Page 20 - U4SSC: A guide to circular cities, June 2020

l. National laws and directives: Law is a system of rules created and enforced through governmental
institutions to regulate behaviour. Laws can take the form of legislation, directives and acts of
parliament and so on, and they are influenced by the constitution. Laws can potentially be used as
an alternative tool to change the behaviour of a society towards embracing circularity (in general,
laws are made at the national level rather than city level).
m. Certifications for circularity: Cities can leverage existing certifications or create new ones to
encourage and incentivize circularity. Certifications rely on well-defined and verifiable standards
to measure or optimize performance and allow certified organizations to demonstrate their
commitment towards a specific goal (i.e. circularity in this case). Certifications are usually voluntary
in nature, rather than mandatory; however, they can provide a competitive advantage for certified
organizations. They are an indicator of compliance to well-defined standards or criteria and are
usually issued by a credible third party after an independent auditing process.

n. Engaging and ensuring participation of stakeholders: It is important for cities to engage and ensure
the participation of all their stakeholders during the formulation and implementation process of
circularity initiatives/action items. An inclusive and participatory implementation process would be
highly beneficial for maximizing collective city capital. Collaborative platforms that facilitate multi-
stakeholder engagements among the public and private sectors, academia, NGOs, civil society and
cities’ inhabitants can also be used by cities to ensure broad engagement.
o. Circularity related city innovation ecosystem: Fostering a robust and productive ecosystem will
help in boosting circularity in cities. Entrepreneurs can be encouraged and incentivized to establish
start-ups for addressing circularity challenges in cities. Accelerators and incubators can also be
utilized to support circularity-related SMEs. City circularity challenges would drive concrete demand
to be met by entrepreneurs and SMEs in the city innovation ecosystem.

p. Integrated urban services: Such urban services will help in realization of circularity in cities. E.g.,
WMO is developing the Integrated Urban hydrometeorological, climate and environmental Services
(IUS) to support safe, healthy, resilient and climate friendly cities. Such services involve combining
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heterogeneous observation networks, high-resolution forecasts, multi-hazard early warning systems
and climate services. They should assist cities in setting and implementing mitigation and adaptation
strategies that will enable the management and building circular cities.

City assets and products, circular city actions, circular city outputs and circular city enablers are the
four components for formulating circular city strategies. The next section details the circular city
implementation framework and the necessary steps for achieving circularity in cities.

12 U4SSC: A guide to circular cities