The city of Amsterdam has made a major step in the transition to become one of the world’s first circular cities. Commissioned by the city, Circle Economy implemented its newly developed City Circle Scan to identify areas in which Amsterdam can make the most significant, tangible progress in realising a circular economy. The first City Circle Scan to be done at this scale globally, the resulting report identifies areas in which circular business models can be applied and highlights strategies to accomplish practical implementation of these sustainable solutions.
“The potential of a circular economy is enormous, and that is why we focused on research and are willing to support anyone who strives to make the circular economy a reality in our city. Globally, we are the leader in this field.” - Alderman Abdeluheb Choho of Amsterdam
The report outlines the details of the city’s system processes and identifies the construction and organic waste chains as potential drivers of the transition to circularity and long term effects each will have on Amsterdam’s current linear economy.
“Practical implementation of the circular economy is critical if we are to address the great environmental and social challenges highlighted at COP21 and incorporate solutions to these challenges into the daily activities of citizens and businesses. Amsterdam is the first of many cities around the globe implementing the City Circle Scan and developing road maps for a transition to a circle economy.” - CEO of Circle Economy, Andy Ridley
Concluding with a vision of the future, including a roadmap and action agenda, the report provides guidance on how the city’s value chains can be altered to stimulate innovation, business opportunities, and job creation in both established and newly created sectors. The municipality is inviting interested parties to submit ideas and suggestions to aid in the implementation of these relevant, circular projects.If you have an idea to help aid the city with this transition please click here.
Circle Economy would like to sincerely thank our partners TNO and Fabric for their dedication to making this City Circle Scan possible.
On the 15th of March, .FABRIC and Circle Economy presented the intermediate results of a study on circular opportunities for the Flemish-Brussels metropolitan region during a workshop in the Bozar museum of Brussels. The project, commissioned by OVAM, aims at inspiring urban designers to take part in a larger program entitled Atelier BXL Productive Metropolis. The workshop was the third in a series of four so called ‘Urban Meetings’ of which the last will be held on June 2nd during the International Architecture Biennal Rotterdam (IABR) 2016.[caption id="attachment_10103" align="alignleft" width="212"]
Graphics made by .FABRIC and Circle Economy[/caption]The project Circulaire Ruimte - BXL started in December 2015 and is carried out by .FABRIC, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Circle Economy. The first phase of the project is focused on spatially mapping regional material flows – in particular construction waste, organic waste, water and freight – and identifying key impacts. For instance, the analysis shows that the value of organic waste is almost entirely lost due to incineration north of Brussels. The second phase consists of developing solutions based on circular economy strategies. For organic waste this could mean the introduction of new composting and biodigestion plants in and around the city – for example in Buda, an underused industrial site in the north of the city. Due to the mostly southern winds this location has more potential than sites in the south of Brussels.During the workshop on the 15th, the mapping and regional circular strategies were discussed amongst urban designers and external experts. New data, anecdotes, opportunities and challenges were added to finalize the maps. In the coming two months, the regional strategies will be translated into inspiring scenarios for ‘circularly’ redeveloping three specific sites in Brussels situated along the canal: Buda, Masui and Birmingham.Besides during the IABR 2016, the circular scenarios will be displayed this fall during an exhibition on sustainable urban development in the city of Brussels.
Together with the Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NLCH invited a limited group of participants to attend a 3-day trade mission from the 13th to the 15th of April. The attendees of the trade mission are a mixed group of representatives from government bodies, businesses and NGO’s from 18 different countries around the globe. During this 3 day trade mission, the group will become acquainted with leading examples of circular products, services and business models in The Netherlands. The program also includes a visit to the Circular Expo, located close to Schiphol Airport, where state of the art innovation projects on circular economy will be showcased. The mission will be concluded with a match making event that aims to create new relationships and inspire collaboration.
Positioning the Netherlands as a circular hotspot is a promising and necessary ambition that will inspire and connect not only the Netherlands, but also the rest of the world. The Netherlands is spearheading a movement towards a more circular economy and has become a “living lab" that provides the rest of the world with examples to learn from. Being a frontrunner in the circular economy will create benefits for both the Dutch economy as well as the society as a whole.‘The Netherlands Circular Hotspot’ campaign positions the Netherlands as an international circular hotspot during the time of the Dutch presidency of the EU in 2016. Circle Economy and prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme (INSID) are collaborating with a diverse group of decision makers and visionaries to discuss how The Netherlands can inspire governments and international businesses to take action.Follow the trade mission and other updated from NLCH on social media!
Twitter: @CircularHotspot and #NLCircularHotspot
Facebook: facebook.com/NLCircularHotspot
More information about circular showcases and business cases visit http://www.netherlandscircularhotspot.nl/home.html
How do logistics shape, enable and/or support the circular economy? And how to integrate circular (business) concepts and logistics in existing activities and make it commercially viable? These issues and more where point of discussion during the latest member Deep Dive on March 22 at FreedomLab, Amsterdam.Three panelists from the member community- Branko Schuurman (DHL), Florens Slob (Van Gansewinkel) and Rob Kragt (Desso) - engaged in a lively discussion with each other and the audience.The costs of take-back mechanisms and reverse logistics is often one of the biggest challenges for businesses engaged in circular concepts. Companies and business are currently dealing with not enough or fluctuating demand to make reverse logistics commercially feasible. For example, there is a huge amount of household and small technical equipment, such as cameras and cell phones, lying unused in people’s drawers and attics. These products, or at least some of the materials in them, have high residual value. Currently there hardly is an incentive to bring them back. What could and should be done to change this?Perception of value is another important aspects. As long as people perceive unused items as waste, there will be no trigger nor a perceived personal gain to bring products back. Consumers should be well aware that their end of life products are very valuable. On the logistics and costing side, companies are looking for possibilities to collect products/materials more efficiently. Technological developments, such as the internet of things, and tools for consumers getting involved in first and last mile logistics could have a huge impact.From the perspective of creating, using and optimizing circular logistics solutions, it is essential for all sectors to consider the entire supply chain rather than all the separate links. The strength of logistics lies not in optimising the quantity of transported tonnes per kilometre, but in the value (people, planet, profit) that is added per kilometre of transported goods. The need for return and service logistics is only increasing. Therefor a more vital question should be: which part of the value could be mine, what other value is created or cost prevented and where do I fit in the whole chain? There are still more than enough questions left unanswered and we are curious to see how the field of circular logistics will develop.
“Although it’s just a 2 hr meeting, this deep dive had the right angle, the right people to get into a intensive, in depth and lively discussion on this topic. These meetings leads to new partnerships and the ability to meet other companies (and people) willing to make a change and towards a circular economy.”Florens Slob, Director Business Development at Van Gansewinkel
Quarterly sector- or industry based Member Deep Dives are part of the membership offering. They are an excellent way for the Circle Community to meet, share insights, learnings and real life issues on specific topics, and contribute to creating business opportunities for and between members.To become a member, or learn more about the membership click here, or contact us directly via membership@circle-economy.com.
Last year November, the FIBERSORT partner consortium led by Circle Economy, submitted a phase 1 proposal for the ‘Market demonstration and validation of FIBERSORT technology’: an automated sorting technology able to sort large volumes of mixed post-consumer textiles based on material composition. Now, a year later, the partner consortium has successfully proceeded to the final step of the INTERREG NWE programme and is a serious contender to receive funding to support further plans.
The textiles industry is the second most polluting industry in the world and fashion is the second largest consumer and polluter of water. This is why over one year ago, Wieland Textiles, Valvan Baling Systems, Metrohm Applikon, Worn Again, Salvation Army ReShare and Circle Economy joined their forces in the Textile Sorting Project. The project aims to demonstrate FIBERSORT technology to the market in a demo plant to validate this as the key value adding innovation to enable the shift to high value recycling for recyclable textiles and create a tipping point for a closed loop textiles industry. The objective is to realize widespread implementation of the technology.
“We are proud to announce that the NWE Monitoring Committee has approved the proposal and all partners are excited and dedicated to submit the final phase 2 proposal by June 24th of this year”, comments Hélène Smits from Circle Economy.
Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) is a European Territorial Cooperation Programme funded by the European Commission with the ambition to make the North-West Europe area a key economic player and an attractive place to work and live, with high levels of innovation, sustainability and cohesion. It invests EUR 370 million of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in activities based on the cooperation of organisations from eight countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The Project
In North-West Europe ±4650 Kt of textiles are discarded every year, of which only ±30% is collected. Of these collected textiles ±40% is not suitable for re-wear and these recyclable textiles are currently being down cycled. Of these, ± 50% could be regenerated into new textiles through high value (textile to textile) recycling routes.
Essential to the success of this project is the collaboration between different stakeholders in the value chain. Within the partner consortium, all three domains that are needed to achieve the main objective and outputs are represented: textile recycling value chain (Wieland Textiles, Salvation Army ReShare, Worn Again), technology providers (Valvan Baling Systems, Metrohm), market uptake & implementation (Circle Economy and associate partner network).
Cities and urban areas are at the core of our current linear economy. The millions of people living in these areas here buy, consume and waste enormous amounts of products and materials. Urbanisation has caused 70% of the world’s population to live in cities. The growing number of urban consumers also means in increase in the influx of goods. People living in cities are responsible for 67% of the global energy consumption and 70% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Continuing with the way we utilise our resources, cities like Beijing, New Delhi, Milano and Brussels will face higher levels of air pollution and environmental degradation than ever before.Clearly, this is not what our city administrators desire. Their efforts are generally aimed at creating a community that is resilient, competitive and self-sufficient. They want to provide a healthy living environment where people can thrive and be happy, without having to worry about food, jobs or poverty. More and more cities also want to be climate neutral. This is why they are looking for concrete, practical and scalable solutions to change consumption patterns, rejuvenate industries and use waste as a resource. Treating waste as a resource opens up the possibilities for new forms of business – think for instance of repair cafes that provide a new life to discarded products or water purification plants in cities that retrieve ‘struvite’ from wastewater.Cities are key to starting the transition to the circular economy. Being the centres of political and financial power, the nodal points for many value chains and their waste streams, and the hotbeds for creative power and innovation, cities possess all the relevant levers to turn around our economy. This is also true for the scaling up of transformative economic activities: while current circular business models often focus on individual companies, applying a city focus can boost entire chains or sectors to move towards circularity. But what is perhaps more important is the influence of city administrators - unlike at the federal level - they are directly linked to the practical implementation that can happen ‘just around the corner’. They know their citizens and their citizens know them. A mayor can immediately see and feel the effects of change that he or she has introduced, on the road, in surrounding areas or in the air.
“This is where the strength of cities comes in - and this is why we need to make mayors heroes.”
- Andy Ridley, CEO, Circle Economy
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is convinced that the circular economy provides an answer to many challenges cities are confronted with. In the Livre Blanc de l’economie circulaire du Grand Paris (2015), she writes that she sees the circular economy as “An economy with the smallest impact on our environment, on our climate and also on our health” and states that “it is the direction we have to follow as of today”. Some 500 kilometers north of Paris, the alderman for sustainability of the city of Amsterdam, affirms: “The potential of a circular economy is enormous, and that is why we are focused on research and are willing to support anyone who strives to make the circular economy a reality in our city.”What is the real potential of the circular economy within a city? To answer this question Circle Economy developed the City Circle Scan. This tool allows cities to develop practical and scalable solutions to save resources while creating new jobs, a healthier environment and improved livability. A report about the possibilities for circularity within Amsterdam, published last year, shows that material reuse strategies have a potential of creating €85 million of value per year in the construction sector, while €150 million of value could be preserved when organic waste streams are handled more efficiently. In terms of total material savings in the Amsterdam metropolitan area, this could add up to nearly 900 thousand tons per year, a significant amount compared to the annual import of 3.9 million tonnes currently utilised by the region. Lastly, employment could be boosted through increased productivity levels adding up to 700 additional jobs in the construction sector and 1200 new jobs in the food processing industry.Paris and Amsterdam have set the first steps towards circularity and now more and more cities are becoming aware of the impact they can have on a global transition towards a circular economy. At this moment, Brussels and Glasgow are being ‘scanned’ for circular opportunities in order to create a roadmap for change. Other cities such as Vancouver, Taoyuan and Cape Town have indicated they have a strong drive to initiate the transition. The question now is: Who’s next?By: Ben Kubbinga, Lead Partnerships and Collaborations, Circle Economy
We have a global money system that must grow in order to survive, even if the real economy does not. Everything in nature is subject to deterioration, but money is immune to this. On the contrary, we have an interest-based economic system that is devouring nature in the name of growth. If this conversion of nature (commonwealth) into money happens at a rate faster than the rate of interest, then from a financial perspective everything is fine – although not necessarily from an ecological/social perspective. However, we are reaching the limits of our resources. So perhaps the end of growth in the real-world economy has arrived?
Is it possible to create a sustainable economic system when its very existence is based upon economic growth? Where does growth come from and how can we design our fundamental monetary structures to create wealth without growth?
Last Friday Pakhuis de Zwijger was most certainly the birthplace of some cutting edge thoughts and ideas about the circular economy. What fundamental institutions, such as government structures and social networks do we need to facilitate a circular economy? During a workshop about circular money, some of the key components of a circular economy were linked to our money system. This resulted in a joint awareness that with our current monetary system the circular economy is and will continue to be hindered. The workshop was lead by Elisa Achterberg, project manager of Circular Finance at Circle Economy. Experts in the panel were United Economy, Social Trade Circuit Nederland, Alliander.Martine Groenewegen shared her knowledge on the development of innovations in biobased and circular economy.
Two masterminds groups of 40 participants with diverse backgrounds put their minds together in an attempt to create alternative monetary systems, aiming to find solutions to facilitate a sustainable circular economy.
Eight different circular money systems were designed during the workshop. In some of the design systems, speculation was abolished to prevent money leakage to virtual – speculative – economies and money accumulation. In others, local economy activities were stimulated through introducing a 0% or negative interest rates. One brilliant design took creation to the next level and appointed the earth itself as a bank. In other designs blockchain technologies were introduced to take care of the administrative tasks together, instead of a centralised institution.
The outcome was a stream of interesting and inspiring ideas to draw further upon as we take more concrete steps to make a circular economy happen. One goal that recurred in all the system designs: the inevitable necessity to reconnect money with nature and the real economy. For thousands of years, before it took a life on its own, money was just a tool instead of an end on itself. And now, by an energy-fuelled fate we arrive at the point where we have to match the flow of money systems with the flow of intelligence within natural systems.
Driven by the outcomes of this session, Circle Economy continues to expand this topic and create pathways for applying new monetary systems. Solidair systems to turn the circular economy further into reality and stimulating collaboration.
We invite you – we challenge you – to join us in the conversation. Please share your thoughts with us on this topic and be part of our journey towards a circular economy.
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We are pleased to announce the completion of the first phase of the Circle Assessment pilot project, with our partner ACTIAM, a responsible asset management organisation with support of one of their portfolio companies, Smurfit Kappa, a leading corrugated and paper-based packaging company. Continued investment in a linear economy results in long-term, system-wide impacts and risks. Moving to a circular economy is increasingly recognized as an opportunity to reduce risk and uncover new growth opportunities. However, while a variety of tools exist for measuring and quantifying sustainability topics and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors, no tool currently exists that provides a comprehensive framework for circularity and specifically quantify how circular organisations are.To address this, Circle Economy developed the Circle Assessment to establish a global standard to help investors and companies assess where organisations can create value by following the principles of a circular economy. Via an online survey, the Circle Assessment measures organisations against circular objectives and provides recommendations for how to capitalise on opportunities to adopt circular focused business practices. As one of the launching customers of the assessment, ACTIAM desired a more comprehensive assessment for circularity and the ability to dive deeper into the non-financial criteria beyond the ESG scores they use currently. ACTIAM stated that “we are interested in deploying this assessment to multiple companies within our investment portfolio in order to identify leaders in the realm of circularity and reward them accordingly.” ACTIAM approached Smurfit Kappa for the pilot program to enable positive engagement with them on the topic of the circular economy.Smurfit Kappa’s reaction to the completion of the first phase was that “we were happy to support by testing the tool and providing feedback on the tool itself and how companies can interpret circularity in their businesses.”As the data is gathered from more companies within their portfolio, ACTIAM will have the opportunity to identify the key change makers and boost engagement with those investees that need help achieving circular objectives through our Circle Portfolio. This tool will provide investors with an overview of their portfolio and illustrate where each company lies in regards to the circular objectives measured during the Circle Assessment.With both ACTIAM and Smurfit Kappa’s feedback, the Circle Assessment has made significant strides towards becoming a global standard for evaluating a company’s circularity. We plan to engage in additional pilots with companies and partners to further test and refine the tool. If you are interested in learning more about the Circle Assessment or would like to participate in the pilot program, please contact shyaam@circle-economy.com.
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