Almost 60% of the built environment required to accommodate the earth’s urban population by 2050 remains to be built (Circularity Gap Report, 2021).
So how will we make sure that cities can meet our universal need for shelter within the limits of our planet?
The urban built environment should be a ‘living’ system in which building materials and products are optimally used and reused, a system that operates within the boundaries of our planet, preserves the (business) value of its resources, and increases the number of valuable jobs and skills in a city.
This guidance document is the fourth of a series of resources produced by the European Investment Bank and Circle Economy for the Circular City Centre (C3), a competence and resource centre that aims to support EU cities in their circular economy transition. It is a guide for cities on how to progress in their circular transition in the built environment, from establishing an enabling framework to implementing circular solutions.
Find out more about the Circular City Centre here.
This annual publication gives an overview of new data on circular jobs produced by Circle Economy in 2022, with important updates and results. This data supplies policymakers, economists, labour organisations and social partners with insights into the relationship between the circular economy and the labour market. This can facilitate the design of evidence-based circular strategies, as well as required education pathways, and aid in target-setting and progress monitoring.
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This paper - Making Cycling Circular: The case of Swapfiets - details how both the tax landscape and traditional practices of accounting restrict the financial viability of circular Product-as-a-Service businesses. Taking the case of bicycle provider Swapfiets, the paper highlights that under current legislation, PaaS businesses are required to pay more VAT over the lifetime of a product than their linear counterparts, and that strict eligibility criteria prevents them from applying the reduced rate of VAT. It also determines the pitfalls of basing asset financing conditions on an assumption of linear depreciation, which we know to be inaccurate in PaaS models that engage in regular repair and maintenance. This publication determines that to navigate this issues businesses are incentivised to renege some of their circular ambitions, and so legislative change and new financing norms are recommended instead.
You can also find the Dutch version of this report on the Insights page of ABN AMRO Bank.
Montréal has set ambitious goals: becoming a zero waste city by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2050. The Circular Economy can get them there. Even though the goals are ambitious and the challenges big, together the city’s efforts towards circularity have already borne positive effects—from numerous initiatives, new jobs and business models, to significant material savings and recovery—diverting thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill each year which prevents the emission of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.
To uncover how the city can upscale the positive impacts of the transition, Ville de Montréal worked together with Circle Economy on a Circle City Scan, a multi-stakeholder process designed to help cities identify contextually appropriate opportunities to foster a circular economy.
Four sectors will be key: the Food system, Built environment, Textiles and Mobility. To guide these four sectors in the right direction, the Circle City Scan outlines eight potential circular actions, meant to guide and inform Ville de Montréal in the development of the City's first Circular Economy Roadmap. The City is ready to take action, but private, public, academic and civil actors in Montréal should join forces and activate a circular ecosystem to scale circularity together.
This report provides an overview of the impact generated by Circle Economy in 2022 across three categories—analyse, act and scale. It also contains a section on internal performance in relation to gender equality in our team. This report dives into examples of how our work has informed policy decisions and contributed to a better understanding of the circular economy—and its potential—for businesses, cities and nations.
While numerous projects are featured in this document, many more have kept our team busy during 2022. The outcomes of other projects are shared in this section.
Cities have a critical role to play in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. They are centres of consumption and production, hubs of culture and innovation, and host the systems and policies that govern urban life.
But how exactly can cities lead the circular economy transition?
A Circular Economy Strategy is the first stepping stone in this direction.Creating such a roadmap can provide the direction needed to enable local stakeholders, both within and outside the municipality, to act and engage in the transition.
The European Investment Bank and Circle Economy have worked with several cities as part of the Circular City Advisory program of the Circular City Centre (C3), a competence and resource centre that aims to support EU cities in their circular economy transition. Key insights from this program have informed the development of this guidance document-the third guidance document in the C3 series-a step-by-step guidance document that outlined how any city can develop a Circular Economy Strategy.
Find out more about the Circular City Centre here.
This paper is the final outcome of a collaborative project between the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, RESPOND, Circle Economy and SYSTEMIQ. Through a series of interactive workshops, we developed a shared understanding of the ‘regenerative economy’ and, from our learnings, created tangible actions for changemakers to put the regenerative economy into practice.
This publication, developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, presents circular trends and strategies for the European automotive industry, enabling it to overcome supply chain challenges, decarbonise faster and stay competitive.
The European passenger car sector boasts high recycling rates, but circularity requires more than recycling: cycled materials must also be used as input for new passenger vehicles. Currently, 79% of material inputs for new vehicles come from virgin sources. This paper proposes five circular strategies for the automotive industry to boost circularity to 66% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, by going beyond recycling and also seeking to reduce material use. It also discusses circularity with regard to trends and forecasts for European mobility, including shared mobility, autonomous fleets and electric vehicles.
This publication, developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, presents circular trends and strategies for the European construction sector, enabling it to overcome supply chain challenges, decarbonise faster and stay competitive.
The paper suggests five key circular economy strategies that can help the construction sector journey towards net-zero—boosting the industry’s circularity to 50% and cutting production-related greenhouse gas emissions by around 52%. It argues that there is significant future earning potential for businesses in low-carbon and circular materials, enabling the construction industry to respond to rising consumer demand, reach climate goals and navigate material disruption.
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