Page 26 - U4SSC: A guide to circular cities, June 2020

• Environmental impact: This sub-criterion assesses the impact of circularity actions to the city’s
overall environment. Environmental impact captures effects of the circularity action on urban
natural environment and resources (e.g. city water, energy, emissions, air, land, waste).

ii. Ease of implementation

• The cost of implementation: This sub-criterion measures the total cost and required financial
resources for implementing circularity action.
• The timeframe of implementation: This sub-criterion refers to the total implementation time
of the circularity actions.

• Implementation risk: This sub-criterion encapsulates various risks which may potentially arise
during the implementation of circularity actions. The following factors may help in assessing
various risks.

o ‘PESTEL’ barriers: This factor captures the political, economic, social, technological,
environmental and legal (PESTEL) barriers that exist in the city and may hinder circularity.

o Complexity: This factor reflects the complexity of implementing circularity action in terms
of number of stakeholders involved, various uncertainties involved in implementation,
dependencies and connections to other initiatives/action items in the city, among others.
o Availability of competence and knowledge for the implementation: This factor includes the
extent to which the circularity can be implemented by harnessing existing knowledge and
skills in the city.
o Health and safety concerns: This factor entails various concerns and ramifications related
to health and safety aspects within the city regarding circularity.
o Ethical issues: This factor captures various ethical concerns which may potentially arise
during and after the implementation of the circularity actions.

The city can use a simple scoring system for various criteria and sub-criteria. For example, a simple
three-level (low, medium, high) or five-level scoring system can be adopted by the city to determine
priorities. The scores can be determined either quantitatively or qualitatively based on available data
and conducted analyses. Having a well-defined prioritisation approach helps cities facilitate their
priority circularity actions.

The figure below provides an illustration on how to determine the potential of and prioritize different
circular actions using a simple scoring system.

18 U4SSC: A guide to circular cities