Cities

A new report by SYSTEMIQ, in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and sponsored by SUN, has identified ten attractive circular innovation and investment priorities for Europe until 2025, totalling €320 billion. The report was launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2017. "This new, inspiring report is a useful and timely contribution to help us focus our efforts and resources on the most promising aspects of the circular economy" Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

With a rapidly-growing urban population, the decisions we make NOW about where and how we live will be with us for many decades to come. This article looks at how the circular economy can be applied to the built environment so urban planners can benefit from a systems approach.

Find out more about the work of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

This short article links to research that shows how the circular economy framework is affecting how we design for the built environment.

This article references recent developments in cities that point towards a circular economy

What will the future of mobility look like? The experts interviewed in this show at the Disruptive Innovation Festival 2016 argue that we face a future of on-demand ride sharing, where ownership of a private motor vehicle will be increasingly unlikely, and automated vehicles commonplace.

Continuing population growth and urbanisation are projected to add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050. This leaves two pressing questions: how will they live, and where will they live? In this recorded event for DIF 2016, we were joined by two guests with plenty of experience in dealing with some of the challenges posed by cities: Melanie Nutter and Shyaam Ramkumar. Melanie is the former Director of San Francisco Department of the Environment, while Shyaam is part of a team at Circle Economy who investigated how the city of Amsterdam could be transformed by taking inspiration from the circular economy. Watch this show to hear how our experts believe we can rise to meet the urban challenges of today and tomorrow.

Flows and interactions between economic activities can be measured with respect to information, materials, people movements, and social linkages. As these flows affect as much as they are shaped by the very structure of urban centres, what are the main factors to be considered when envisaging a transition to more circular models?

Why is Amsterdam such a hot spot for the sharing economy? And what is the relationship between the sharing economy and the circular economy? This documentary seeks to answer these questions.

In a circular economy, growth comes from ‘within’, by increasing the value derived from existing economic structures, products and materials. This major report quantifies the benefits for Europe – in terms of growth, household income, and environmental outcomes – of adopting a circular development path compared with our current linear one. Incorporating in-depth analysis of three of Europe’s largest basic needs, mobility, food and the built environment, the report provides a vision of how the circular economy could look, and highlights wide-ranging implications for government and business leaders. This report was sponsored by SUN (Stiftungsfonds für Umweltökonomie und Nachhaltigkeit) in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

Imagine if we could print buildings in situ. Well, we can! Meet a team of architects and designers in Amsterdam who are doing precisely that - they are 3D printing a 4-story canal house.

This short animation introduces the concept of a 'regenerative city'. Produced by the University of Sheffield for the Disruptive Innovation Festival in 2016, the video explores how we need to take a systems approach to city design