Futures CoachESSI SILVONEN

“Nevertheless, the concept of the CE in itself is over-hyped, scarcely investigated and therefore as yet ill-defined ” (Wang et al. 2018)

“CE approach has almost exclusively been developed and led by practitioners, i.e., policy-makers and business development agencies such as business consultants, business associations, business foundations etc.”(Korhonen et al. 2018)

“the fact that today the CE concept is, on the one hand, a noble approach to mitigate environmental and economic challenges ,while on the other hand, in terms of scientific research, it appears to be vague and needs a critical analysis” (Korhonen et al. 2018)

“Population growth and urbanization are constantly intensifying megatrends with estimations of 70 percentage of the global population of 9,6 billion living in cities by the year 2050 (WHO 2013, cf. GIZ – ICLEI 2014, 5). Cities are economic growth engines with generating up to 85% of the global GDP, thus they are also the major clusters of resource consumption and

contributors of environmental stress, as they consume more than 70% of total energy and produce more than 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions (Boyd & Pablo 2016, cf. Wang et al. 2018, 877; WEF 2018, 3) With the largest cities of the world reporting 25 million populations and increasing (World Atlas 2019), the significance of urban ecosystems in tackling climate

change related issues is further growing in importance. The demand for improved and stronger infrastructures providing safetyof resource supply, simultaneously sustaining the environmental limitations poses a focal challenge for the urban futures (GIZ-ICLEI 2014, 5). In consequence, the perceived impact and importance of CE in urban context has started to appear as subject of

considerable interest.”

City of Turku and Finland Futures Research Centre

ICLEI Green Circular Cities Coalition Feasibility StudyKuva Vesa Aaltonen

Climate Neutral Turku 2029ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental InitiativesNetwork of cities consisting of 1500 + cities in 125 + countriesCircular Development PathwayGreen Circular Cities Coalition - GCCC

Resource efficient solutions, sharing platforms, renewable energy, life cycle extension, products as a service, cleantech, bioeconomyKuva Joonas Mäkivirta

700 circular economy actors in Turku region:

• 35 city of Turku employees, elected officials or city organs

• 20 city of Turku construction projects and other construction projects

• 7 directors of economic development in the Turku region • 150 actors related to research and training

• 30 regional and national actors • 90 projects

• 20 networks • 30 strategic entities of the city of Turku and their employees

• 270 businesses

Kuva City of Turku from the air - Epressi

URBAN PLANNING

• Master plan directs housing growth close to publictransportation routes

• Planning of novel use for Brownfields, old industrial areas.• Skanssi – circular economy, sharing, platforms and community• Density. Steering effect of the master plan• Traffic and street planning – greener transportation modes,

public transport and platforms• Green area planning, storm waters, blue-green-ratio• The 3 spearhead projects of the city

Challenges: Long time horizons, existing structures, life cycleassessment development, practical solutions required, attitudes.

Opportunities: Circular area development, pop-up spaces, trafficdevelopment, co-operation with businesses, anticipatory urbanplanning, densifying the urban structure

ICLEI themes: Skanssi area as an innovation platform –showcase of the impact of urban planning, Smart & Wise themesof anticipatory urban planning, modelling and electric publictransportation.

Kuva Hartela, C&J arkkitehdit

URBAN GOVERNANCE

• Governance approach and attitudes essential for circulareconomyadvancement

• Turku Climate plan 2018; carbon neutral energy system, lowcarbon transportation modes, sustainable urban structure, climateresponsibility of city organisations, intensifying carbon sinks and SECAP cards.

Challenges: resources, practical guidance to actors, ambitious goalsOpportunities: Optimisation and better resourcing, partners, participating companies, legislation for circularity, communicationand internal responsibility

ICLEI themes: Participation of citizens, which allready takes placein Turku may be an essential strength of the governance and in developing the actions of citizens. Participatory themes and actionsinteresting to develop further. Climate plan implementation.

Kuva Jussi Vierimaa

GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

• City of Turku owned strategic communities are pioneers of circular cconomy

• ”Obligated from 2019 to emphasize climate, environment and life cycle effects in all investments and procurement”

• ”Emphasis on advancing circular solutions and decreasing theuse of natural resources.”

• Sustainable development procurement manual 2019

Challenges: legislation, criteria definition and follow up, impartialevaluation, lack of knowledge of true impact, lack of practicalcircular solutions

Opportunities: CFP, co-operation in procurement, development of impartial evaluation, advantages to climate neutral operators.

ICLEI Themes: Wider co-operation in a network of cities in orderto develop, implement and monitor circular practises. International standardisation of criteria would advance circularity in procurement. For example CFP favours solutions where recycled or recyclablematerials are used.

Kuva Pasi Leino

INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS

• Turku region has plenty of research, chemical-, medical and food industries, agriculture, and construction.

• Large companies are aware of circular economy, it often belongsto their stragy. Efficient production entais circular thinking, when if it is moreoften seen as efficincy rather thanenvironmenal act.

• Smaller companies has fewer resources, thus less circularoperations

• Thematic support and co-operation from public sector to privatesector

Challenges: processes difficult and expensive, volumes and predictability of side and recycled streams, small business lack of resources, availability of professionals.Opportunities: Industrial vision – Turku region has potential to bereally strong when it comes to circular economy. Plenty of functioning partial solutions that require combining. Inspirationalexamples needed for companies and knowledge for

ICLEI Themes: Turku Science Park Oy – innovation activitySmart Chemistry Park or Blue Industry Park. TUAS CircularEconomy Business models. Kuva Cederqvist-Jantti Arkkitehdit Oy

MUNICIPAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

• Circular economy a strong theme in the national plan of wastemanagement

• A regional solution of 17 municipalities, 12 waste and recyclingcenters, new more ecological waste incineration facility in 2021 will produce energy from waste, Topinpuisto circular economycenter and Kahmari visitor centra. Library of material streams.

• Textile recycling – strong projects, pilot factory and plans for a large plant.

Challenges: Total amount of waste is increasing, success of recycling depends on citizen activity and awareness, energy usevs. material recycling considerations.Opportunities: textile recycling, car and ship material recycling, package material recycling, further development of Topinpuisto.

ICLEI themes: The model and activity of the circular economycenter Topinpuisto may be internationally interesting. The textilerecycling pilot plant with the considerations of locating the actualplant in Turku region will be a high profile subject in Turku duringthe years to come.

Kuva taitoa aboland

BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION

• 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions in Finland originate from buildingsand construction

• Construction: life cycle assessment in planning, steering effect of city plan and transfer conditions of the building site, building sitecompetitions, building of infrastructure, land mass processing, energy solutions, CFP evaluation of buildings.

• Buildings: Life Cycle extension, improval of usage rate, movabilityof buildings, increasing energy efficiency, energy contract.

Challenges: Lack of Life cycle understanding, development of urbanplanning procedures, material intensive, cost focused and conservativeindustry, existing building quality, quality of air, quality and recyclability of building materials.Opportunities: Combining the databases of building and usagephases, steering power of city, development of Skanssi innovationplatform, modelling, co-operation between the city planning dpt and construction companies, energy storage development.

ICLEI themes: Land mass processing, steering building materialselection through city planning, lost heat collection, storage and usage.

Kuva Cederqvist-Jantti Arkkitehdit Oy

WATER-FOOD-ENERGY NEXUS

• Water – regional waste water system, pure water production, Baltic Sea protection, reseach.

• Food – central region for agriculture and food industry, food chains, research.

• Energy – Turku energia renewal of basic energy production, multimaterial incineration plant, lost heat recovery, two way district heatnetwork, biogas production, research.

Challenges: Pure water globally endangered resource, food and energy production have significant negative climate effects. Lowfood price does not advance investments, determining a sustainablefood chain.Opportinities: Food and biowaste convertion as biogas, large massnutritional potential, the amount and quality of research, renewableand bio-based energy solutions, transparency and participation on energy, decreasing the traffic emissions.

ICLEI Themes: Regional water management (pure and wastewater). Local food chain from reseach to agriculture and all the wayto food waste convertion to biogas and nutrients. Biogas production.

Kuva City of Turku- Epressi

FURTHER FINDINGS

• Significance of data, information and professional knowledge in circular economy development

• Education of circular economy in Turku Region• There exists a significant amount of circular activity in the region.

Plenty of partial solutions that need to be combined or developedfurther

• Plenty of challenges in each thematic sector before circulareconomy will be the paradigm

• The economical perspective, life cycle assessment.

• Planning in the core of circular economy solutions• Should we choose themes we are strong of seek for further

development in themes we need help with?• Circular actors of the region are interested in GCCC co-operation.

The themes need to be relevant, the content concrete and co-operation needs to advance the local circular development.

• The role and determination of the city, government and officials is important.

Kuva Arto Takala

turku.fi/circulareconomy

Create a futures image (possible future) of a circular city in 2040