Information and technology initiatives to build a circular city.

17

October

2017

No ratings yet.

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/

 

 

Please rate this

Information strategy challenges to amplify the circular economy

14

October

2017

5/5 (1)

From ordering food to curing diseases, technological developments are transforming every aspect of life nowadays. Hereby disrupting former well established, stable industries and providing opportunities for new, profitable and sustainable initiatives. Businesses have exploited natural resources in a linear manner, using raw materials for manufacturing, where products get used by consumers and eventually discarded. However these natural resources are rapidly growing scarce, driving up the prices and, impacting the profitability (Accenture, 2017). An alternative for this traditional straight-line business model could be circular economy. Circular economy is seen as a sustainable development strategy, which is being proposed to tackle urgent problems of environmental degradation and resource scarcity, Circular economy is based on the 3R principles: reduce, reuse and recycle materials (Heshmati, 2015). It is characterized as an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, whilst distinguishing between technical and biological cycles (Ellenmacarthurfoundation.org, 2016). A study conducted by the German Federal Environment Ministry (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 2017) articulates that the circular economy could especially benefit from information technology, as well as the ‘still to be overtaken’ challenges.
1. Underdeveloped availability of information:
Information could provide insights in the quality of secondary materials, which is crucial when it comes to reuse. Also there is insufficient information available regarding the quantities of recycled resources on the market, which limits the possibility for economies of scale.

2. Increased transaction and search costs:
This lack of information regarding the quality increases transaction and search costs makes the pricing processes more complicated as well as increases the need for contracts and guarantees.

3. Potential customers have a distorted perception:
Customers view secondary materials as inferior because of the lack of knowledge regarding the usability and quality of secondary materials.

4. Technological barriers:
Recyclability is not perceived as a competitive advantage. Therefore organizations do not focus on recycling during the design process, which increases the cost of recycling.

In my opinion, information technology has the potential to amplify circular economy initiatives by providing remote visibility, as well as asset control. More insights in the quality of secondary materials would convince consumers from their quality. The potential of platforms to incorporate value chains, as well as increase visibility of circular economy initiatives offer the potential of economies of scale. Furthermore by using appropriate data analytics, for example cluster analysis, key areas for specific circular economy activities can be found.

Heshmati, A. (2016). A Review of the Circular Economy and its Implementation. Browser Download This Paper.

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. (2017, August 22). The circular economy: Resource-efficient and digital. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 9, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170822103214.htm

Accenture. (2017) Retrieved October 9, 2017 from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-using-digital-tech-spin

Accenture. (2017) Retrieved October 9, 2017 from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/new-tech-sustainable-circular-economy
Ellenmacarthurfoundation. (2017) Retrieved October 9, 2017 from https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/Cities-in-the-Circular-Economy-The-Role-of-Digital-Tech.pdf

Please rate this