European cities recognised for circular economy achievements

Brussels, Munich and Gothenburg have each received awards from EUROCITIES, during the city network’s annual conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for best practices within the circular economy field.

Innovation

Brussels Capital Region was awarded Innovation prize for its initiative, ‘Be Circular, Be Brussels’, which supports entrepreneurs, startups and businesses in the development of innovative ‘circular’ business ideas. The judges were impressed by the way the initiative engages stakeholders in its promotion, ultimately making it more credible among its target audience, the private sector. In 2016 the initiative received 85 project proposals of which 41 were selected, creating 30 jobs.

“The current economic model cannot respond to the challenges we are facing, economically, socially and climatically,” said Julien Dumont, Adviser to Brussels Minister for the Environment, on accepting the prize. “But the circular economy can respond to these challenges and this is especially so in cities.”

The project is growing and released its second call in February this year with a budget of € 1.7 million. The jury noted how it is successfully integrating the concepts of the circular economy in new businesses, benefiting the environment and creating jobs.

Cooperation

Munich beat Brussels Capital Region and Tampere to take the prize for Cooperation. Munich’s Halle 2 is a public second hand store that offers citizens affordable used products. The jury recognised that the project actively engages and involves the municipality, social companies and citizens. The project educates citizens in how to repair old items, and its knowledge platform allows them to share reuse ideas; increasing the number of recycled items.

“Before second hand stuff would be bought by people who probably couldn’t afford first hand goods,” Sonja Haider, City Councillor, Munich, told Cities Today. “But with Halle 2 it’s a bright new shop, that is very nice to go in with all the goods nicely displayed.”

Halle 2 also hosts different events from a repair café, auction, and lecture themes.

“This is really reaching out, and so people are coming now who before would never have entered a second hand shop,” Haider added. “This concept is the new thing.”

Participation

Gothenburg won for it’s ‘smart map’ in the category of Participation. Celebrating its one-year anniversary the day after the awards, the smart map is a digital map based on the participation of local inhabitants and a public partnership. By using the application citizens can share, swap or give away their seldom used items or offer services.

Through several public ‘map jam events’ local initiatives helped to give shape to the project, which now shows around 100 organisations. It is a continuously evolving map, to which any citizen or organisation can propose new initiatives.

“In Sweden we have an ideas based public partnership model where we enter the local government into a partnership with an NGO,” explained Tove Lund, Planning Manager and Sustainable Consumption, City of Gothenburg. “We do that when we don’t do a normal procurement, it’s a different way of reaching out.”

The jury was impressed how the smart map brings together circular and sharing economy projects and stakeholders from across the city in one easy to use tool. The jury appreciated the app’s convenience and how it allows citizens to participate directly in the circular economy.

Lund told Cities Today that next year Gothenburg is looking at making the map open source as “a lot of other cities in Sweden have contacted us and said they’d like a similar map. They can just take the platform and fill it with their information”.

Members of the jury included; Tjaša Ficko Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana; Karl Falkenberg, Senior Fellow at Oxford University; Alenka Kreč Bricelj, member of the creative tandem Smetumet, NGO; and Lana Žutelija, Policy Officer at the Directorate General for Environment of the European Commission.