Joint Policy Workshop: Addressing transformative innovation towards joint programming on Circular Economy: Urban Circularity Hotspots

The aim of this workshop was to work on sustainable and CE-oriented governance, aided by an “Urban Circularity Hotspot Framework”. This framework is aimed at measuring progress towards CE on a city/municipality level and providing insights into Circularity Hotspots which are specifically interesting and/or impactful to address.  In the workshop, we introduced the framework and the accompanying tool. Participants learned more about Urban Circularity and Circularity Hotspots and had the opportunity to share their own related experiences, challenges, and solutions.

The Urban Circularity Hotspot is one tool in the method of creating systemic policy mixes that address business, civil society, policymakers, and research and innovation. During workshops, one of the steps was to address cross-relations between different actor groups, one of which was consumers – citizens. In that way, discussions and policy prototypes created were directed towards reduction, or rather a change of the type of consumption and the necessity of collaboration with local (manufacturing) companies and SMEs in relation to systemically decreasing reliance on major material and energy throughput. One of the conclusions was that the two-sided lever, production, and consumption must be jointly addressed to change the habits of citizens, but also to incentivize sustainably, but viable development in cities.

Workshops held were actually designed to initiate collaborative, systemic thinking and find necessities and ways how the production/consumption urban system could be less wasteful and more circular including innovation as its driving force. In this, one city should gain an advantage in attracting citizens and prevent emigration, especially brain-drain, to reduce waste obligations and create a healthier environment and more responsible environment to create business and transform into a circular city.