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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)

Producing and providing leisure and personal products and services for consumers, such as cleaning products, sports equipment and toys, personal and beauty care products, as well as domestic and personal services such as caretaking, cleaning, hairdressing and other beauty treatment, funeral and related activities

Personal Products and Services

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

Rethink the business model

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

Information campaigns

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

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Rethink

Includes a variety of actions (e.g. campaigns, information sharing, public events) that encourage city residents and visitors to build sustainable practices into their daily lives

Enable sustainable lifestyles

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

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

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

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

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

Communities

Governments

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

△Rethink

△Sustainable lifestyles

The industrial production and consumption of highly processed food products places increasing pressures on land- and water use and is a driving cause of global greenhouse gas emissions. Local governments can play an important role in encouraging residents to shift towards local, healthy, and sustainable diets that can improve the health of the planet, as well as residents. Particularly, plant-based food choices have relatively low ecological impacts. 

Some examples of how cities have supported healthy and sustainable food choices include:


Low-impact food choices

Designing products with a single material type to more easily recycle them after use

Design for recycling - mono-materials

Extraction and reuse of parts from end-of-life products for use in new products

Part recovery

Decentralised services that rely on the power of the crowd or the community

Crowd-based services

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Designing products to remove any barriers to recycling and enable easy recyclability

Design for recycling

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

Own brand second-hand sale

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

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

Use waste as a resource

Allowing customers to alter and modify certain features of the product

Customisation

Designing products so they are able to be easily repaired

Design for repair

Developing or utilising online marketplaces to enable the peer-to-peer exchange of products and services

Peer-to-peer online marketplaces

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

Ensure that biological products are properly managed and preserved

Maximise lifetime of biological products

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Using <a href="https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals" target="_blank">materials that are not toxic or hazardous</a>.

Non-toxic materials and inputs

Recover waste energy or generate fuels and energy from waste streams

Energy recovery from waste

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

Leasing, rental, pay per use

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Selling parts of modular products that can be exchanged or replaced

Sale of exchangeable parts

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

Deliver services through business models that ensure maximum value

Service business models

Preserving and conserving biological products such as food, forests, etc.

Preservation, conservation

Providing upgrade programmes or upgrade services for products or parts of products

Product upgrade

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy

Designing products to increase consumer’s emotional attachment and ensure longer use

Design for product attachment, emotional durability

Selling high quality, long-lasting products

Sale of durable, long-lasting goods

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

Generating energy from waste through processes such as anaerobic digestion, gasification, incineration, etc.

Generating energy from waste

Takeback and return of products from customers after end-of-use

Takeback programmes

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution

Putting in place purchasing guidelines for procurement departments and evaluating suppliers on circular economy principles

Circular procurement

Deliver products through business models that ensure maximum value

Product business models

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials

Working together with customers to jointly create products fit for them

Co-creation

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within the same industry

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Using <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/critical_sv" target="_blank">materials that are not considered critical</a>.

Non-critical materials and inputs 

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Enacting measures that optimise material use such as 3D printing, etc.

Material efficiency

Providing services where customers are charged only when they use it

Payment per use

Providing products through sharing between consumers, customers, etc.

Peer to peer sharing

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within the same industry

Closed loop collection

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer / consumer collaboration

Providing services through a subscription plan with regular payment schemes

Subscription-based services

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use

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

Recovery and reuse of waste energy

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Converting fossil fuel based operations to electric

Electrification

Designing products of multiple parts that can be easily exchanged

Design for modularity

Selling parts of modular products that can be refilled

Sale of refillable parts

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration

Designing products to resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life.

Design for physical durability

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to circular economy

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within other industries

Open loop downcycling

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

Key elements of the circular economy

<p>The three cities of Turku, Finland, and Yokohama and Nagano, Japan, launched the 1.5-Degree Life Campaign at the end of 2020. The campaign aims to work with youth groups to reduce emissions stemming from consumption. Youth are invited to make creative materials on their "1.5 degree lifestyles", aimed at encouraging others to adopt similar practices.</p>