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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
The Amsterdam City Doughnut: How to Create a Thriving City for a Thriving Planet
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Circle Economy
Jun 12
What makes a thriving city? That’s the question that Circle Economy, the self-described ‘renegade economist’ Kate Raworth and the City of Amsterdam will answer at We Make The City, a showcase for urban innovation to be held in Amsterdam from June 19.
Applying principles from Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics, the Amsterdam City Doughnut is a deeply collaborative process involving more than 40 officials from the city. The participants will work together to co-create an agenda for change, to create a circular Amsterdam works for both city residents and the planet.
The event coincides with the publication of Building blocks for the new strategy Amsterdam Circular 2020–2025, a report from a multi-stakeholder collaboration to adapt the Doughnut model to guide the creation of policies for a truly thriving Amsterdam. The document charts a strategy to guide development of the city’s circular economy over the next five years.
Thriving People, Thriving Planet
A thriving city will meet the core societal needs of all: from education to health, housing, gender and racial equality. At the same time, thriving cities must safeguard the boundaries of both the local and global environment: to minimise climate change, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification and so on. This vision of a safe and just space for humanity is represented by the concept of the ‘Doughnut’, created by Kate Raworth in her 2018 bestseller Doughnut Economics.
To date, cities fall short of this ambition. Warnings of climate change are increasingly severe, while gaps of wealth inequality and circularity continue to rise. To meet the challenges of the 21st Century, we need a tool fit for our increasingly urbanised 21st Century. By bringing the Doughnut to the city, policy-makers can re-imagine urban prosperity within a framework that balances local vision with global responsibility.
Blueprint for a City Doughnut
Harnessing the pragmatism of city planners, Amsterdam has embarked on a journey shaped by collaboration and innovation. In a series of workshops guided by Circle Economy and Kate Raworth, city representatives from various municipal departments — from health to environment, housing to mobility — worked together to define the trajectory for a thriving city.
Each city official brought departmental targets from Amsterdam’s city vision, a total of 49 goals.
Mapping each of these targets onto the Doughnut, municipal departments which often work in isolation, were able to pinpoint the social and ecological connections within urban policies. For example, how might the city’s greenery influence the health of citizens? What impacts might boosting food security have on greenhouse gas emissions?
The workshop sessions were designed from the ground up, with elements of gamification to encourage co-creation. City officials tackled pressing local challenges in education, energy, health and recycling — to reveal new synergies and solutions.
Circular strategies
For Amsterdam, or any other city, an environment that respects both local and global ecological boundaries can only be achieved through a circular economy. This entails new possibilities to create local value and sustainable jobs, for example in ‘closing the loop’ to harvest, recycle and re-use natural resources. At the same time, it is crucial to ensure that circular economy policies work for all citizens.
The City Doughnut has given city officials an analytical compass to navigate circular initiatives that contribute positively to both the social and ecological prosperity of the city. Focused on three priority value chains — Biomass and Food, Construction, Consumer Goods — the collaborative process developed 17 circular policy initiatives for Amsterdam. These span the diversity of the city ecosystem:
Circular food production in urban and peri-urban areas: Local initiatives in regenerative food production, such as Pluk!, foster local nutrient cycles while creating business opportunities for local communities.
Prevent over-consumption and minimise use of fast-moving consumer goods: Innovative businesses, such as Bundles’ household appliances-as-a-service model, promote access over ownership. By extending the life of materials, city residents gain access to a range of quality products, while reducing overall resource consumption.
Circular building development through flexible zoning and regenerative design: to promote sustainable and healthy lifestyles for all, urban districts should adapt to evolving area-specific demands in the provision of regenerative energy, water and waste systems, such as Buiksloterham in Amsterdam Noord.
Amsterdam Circular 2020–2025
The process and outcomes from the Amsterdam City Doughnut workshops are summarised in a new report, Building blocks for the new strategy Amsterdam Circular 2020–2025. The report surveys the circular opportunities which cut across municipal departments.
By breaking down silos and facilitating cross-cutting collaboration, the process is as powerful as the City Doughnut model itself. To build on this work, Circle Economy, Kate Raworth and the City of Amsterdam have kicked-off a new phase of workshops with city residents.
Involving local Amsterdammers at this early stage in the ideation of circular strategies will test the relevance of the policy environment to the daily lives of residents. This next phase of collaboration will, it is hoped, allow the Amsterdam City Doughnut to be rooted in, and enriched by, the character and culture of the city.
The Amsterdam Doughnut
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Coming soon: Amsterdam City Doughnut, Part 2: When the Doughnut Meets the City
| The text being discussed is available at | https://medium.com/circleeconomy/the-amsterdam-city-doughnut-how-to-create-a-thriving-city-for-a-thriving-planet-423afd6b2892 and http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NewEconomics/DoughnutEconomy/Building-blocks-Amsterdam-Circular-2019.pdf and https://www.circle-economy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Building-blocks-Amsterdam-Circular-2019.pdf |