THE CIRCULARITY GAP REPORT 2023

Claudia Alessio Research Analyst, Circle Economy Amsterdam,

Netherlands

Claudia Alessio is a cities strategist for Circle Economy’s Circle Cities Programme. She has worked with cities throughout Europe and North and South America, helping urban changemakers address waste, energy use, and emissions through the lens of the circular economy. By analyzing urban socioeconomic systems, she empowers cities to make the most of the opportunities the circular economy can offer them and realize innovative, impact-driven circular solutions on the ground.

Circle Economy is a global impact organization with an international team of passionate experts based in Amsterdam. It empowers businesses, cities, and nations with practical and scalable solutions to put the circular economy into action. Find out more at circle-economy.com.

Measuring Circularity in Cities

The city described above is quite a departure from largely linear cities around the world. How can cities take the first steps toward a circular transformation?

To get started, measuring a baseline—the current state of circularity—is crucial. Circle Economy’s Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative (CGRi) estimates that our world is only 7.2% circular: Of the more than 100 billion tons of materials we use each year, only 7.2% are cycled back into the economy. This leaves a massive Circularity Gap. But how circular are cities across the globe?

As of 2023, we can finally answer this question by applying the CGRi methodology at the city scale. Building upon the expertise of the Circle Cities Programme, which has supported and guided over 40 cities and regions across Europe and North America over the past 12 years in putting the circular economy into practice, Circle Economy is opening a new page in urban circular research: CGR4cities.

The Circularity Gap Report (CGR) for cities provides a baseline for circularity in urban areas, maps how resources flow through urban systems and contribute to consumption-based emissions, and provides a set of baseline indicators for circularity. Based on this, it’s possible to develop “what if” scenarios that allow cities to dream big and shed light on the potential impact of key intervention points across urban systems. By allowing decisionmakers to set goals and measure progress over time, CGR4cities can kickstart your city’s circular transition.

The state-of-the-art CGR initiative brings together stakeholders from businesses, governments, academia, and NGOs to evaluate findings based on the latest scientific evidence and design future scenarios that can inform policymaking and industry strategy. With the use of participatory and multi-stakeholder processes, it ensures that plans lead to sustained actions on the ground.