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Circular development in the world’s cities will be essential in achieving global climate goals. 45% of emissions come from how we make and use products, and how we produce food. The circular economy provides a framework for using resources differently, allowing us to better operate within the confines of the planet. However, a report by Circle Economy earlier this year found that our global economy has become less circular since 2018, indicating that we are heading in the wrong direction.
The principles of a circular economy are thus highly relevant to cities, yet for many this is a new topic that at first is not easy to relate to city functions. Since 2015, Circle Economy’s Cities Programme has worked with over 20 cities to develop well-informed circular economy strategies based on material flow data and the local socio-economic context. To allow more cities to conduct these assessments, the process is being digitised in the form of an open-access online tool called the “Circle City Scan Tool”.
The Circle City Scan Tool aims to allow any local government or city change agent to identify and prioritise circular opportunities for their city or region, based on socioeconomic and material flow data about their context. The tool has been developed in its prototype version by Circle Economy with support from the MAVA Foundation.
To ensure the tool can be adapted to fit different regional contexts and addresses the practical needs of cities, ICLEI experts will be testing the tool with 10 pilot cities from 3 world regions (see full list below) and will provide recommendations for improvements to the tool based on their long-standing expertise working with local governments on local sustainability plans and circular economy projects.
The ten cities participating in the pilot include:
1. Accra, Ghana
2. Cape Town, South Africa
3. Nairobi, Kenya
4. Rabat, Morocco
5. Batangas, Philippines
6. Bogor City, Indonesia
7. Bogor Regency, Indonesia
8. Quezon, Philippines
9. Bonn, Germany
10. Turku, Finland
“We are excited to be testing the Circle City Scan Tool to identify priorities for the circular economy transition that complements Batangas City's ambition to be a liveable green city vis-a-vis being a premium agro and highly industrialised city. There is a pressing need to strike a balance between being eco-friendly and safe and urbanisation.” says Mayor Beverley Rose A. Dimacuha from Batangas City, one of the 10 pilot cities.
ICLEI experts will guide the pilot cities through the tool, support data collection and stakeholders engagement. The analysis will provide the pilot cities with an overview of how much of the materials flowing through their jurisdiction are consumed and wasted, and where they can intervene to shift their economies toward circularity.
“The Circle City Scan Tool will enable us to learn more about the circular economy and further advance our environmental sustainability initiatives” says Ms. Andrea Valentine A. Villaroman from the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department of Quezon, one of the pilot cities.
“Through the piloting of the Circle City Scan Tool we aim at identifying additional, more qualitative features that could be integrated into the platform to make it as collaborative and inclusive as possible, in line with how we frame Circular Development across our network.” Burcu Tuncer, Head of Circular Development at ICLEI World Secretariat.
Circle Economy and ICLEI will work together to incorporate these additional features and resources to complement the tool in the lead up to the ICLEI World Congress 2021.
“This exciting collaboration with ICLEI will provide valuable insights into cities’ circular economy needs, which will help to strengthen the tool and make it more useful to a wider range of cities. In time, we hope that the tool will help ICLEI’s regional offices to guide many more cities on their journey toward circularity, creating positive impact at a global scale.” Blake Robinson, Senior Strategist at Circle Economy
If your city needs guidance on its transition to a circular economy, please let us know what kind of help you need via this 15 min survey.
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About ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability: ICLEI is a global network of more than 1,750 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 100+ countries, ICLEI influences sustainability policy and drives local action for low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development. ICLEI's Members and team of experts work together through peer exchange, partnerships and capacity building to create systemic change for urban sustainability.
About Circle Economy: Circle Economy is an Amsterdam-based impact organisation that connects and empowers a global community to create the conditions for systemic transformation toward a circular economy. Their Cities Programme works with businesses, cities and governments to identify opportunities for transition, and provides a powerful combination of practical and scalable solutions to turn these opportunities into reality. Circle Economy has helped over 20 cities on their journey toward a circular economy.
Circle Economy is pleased to be collaborating with RECYC-QUÉBEC to enable Québec's stakeholders to monitor the transition to a circular economy based on a solid analysis.
To do so, we will develop a 'Circularity Gap Report for Québec' (CGR Québec), where we will:
RECYC-QUÉBEC’s mission is to lead Québec to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover residual materials to promote a circular economy and fight against climate change.
Fundamental to their mission as a government corporation, the circular economy represents a future avenue for Québec and as a first-line actor in this transition, RECYC-QUÉBEC has put forward numerous projects aiming to roll out different circular economy strategies and has shared its expertise as part of several events and presentations.
This partnership inscribes itself within the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative: a Circle Economy initiative that highlights the urgent need to transition to a circular economy by delivering an annual global circularity report that measures the state of the world economy and identifies key levers for the global transition, and by providing insights into the circularity gap of individual countries and sectors.
The first edition of the Circularity Gap Report introduced the world’s first global circularity metric in 2018, and delivered a sobering statistic: the world was only 9% circular then, and in 2020, this figure dropped to 8.6% circular. The metric has provided a common framework and fact base to measure the world's state of circularity and to monitor annual progress in bridging the gap.
All three editions of the Global Circularity Gap Report were presented on stage at the World Economic Forum, with significant global media coverage from The Guardian, Forbes, La Tribune, The Economist, the BBC, National Geographic, and more. As the last edition of the global report invites countries to lead the circular transition, national circularity gap studies have now also increased, with studies done in Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway.
Over the next few months, we will be inviting representatives from different organisations and sectors in the province of Québec to join a coalition and contribute their insights to the report.
For more information, get in touch through the Circle Economy contact form.
'Creating City Portraits', the methodology for downscaling Kate Raworth's Doughnut to the city, is now available for cities to use and adapt. Combining local aspirations with global responsibilities, the methodology provides a tool for cities to transition to an ecologically safe and socially just place.
The methodology is the first of the suite of tools that will be developed in close collaboration between Circle Economy, DEAL, C40 Cities and Biomimicry 3.8. Our joint Thriving Cities Initiative takes cities on a journey to become thriving places, while respecting the wellbeing of all people and the whole planet.
We believe the circular economy is part of the answer.
With the turn of the new year, 2020 launched the world into a chaos that had long been predicted, but hardly prepared for. But if we’ve learnt anything from 2020 so far, it’s to ‘never let a crisis go to waste’.
At Circle Economy, the past year has strengthened our resolve to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy and to ensure a socially just and ecologically safe space for all.
Circle Economy's impact report covers some of our work in the past 12 months, as well as our reflections on how circularity and resilience have become intimately linked in our activities and with the broader ecosystem of stakeholders we work with.
Circularity presents significant opportunities for local labour markets. If embraced with the right mindset, it can promote decent work and create new, more diverse skill sets and job roles.
In the past few months, Tevi and Circle Economy collaborated to increase local awareness of the circular economy in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the UK.
As part of this collaboration, Circle Economy assessed the number of jobs related to the circular economy using our Circular Jobs Monitor, ran a three-week circularity in-depth course for SMEs, and set up the Circle Assessment Tool that enables businesses to understand and identify which circular opportunities are relevant to them.
Launching today, our baseline analysis report finds that 8.5% of all jobs in the region are already circular. It also recommends concrete steps for policymakers to take in order to realise the opportunities of the circular economy.
Download the full report below.
The data from the report is now also available on the Circular Jobs Monitor: an online monitor that displays the amount and type of jobs that are part of the circular economy, with data already available for the Netherlands and Belgium.
You can read more on the collaboration and what embracing the circular economy means to a local, coastal region like Cornwall, in this blog by Tevi's Project Manager, Dan Bloomfield.
The Circular Jobs Initiative introduces its Advisory Board, which will help to inform the strategic positioning of the initiative and guide the research agenda and best practice development.
The Advisory Board includes three research partners, being Kris Bachus (Research Manager Climate and Sustainability, HIVA- KU Leuven), Ödül Bozkurt (Senior Lecturer, University of Sussex Business School) and Antonius Schröder (Scientist, TU Dortmund Social Research Centre). They have a background in the focus areas of the initiative: skilling the workforce, quality of work, and inclusive labour market.
Alongside our research partners, we welcome Kari Herlevi (Project Director, Circular Economy, Sitra) and Reniera O'Donnell (Higher Education Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation) as programme partners to our board. They come from civil society and are working to raise the profile of issues related to education and employment in the circular economy on national and international levels.
We look forward to working in collaboration with our Advisory Board over the next two years.
“The initiative is very welcome and much needed for us to understand more thoroughly the impacts a transition to a circular economy could have on employment and needed skills, and consequently what kind of measures to support and address the changes are needed. Wide cooperation between policy makers, industries, researchers and employees is vital to manage the transition and make it inclusive and fair.” - Kari Herlevi, Project Director, Circular Economy, Sitra
'I am delighted to be part of the CJI Advisory Board. This is a great opportunity to share all the learning from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's work with the higher education sector and our business networks as well as learning from the CJI. I look forward to being able to help shape and steer this key area in driving forward the transition to a circular economy'. - Reniera O'Donnell, Higher Education Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
"I am highly interested to join the Advisory Board of the Circular Jobs Initiative to ensure exchange between the European co-funded Skills Alliance for Industrial Symbiosis (SPIRE-SAIS). Skilling the workforce and improving the quality of work is vital for implementing and unfolding the potential of new technologies in the direction of a sustainable and symbiotic industrial circle economy. So let’s join forces to move in this direction." - Antonius Schröder, Scientist, TU Dortmund Social Research Centre
"The circular transition promises multiple benefits, but it won't be straightforward to ensure they are all delivered at the same time. How do we align a move away from the environmental damages of the linear economy with the creation of large numbers of high-quality jobs? This agenda could not be more important or timely. Circular work must be accessible, rewarding, decent work. I am really excited to join the conversation CE has started on this and keen to contribute to the effort with a sociological sensibility that remains sensitive to both the material and the subjective experiences of work and employment." - Ödül Bozkurt, Senior Lecturer, University of Sussex Business School
The Coalition Circular Accounting is a collaboration between Circle Economy, NBA, Invest-NL, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Triodos Bank, KPMG, Allen & Overy, Sustainable Finance Lab and scientists associated with Nyenrode Business University and Avans Hogeschool.
This coalition is part of the many on-the-ground initiatives in the Netherlands working to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, boosted by the Dutch government’s ambitious goals: 50% circular by 2030, and 100% by 2050.
An earlier report by Circle Economy found that the global economy is consuming 100 billion tonnes of materials a year for the first time ever, but reuse of resources has gone into reverse, with global circularity – the percentage of materials being reused – falling from 9.1% to 8.6%. The report also called for nations to establish roadmaps for circularity.
In a circular economy, suppliers and providers of different types (hardware, consumables, and service providers) collaborate to optimise the lifetime of the assets they provide, either as a service or in different models that emphasise use over consumption. This collaboration spans from pre-use to post-use, and can be represented in terms of a value hill for any product; for example, a washing machine, or a set of headphones.
However, the businesses trying to make headway are often faced with existing reporting and valuation rules (based on a linear economy) and the economic principles that underpin them, that are not fit for purpose.
Throughout 2020, the coalition will bring together financial, accounting, legal, and other experts to discuss and work out the case of three specific, existing circular business models with a valuation or reporting issue.
These cases are chosen based on how applicable the findings could be to other cases elsewhere. These are made freely available in the form of whitepapers and ready-to-use resources.
“The Circular Accounting Coalition is based on a proven model of Circle Economy and partners. In the past, we’ve collaborated with a team of finance and accounting experts to finetune the business cases and with legal experts to create contract templates for intra- and entrepreneurs to help them kick-start their circular business models. They address the more practical aspects of a circular economy– what happens after the executive stamp of approval.” says Aglaia Fischer, project manager at Circle Economy.
'Circularity, the energy transition, sustainable entrepreneurship or sustainability is about economic lifetimes, determining the cost price, valuation problems, depreciation periods, residual values and business models. That is 100% our profession'. says Fou-Khan Tsang, chartered accountant and driving force of the NBA Planet Finance
The coalition is now delving into the case of three Dutch facade builders – Alkondor, Blitta en De Groot & Visser – that have entered into a partnership to offer Facades-as-a-Service: a pilot for a customisable, dismantlable facade that provides a building with ventilation, sunlight regulation and energy generation, all controllable by remote control. The three facade builders work together with area developer AM to realize the pilot project; Facade-as-a-Service in the Bajes Kwartier area development in Amsterdam.
The coalition will look at the opportunities and risks this entails for the three facade builders, what joint venture structure works best and how contracts can be formulated.
If you are interested in participating in the Coalition Circular Accounting, or would like to know more, please contact us through our Finance Programme page.
If you would like to stay up to date on the CoalitionCircular Accounting, please sign up to our newsletter below.
For press enquiries, please contact us through our press contact form.
Circle Economy has successfully launched the Circular Jobs Initiative with a kick-off event in Amsterdam in March 2020, an online event during Circular City Week New York and an online event in partnership with the European Policy Centre on 16th June 2020.
During this final event, Fostering Decent Work in the Circular Economy, we were joined by 175 guests from across sectors and an esteemed panel of speakers, including Benjamin Denis (IndustriAll), Marek Harsdorff (International Labour Organisation), Ryan Gellert (Patagonia), William Neale (European Commission), with moderation by Claire Dhéret (European Policy Centre). Together, we explored the interlinkages between the transition to a more circular economy and quality jobs, drawing on our recent report on Jobs & Skills in the Circular Economy: State of Play and future Pathways.
Have you missed the event? Listen back to it here.
The launch of the Circular Jobs Initiative is only the beginning. Would you like to stay in the loop on the Circular Jobs Initiative and be informed about upcoming events? Register for our newsletter.
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