[Insights] What scale should an effective transition to the circular economy be on?
![[Insights] What scale should an effective transition to the circular economy be on?](https://www.eclaira.org/data/sources/users/3/regardscroises8.webp)
For an effective transition to the circular economy, the question of the scale of circular economy projects and initiatives is one that needs to be addressed. Finding the relevant scale is not an easy task, and one that varies from project to project. Dominique Bourg and Yves Cretegny shed some light on the issue.
DOMINIQUE BOURG, PHILOSOPHER AND PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LAUSANNE
The relevant scale for circular economy projects is the global one. The limits of our planet are the benchmark, whether for greenhouse gases, biodiversity or resource erosion, etc. Local efforts are measured by their contribution to a global goal.
For example, reducing carbon emissions in just one country alone would not make sense. This also applies to the consumption of resources. It is the global growth rate of the consumption of a resource that determines what impact recycling it will have. Beyond a global growth rate above 1%, the effect of even a high recycling rate is almost null. The recycled amount of a given resource, reintroduced one or two decades after it was initially put into the system, is only small part of the current consumption of this resource. Since the early 2000s, resource consumption has been growing faster than global GDP.
How can these global issues be articulated at project level?
Awareness of planetary issues at local level is the first step.
I am convinced that mentalities are changing because people are more and more directly confronted with damage to the environment. For example, this is the fourth year in which they are facing an increase in temperatures, and this has been very clear since 2016.
Public policies should have a fundamental role. They should set clear, measurable goals that gradually become stricter so as to get back below the planet’s limits where possible. How these goals are to be achieved should remain open in order to encourage the most ecological and experimental initiatives.
To achieve this, regulations provide the main lever. They must breathe life into innovations based on different economic philosophies promoting the regeneration of ecosystems (for example, Isabelle Delannoy's concept of symbiotic economy). They must encourage more pooling, modularity and circularity in the design of products and services. There need to be more EU directives like the 2014 one that requires that radio equipment should operate with universal chargers by 2017.
In a column in “LeMonde” (09/07/17), Romain Ferrari, François Grosse and I advocate the progressive obligation to include a percentage of recycled raw and organically-sourced materials in new products and equipment, within the framework of a European directive. This measure would lead to the local deployment of economic activities in partnership with local authorities while significantly reducing the use of non-renewable resources, and multiplication of these local solutions throughout European.
The local level is a very interesting one, and local authorities have a key role to play. For example, car-sharing, pooling electric vehicles and carpooling have been able to develop internationally because they are strongly rooted locally.
Does multiplying and amplifying initiatives make it possible to achieve an effective transition to the circular economy?
Today, there are a great many initiatives that provide niches for this transition. The difficulty is to put together the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. We need to press the right levers to change scale: the commitment of the authorities and the European directives appear inevitable.
For more information:
- Economie circulaire : imposer des matières recyclées dans les produits neufs (Circular economy: imposing the use of recycled materials in new products). Le Monde, July 9, 2017 - http://lemde.fr/2vEFNsb
- Ch. Arnsperger & D. Bourg, Ecologie intégrale (Integral ecology). Pour une société permacirculaire (For a permacircular society), Puf, October 2017
- Isabelle Delannoy, Une économie symbiotique et régénérative (A symbiotic and regenerative economy), to be published in January 2018 by Actes Sud.
YVES CRETEGNY, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE FONDATION POUR LES TERRAINS INDUSTRIELS DE GENÈVE (FTI)
In the canton of Geneva, what is thought to be the right scale for conducting an industrial and territorial ecology initiative? What are the determining factors that made it possible to define this scale?
If you’re thinking just of the canton of Geneva and of flows of material, deploying an industrial and territorial ecology initiative is limited to the scale of a small area. There are few large industrial companies in Geneva that consume a lot of raw materials. As a result, there are few opportunities for material flow exchanges between large companies, as developed in Kalundborg, which has a heavy industry zone.
The urban metabolism study carried out over the canton of Geneva around ten years ago reveals that households and the tertiary sector are the main consumers of resources. So the urban metabolism can be improved by means of many individual and occasional measures. Cooperation between companies seems to be the main driving force for an industrial and territorial ecology initiative. Building trust between companies and getting them to know each other are the key prerequisites. So eco-parks are proving to be the most suitable scale for connecting companies and creating synergies.
This study also highlighted the fact that:
- Water, building materials and energy are the three resources most consumed in the area.
- Geneva is highly dependent on outside resources for its energy supply.
- Construction materials, mainly gravel, pose a dual difficulty because the capacity of gravel pits in Geneva is limited to around twenty years and there is insufficient space to bury construction waste.
- Water is an abundant resource in the area because of Lake Geneva and the Rhone.
The industrial and territorial ecology initiative will thus seek to make use of local resources available through the recovery of heat emitted by companies, the use of lake water to heat or cool buildings, the recycling of construction waste, etc.
How can going beyond the perimeter of eco-industrial park be relevant to the industrial and territorial ecology initiative? How far can we extend the perimeter and why?
In the canton of Geneva, the industrial and territorial ecology initiative is conducted at the level of industrial zones. Several industrial and territorial ecology initiatives are therefore running in parallel.
The www.Genie.ch platform was created to publicize the initiatives conducted in Geneva and to deploy them within each industrial zone and more widely throughout the canton.
We have much to gain from extending the scope of the study beyond the limit of industrial zones. This helps to identify opportunities and optimize the solutions selected. For example: in the Plan-les-Ouates industrial zone, the recovery of low-temperature thermal discharges from companies makes it possible to cover a large part of the heating needs of the buildings in the zone. By 2020, an initial extension of the project will provide heat for the future residential area of Cherpines.
The implementation of industrial symbiosis throughout Greater Geneva is important but still very complex, in particular because of legal imperatives related to cross-border flows of resources and waste.
Conversely, in what way can it be of interest to consider only the scope of eco-industrial park?
Initiating and maintaining an industrial and territorial ecology initiative requires the creation of close links between the companies themselves and public entities. Bodies for meeting, exchanging and with project design, are more efficient across a defined area. The feeling of belonging and the impression of being able to make a contribution are stronger.
The link between the need for densification and economic development is paramount. So among the criteria for setting up a business is the relevance of its activity to the existing services and networks it needs.
Furthermore, social economy structures are becoming a means of supporting industrial and territorial ecology projects. Set up in eco-parks, they can complete the value chain in situ (for example, for transforming waste into resources).
FTI's eco-industrial park concept is based on five pillars:
- Active governance
- Strategic geographic locations
- Local and energy symbiosis
- Pooling resources
- Buildings with low impact and ecomobility
For more information:
- Ecologie industrielle à Genève, Premiers résultats et perspectives (Industrial ecology in Geneva - Initial results and prospects) > http://bit.ly/2vYdpfO
- Les nouvelles ressources de Genève - 15 ans de travaux en écologie industrielle : résultats et perspectives (New resources in Geneva - 15 years of work in industrial ecology: results and perspectives) > http://bit.ly/2eUdhIy
- Genie.ch
- FTI site
Source: ECLAIRA - Newsletter Number 8 / October 2017
>Read and download the ECLAIRA Newsletter No. 8 as a PDF
>Read other articles in this issue
>See all the ECLAIRA newsletters
Newsletter edited CIRIDD - with support from Région Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes
