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Switching Gear Enabling Network

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Article / Report

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of own-brand products

Own brand second-hand sale

Providing products through leasing, rental, or pay-per-use models instead of sales

Leasing, rental, pay per use

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

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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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       by Deborah Drew, Austin Dickerson, Sam Gillick-Daniels and Eliot Metzger - September 2020
This guidebook aims to help companies identify the stakeholders in their supply chain and recognize the effects their transition to reuse business models may have on them. It is intended to be a guide, as part of a learning process, to ensure the transition to a reuse model, a component of the circular economy, is equitable and just. The guidebook takes companies through three steps of identifying who their stakeholders are, what effects are felt by these stakeholders, and target setting to mitigate risks to these stakeholders and identify partners to support a transition to an equitable reuse business model.
               by Elizabeth Reichart and Deborah Drew - January 10, 2019One garbage truck of clothes is burned or sent to landfills every second! This linear fashion model of buying, wearing and quickly discarding clothes negatively affects people and the planet’s resources.
  
   by Deborah Drew - September 12, 2017During Fashion Week, the apparel industry's sizeable impacts on people, land and water are a topic for concern. Making fashion sustainable begins with measurement and analysis of these impacts.
  
   by Deborah Drew and Genevieve Yehounme - July 05, 2017Growth of the multi-trillion-dollar apparel industry has been fed by "fast fashion," which makes clothing cheaply and quickly with a low price-tag. Six graphics show how this trend and others can add to water stress, pollution and other environmental impacts.
  
    
     

WRAP

World Resources Institute 

This guidebook aims to help companies identify the stakeholders in their supply chain and recognize the effects their transition to reuse business models may have on them. It is intended to be a guide, as part of a learning process, to ensure the transition to a reuse model, a component of the circular economy, is equitable and just. The guidebook takes companies through three steps of identifying who their stakeholders are, what effects are felt by these stakeholders, and target setting to mitigate risks to these stakeholders and identify partners to support a transition to an equitable reuse business model.

Square Your Circle: How to Ensure a Just Transition to Reuse Business Models in Apparel

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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>

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Circular Cities

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Policy case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Scalability

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

Save Water (SDG6)

Societal Services

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

Water and Sewage

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

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

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop regenerative infrastructure

'Incentivise' sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.

Incentivise

Public-civil partnerships

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Economic Frameworks

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




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Regenerate

Includes measures that protect and enhance ecosystems and biodiversity both within and beyond city boundaries, as well as actions to restore degraded ecosystems.


Protect and restore local ecosystems

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

Governments

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).

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 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

Mérida

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Municipality of Mérida

Mérida, capital of the&nbsp;Mexican state of Yucatán, is piloting Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) to combat groundwater contamination by building rain collectors that filter and clean runoff.

Rain garden drainage systems in Mérida

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Circular food systems entail that the food is produced regeneratively and, where appropriate, locally. Food and packaging waste are designed out entirely, while healthy, low-impact diets are promoted and easy to access. 

[Circle Economy](https://www.circle-economy.com/) 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. 

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Circular Food

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Limes and lemons - Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Business case

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

Agri/Food

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

Inform

Conduct research

Information campaigns

United Kingdom

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Consumer choices are important for the transition to a sustainable agrifood sector. However, it is difficult to change eating habits and incentivise people to consume more sustainably.&nbsp;Language can shift consumers’ perspective on food. A study by the World Resources Institute explored which language describing plant-based menu items is most effective at encouraging consumers to select these options. This was achieved by conducting a field experiment across a UK-based chain of cafés.The authors concluded that language does indeed have an effect on consumer choices. Terms such as ‘Meat-free’ and ‘Vegetarian’ highlight the lack of meat in the dish—and were found to be a deterrent. Instead, using terms such as ‘Field-grown’ or ‘Garden’, or with language that emphasises flavour, increased the proportion of people who chose the target vegetarian dishes.

World Resources Institute (WRI): Language of sustainable diets 

Box ES1 includes examples of transformative adaptation