Circularity is Key to Sustainable Place Economy and Resilient Local Societies
Place economy builds upon the natural, human and societal values that exist in and around a place. Investing in a place-based economy promotes local and regional business, increases resilience and creates thriving communities — and it turns out that using circular strategies is a key success factor.
Economics could be described as our common global language, and we must be aware that it doesn’t just describe the functions of the market — but most importantly, it describes value. We must also be aware that what constitutes value differs in place and time. In recent years, for example, our global economic language has been enriched with new sustainable value concepts, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the EU Taxonomy.
When developing the economy of a place, we need to understand what constitutes value in that specific place and how we can develop and capture that value. This was the topic of the session “Resilient Local Societies — Sustainable Place Economy” at the Nordic Circular Summit 2022.
Place economy: How to develop and capture the value of a place
To get the full picture of all values of a place, we need to look at it from different perspectives. Einar Kleppe Holthe from Natural State suggests that there are three dimensions that are central to understanding the values of a place:
The natural value, e.g. what are the environmental, circular and contextual values?
The human value, e.g. what are the identity, relational and emotional values?
The societal value, e.g. what are the innovation, collaboration and cultural values?
By identifying these values and understanding what valuable activities that can take place in all these dimensions, we can also understand how value can be developed and captured in a market context and, thus, build healthy local business models and a strong place economy.
“What is the neighbourhood magic that makes us come together? How can we weave an urban fabric where we knit together the social and physical infrastructure?”
Creating place-based value is also the focus of the Norwegian Mission Neighbourhood programme that is run by Oslo Architecture Triennale, aiming to find answers to the questions: What is the neighbourhood magic that makes us come together? How can we weave an urban fabric where we knit together the social and physical infrastructure?
Slide from Christian Pagh’s presentation “Thinking Neighbourhoods — The potential of the neighbourhood scale and community design”.
Director and chief curator, Christian Pagh, argues that, in order to achieve this, we need to develop a language that combines urban form, i.e. architecture and city planning; urban life, i.e. social infrastructure and community; and urban leadership, i.e. public governance. In the spirit of this new language, we can develop urban areas that enable encounters, inspire interaction and create a sense of belonging. If efforts on the neighbourhood scale are also supported by a systems design on a regional level, we’ll have all the ingredients we need for knitting an urban fabric of thriving communities and vibrant neighbourhoods.
Collaboration is key to sustainable place development
Picture from Søren Hermansen’s presentation “Samsø: the Energy Self-Sufficient Island”.
A stunning example of place-based value development is the Danish island of Samsø, where the local community has initiated and implemented a transition to a 100% self-sufficient, sustainable energy production over a ten-year period, resulting in a reduction of CO2 emissions by 3,7 tonnes per inhabitant. Søren Hermansen, Director of Samsø Energy, explained that joint ownership between the people of the island has been the key to success. And it’s not just about the financial value or owning shares but at least as important is the mental feeling of ownership and meaning.
“You know that this creates jobs, it creates a better local circular economy, it creates a greater commitment among people, this is us formulating a community. We did this!” Hermansen explains.
“We need to bring the hippies, the visionaries and the activists around the table together with the business people, the people in power and the banks.”
He stresses that everybody must be invited to the collaboration to achieve concrete and sustainable results. “We need to bring the hippies, the visionaries and the activists around the table together with the business people, the people in power and the banks so that the vision can be formulated in practical actions. We need to do that in a cooperative way and not in opposition to each other. We have to work together to do this.”
Slide from Theodóra Þorsteinsdóttir’s presentation “Keflavik airport, four municipalities and the global goals. Policymaking with the local communities”.
The same conclusions have been drawn in Iceland where Isavia, the company operating Icelandic airports, initiated a project in 2019 for strengthening relations and collaboration with the local communities in the four municipalities of Suðurnesjavettvangur. Theodóra Þorsteinsdóttir, who is the project manager of airport planning and development at Isavia, explains that the project was able to bring together Government Ministers, businesses and the local community in formulating a common strategic framework for a sustainable future in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The collaboration resulted in a number of shared goals for the region and, in 2021, they reached a milestone when a declaration was signed between companies and municipalities to develop a circular eco-industrial park in the region.
Circular strategies create resilient local societies
According to Vojtech Vosecky, Nordic Associate of Circle Economy, the current rate of global population growth implies that we will need to build a city the size of Houston (with about 2 million inhabitants) every week for the next 30 years (!). In order to grow sustainably, Vosecky argues that city development must follow some key circular principles:
Aim for zero waste
Minimise consumption
Turn waste into resources
Regenerate ecosystems
Do all of the above locally
“I would even argue that we don’t have a choice. We have to build our cities and regions circular. Because if we don’t, we are heading for real trouble on this planet,” he states.
Slide from Vojtech Vosecky’s presentation of the circularity of cities and regions.
The scale of growth shows that cities and regions are at the heart of the global circular economy transition. In all city development, we must make sure to create local value and enable local businesses to thrive. Essential resources like water, food and construction materials, for example, should be sourced and kept in the loop locally for as long as possible without losing quality. Circular purchases should be the norm in public procurement processes since with every circular decision we make, we can save money, encourage more circular business models and create greater demand for local circular businesses.
Vosecky’s views are supported by Dr Ewelina Szczech-Pietkiewicz from the Warsaw School of Economics, who has analysed the Polish economy in terms of regional resilience, i.e. how well regions can absorb and adjust to shocks — and even come out stronger. Her analysis shows that circularity is a crucial element of a resilient economy.
“The reason we’re speaking about circularity when it comes to building resilient regions is that it turned out that circularity is one of the best strategies to build resilient regions.”
The connection between circularity and resilience became obvious for the group of people who were working on the Circularity Gap Report Poland which was released in 2022. To their surprise, Dr Szczech-Pietkiewizc recounts, it turned out that the Polish circularity metric is high, especially when compared to the Norwegian and Swedish metrics. When looking for answers, part of the explanation could be found in Poland having a rather low material footprint and high usage of secondary materials. But this was not the only reason.
Slide from Dr Ewelina Szczech-Pietkiewicz’s presentation of circular cities and regions.
When digging deeper, the research team found that locality was a crucial factor for good results. One thing that stood out as a contributing factor is that the Polish economy has a high degree of local value chains, especially in manufacturing and food production. Another important factor is that there is a high degree of community and business engagement in applying the circular R strategies on a daily basis — in the case of businesses the reason simply being that the R strategies are profitable. “The reason we’re speaking about circularity when it comes to building resilient regions is that it turned out that circularity is one of the best strategies to build resilient regions and the last couple of shocks that the Polish and global economy went through proved that,” points out Dr Szczech-Pietkiewizc.
Nordic countries should take the lead towards circular economy
The fact that we live in an era of great uncertainty, that a circular economy is key to building resilient local societies and that the circularity metrics of Nordic countries are very low should be a wake-up call. We need to act now.
Emilia Nygård, presenting “The new perspective on the old society”.
Emilia Nygård, Vice-chair of Regeneration2030, stated that we must plan for the unknown and build resilient societies. Just like her co-speakers, she stressed that collaboration is needed to achieve the transition to a circular economy and to stay resilient.
“A resilient community is many things but mostly it is connected, and it is this togetherness that we need in order to make this transition towards better communities,” she states.
She urges every individual and the whole Nordic society to take concrete action instead of just speaking empty words of a better future: “A transition of all kinds of resilient communities is needed and Nordic countries must take the lead.”
If we follow Emila Nygård’s advice and take action now, together, the Nordics are in a good position to accelerate the circular transition. Vojtech Vosecky mentions a number of values that are particularly strong in the Nordic countries that give us a great possibility to take the lead:
“The Nordics are an inspiring region but they have a lot to catch up with. The circularity is low but the impact they can have with their innovation, their R&D, and the climate movement is insane. I think, in a few years, the Nordics will be leading.”
Will we, really? Well, that is up to you and me.
Written by Sofia Sundström (Cradlenet)
