., 2021), and can further contribute to increased traceability and transparency of supply chains, improved communication with supply chain actors and customers, as well as improved security, privacy, and trust (Böckel et al. 2021).