As a response to my first blog, this post will be dedicated to reviewing some initiatives used to create a circular city. As some may know, Rotterdam is one of the leading cities regarding circular initiatives (Roadmap circular economy Rotterdam, 2016). Rotterdam articulates four main pillars for their circular activities, sharing economy, waste sector, urban development and food sector. Every pillar is elaborated on, and an example of interest will be given regarding the specific pillar.
Sharing economy: widespread sharing, which focuses on both information and products, creates more space and less usage that increases quality of life. An example of this is Waze, an interactive mapping application in which over 80 million individuals share information in order to reduce traffic congestion. By providing real-time data, potential congestion can be solved by offering alternative drive routes. At the moment Waze has partnerships with nearly 400 municipals through its Connected Citizens Program.
Waste sector: Households and small business recycle plastic, which will be used as material for, as example, 3d-printing. Also design of products is considered. An relating example is Gcycle. This organization focuses on eco-friendly diapers. The products of gCycle are 100% Compostable, by replasing oil-based plastic with corn biofilm. This new way of producing estimates to reduce the waste stream of the children diaper industry with 80%.
Urban development: New housing and infrastructure will be constructed from local recycled products; also information will be used to optimize resource usage. This implies that new building projects will be given certain standards for production, where current buildings get evaluated and adjusted to suit the circular economy vision better. An example of this is Project Sunroof, which is an initiative of Google, where Google Earth’s 3D images helps homeowners explore whether investing in solar panels on their roof would be profitable. This is done by analysing aerial mapping, 3D modelling of residential roofs and reflect this against the sun position, historical weather patterns, shadows casted by nearby buildings and average electricity consumption. At this moment, Project Sunroof’s database covers 67 million buildings, with 60 million buildings in the United States and 7 million buildings in Germany.
Food sector: Food waste will be minimized, and consumers will have more access to local produced food. An example of this is Google’s Leanpath. Leanpath generates data around food waste in cafes and restaurants. The automatized scales currently measure consumer food waste in 129 food establishments around the world. The gathered data helps with evaluating pre-consumer kitchen waste, and the portion of food that is served more accurately, which results in wasting less food. Google estimates that it globally avoided more than 1.500.000 lbs of food waste in 2016 by using Leanpath.
Since it is expected that 75% of the global population will life in urban centers by 2050, applying circular economy initiatives in corporation with municipals seem to be an efficient way to impact overall society. In my opinion, mentioned initiatives showcase the potential information and technology projects have for the circular economy. The challenge of implementating circular initiatives and will require collaboration within and between all members of society, municipals, governments, the private sector, universities as well as non-government organizations.
References:
Rotterdam Climate Initative (2016) Retrieved October 15, 2017 from: http://www.rotterdamclimateinitiative.nl/documents/2016/roadmap-circular-economy.pdf
Ellenmacarthurfoundation. Retrieved October 15, 2017 from https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/Cities-in-the-Circular-Economy-The-Role-of-Digital-Tech.pdf
Peter Lacy (2017) Retrieved October 15, 2017 from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/new-tech-sustainable-circular-economy/
