Circular City
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Moving from a linear to a circular economy means minimising the waste and pollution by reducing, recycling and reusing. The City of Amsterdam aims to redesign twenty product- or material chains. The implementation of material reuse strategies has the potential to create a value of €85 million per year within the construction sector and €150 million per year with more efficient organic residual streams. Amsterdam set up an innovation program on the circular economy; www.amsterdamsmartcity.com/circularamsterdam. By converting waste into electricity, urban heating and construction materials, the Amsterdam Electricity Company generates 900 kWh per 1000 kg of waste. 75% of the sewage system is separated for waste and rain water and the silt which remains after treating waste water is converted into natural gas. Share your innovative concepts and ideas on circular economy here.

Amsterdam Smart City, Connector of opportunities at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

From now on....according to Eva Gladek

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The world is turned upside down since the corona crisis. This gives us the space to think about a complete ‘reset’. How can we restructure existing dysfunctional systems? In this RESET series, Pakhuis de Zwijger will showcase the perspectives of a variety of thought leaders who will reflect on this present-day situation.

In this RESET edition, moderator Jurgen is interviewing Eva Gladek, founder and CEO of Metabolic. We return to a new normal now. Is it possible to create a new normal, a complete reset? To create a new future? Eva replies how she ran back home to Amsterdam from New York, the day the lockdown restrictions were put in place: “I think the shutdown of normal activities has created space to reflect. It was a good time to re-examine the greater state of the world. How are we going to handle this as we move forward?”

Eva continuous: “Questions arise, is this world ever going to be the same? How will it effect our work? Metabolic did well during the lockdown, we saw the interest in sustainability increasing. Organisations are opening up to new ways to cope and work on a sustainable future. Metabolic is an ecosystem of organisations, to help organisations to be part of the transition to create a fundamentally sustainable world. We’re looking at the root causes that need to be solved and how to correct those and move society in the right direction. We’re addressing them like ninjas: apply pressure on the right pressure points that are at the root of these causes.”

Circular economy
An important concept for this is the circular economy, where processes are actually designed to work in a waste free, regenerative way right from the start. Eva: “It’s like a natural eco-system, where everything is re-absorbed or re-purposed. We have to mimic natural systems and their intelligence. So we adapted the definition of a circular economy to include seven main pillars of performance, including social aspects.”

Eva: “From now on we will re-imagine the economy and escape the 9 to 5 grind’ is mentioned. We have been thinking about green recovery plans the wrong way. There is actually a positive future if we take the opportunities that this crisis has created to move into a new, more sustainable circular economy. We have to use this opportunity to talk about deep economic reform, to create a better economy. Building Back Better is a way to move forward from COVID-19. But we should go much further then the current greenwash that takes place.”

Automation
Eva: “Automation is not just about jobs. Historically the invention of machines and fossil fuels increased efficiency and caused an amazing transition. Keynes predicted that in a 100 years we would only have to work 15 hours a week, driven by increases in prosperity. By now, we know that this prediction was wrong. While the world’s GDP has gone up 35 times and the population increased just 4 times in size in the past 100 years, there should be a huge increase in overall prosperity. But again, this is not the case. The rise in automation has created a dramatic inequality. Our economic system is designed to create this inequality.

Continuous growth of our economy results in a similar, exponential growth of ecological destruction. We’re crossing the planetary boundaries of what constitutes a sustainable planet.”

Reform the system
Eva: “This current system needs to be reformed: Building back to create a genuinely better, circular world. There is a lot we can do. What we need to do is work together to bring genuine change. We shouldn’t focus on growth as such, but on the wellbeing of populations. We have to create an economy that allows people to participate themselves, instead of being forced to work in mindless jobs.”

Matthew Moroney
Matthew is co-founder of Raise Green, an investor marketplace for local impact investing in clean energy and climate solution projects. Matt: “How can the system be changed to make it more inclusive and how can it contribute to local communities? How can we connect capital to all these new projects that are starting up worldwide to move us in the right direction? We notice that the interest in sustainable investing is growing rapidly, funds are created, but the actual investment in viable projects lags behind. Verifiability of sustainable projects is an important requirement for these funds to start flowing.”. Raise Green screens all projects before they go open for investment on 5 pillars: revenue, ambition, impact, social and environmental.

Time for Action
Matt and Eva agree that the time for action is now! No more waiting for endless reports, what they think is needed is getting all these new projects up and running and start learning by doing, every step on the way.

Do you want to watch the full livestream? Visit the website of Pakhuis de Zwijger: <https://dezwijger.nl/programma/from-now-on-according-to-eva-gladek>

The discussion of this evening is exactly the discussion that needs to take place. The time for action is now! The transition from a linear to a circular economy asks for collaboration between the public and private sector, something we work on every day, together with partners like Metabolic. Learning by doing, every time.

Amsterdam Smart City's picture #CircularCity
Jeroen Sipman, Linking Pin / Policy Advisor at Province of Noord-Holland, posted

Province of Noord-Holland subsidises circular economy knowledge exchange (in Dutch)

De provincie Noord-Holland wil de aandacht voor de noodzaak en kansen van een circulaire economie bij de inwoners van Noord-Holland stimuleren. Daarvoor stelt zij in 2020 €25.000,- beschikbaar (max. €5.000,- per project) voor stichtingen en verenigingen die via kleinschalige activiteiten dit onderwerp bij bewoners voor het voetlicht brengen.

Voor meer informatie over deze (en andere) subsidieregeling(en) kan je terecht bij het subsidieloket van de provincie Noord-Holland. Deze is te vinden in de bijgevoegde link. Subsidieaanvragen kunnen tot en met 30 oktober 2020 worden ingediend.

Jeroen Sipman's picture #CircularCity
Henrike Slob, Marketing Communications Lead at Impact Hub Amsterdam, posted

Impact Hub Amsterdam Report: COVID-19 as a Tipping Point

How the crisis connects – and how it may accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system.

Climate change. Loss of biodiversity. Famine and obesity. A national nitrogen crisis. Our current ways of food production and consumption are not sustainable. The call for change grows louder – and is now accelerated by COVID-19. Does COVID-19 provide the much-needed tipping point for change?

This report investigates two timely questions: how has COVID-19 impacted sustainable food entrepreneurs? And how can we use these insights to accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system?

One of the key findings: COVID-19 stressed the importance of resilience. It cleared schedules to focus on new, long-term strategies, and gave rise to an important means to resilient and innovative entrepreneurship: collaboration. Interested to learn more? Read the report here: https://bit.ly/COVIDFoodReport (in Dutch, with an English summary).

Covid-19 as a Tipping Point was created with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Stichting DOEN, and Amsterdam Impact.

Food Ecosystem
This report is part of Impact Hub Amsterdam's Food Ecosystem. The Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agro-food products worldwide. What if we used this position to make a real impact across the food chain and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable food system? Read more about our Food Ecosystem at http://bit.ly/IHAFoodEcosystem.

Henrike Slob's picture #CircularCity
Folkert Leffring, Digital Media Manager , posted

Amsterdam seeks start-ups for six-month residency programme

The City of Amsterdam is seeking the latest cohort of innovators for its Start-up in Residence programme, with this year’s themes being sustainability/circular economy and mobility. During a six-month programme, selected companies get the chance to pilot their products and services in the city and at the end, the municipality may become a launch customer or collaborate with the businesses in other ways.

Folkert Leffring's picture #Mobility
Zéger Nieuweboer, Founder / Teacher at Learning is growing.nl, posted

Biologische Stadsboeren Coöperatie in de stad Arnhem

In de Corona tijd is de belangstelling toegenomen voor lokaal voedsel produceren, lokaal voedsel verwerken en lokaal voedsel consumeren. Naar het voorbeeld in Amsterdam ( stadsboeren.org ) is nu de tijd rijp voor een Biologische Stadsboeren Coöperatie Arnhem Groen in de stad Arnhem.

Zéger Nieuweboer's picture #CircularCity
Amsterdam Economic Board, posted

Mindchange nodig om met climate change om te kunnen gaan

We moeten toe naar een ander systeem, waar macht en verantwoordelijkheid weer aan elkaar gekoppeld zijn. Dat kwam naar voren tijdens de MRA University van dinsdag 2 juni. Alleen zo kunnen we toewerken naar een circulaire en klimaatneutrale economie.

‘De coronacrisis laat zien dat we snel kunnen veranderen. Dat is ongelofelijk hoopvol. Maar het is geen garantie dat we na de crisis een betere of een slechtere wereld bouwen.’, stelt Thomas Rau, architect, oprichter van Madaster en vooraanstaand denker over de circulaire economie. Een echt duurzaam herstel vraagt om een mindchange. Hij adviseert om daar actief aan te werken. ‘Laat het opbouwen van de economie daarom niet alleen over aan mensen uit het oude systeem.’

Lees verder: https://amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/mindchange-nodig-om-met-climate-change-om-te-kunnen-gaan

Amsterdam Economic Board's picture #CircularCity
Peter Oei, Programma manager , posted

Challenge: looking for a biobased modular circular building system in Almere

Do you know startups with innovative building systems? Please inform them about this challenge.

SIGN initiated the challenge by the ministry of Agriculture to incorporate biomass from horticulture in building systems. The winner can design the Entreegebouw at the Floriade and build it as well. In total €55.000 is available.
For more info: https://www.innovatieglastuinbouw.nl/apps/news/item/111/

Peter Oei's picture #CircularCity
Jochem Kootstra, Lecturer at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, posted

De Week van Re-Store bij HvA - Organisch afval slim benutten

Organisch afval zoals aspergeschillen, een klokhuis of een restje aardappelpuree: in de grote steden van Nederland wordt het mondjesmaat gescheiden ingezameld. Het verdwijnt met de rest van ons afval in de afvalverbranding. Zonde, want slim verwerken van groente, fruit en etensresten (GFE-afval) kan bijdragen aan een duurzame toekomst. Gemeenten en andere opdrachtgevers staan voor de vraag wat een goede manier van afvalverwerking is. Een nieuw ontwikkelde tool door onderzoekers van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) geeft hier meer inzicht in.

De Week van Re-Store bij Urban Technology

Tijdens de Week van Re-Store van 15 t/m 19 juni kom je meer te weten over het tweejarig onderzoek Re-Store: de waarde van organisch afval. Van eindpublicatie tot de ontwikkelde tool, verdiepende artikelen en video’s, de hele week staat in teken van het slim benutten van GFE-afval.

Jochem Kootstra's picture #CircularCity
Mathieu Dasnois, Communications Manager at Metabolic, posted

Metabolic Impact Report is live!

Last year we worked with some incredible partners to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable economy. From future-proof food systems, and circular products and services, to finance within planetary boundaries, and resilient cities and regions, this report reflects on some of the key outcomes and projects that emerged across the Metabolic ecosystem in 2019. Follow the link to learn what we've been up to!

Mathieu Dasnois's picture #CircularCity
Julie Chenadec, Relationship Development Manager at Aknostic, posted

Refurbishment survey

The CEDaCI project launches an online survey on refurbishment of ICT equipment. The questionnaire can be found in the link below.

The CEDaCI project is building a circular economy for the data center industry. The project, funded by the European Union, is developing circular solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the IT equipment used by the data center industry (DCI).

All important findings and results of the CEDaCI project will be made public at www.cedaci.org to help DCI on its way to circularity.

Julie Chenadec's picture #CircularCity
Harmen van Sprang, co-founder & CEO Sharing Cities Alliance , posted

Circular Economy X Collaborative Economy in European Urban Cities and Regions

A brand new research report creating a common understanding of the 'Urban Circular Collaborative Economy': a concept bringing together the circular and the collaborative (sharing) economy. This study provides a template for local and regional authorities trying to understand the impacts of circular collaborative economy initiatives in their regions.

This study showed the diversity of the impacts of Urban Circular Collaborative Economy initiatives in different circumstances. While some initiatives have a very strong focus and impact on resource use (e,g. waste collection initiatives or renewable energy initiatives), other initiatives are mainly focused on social objectives but can have important environmental consequences nonetheless (urban gardening or repair cafés). Impacts can also depend on circumstances. Car sharing can add to environmental burden if it replaces public transport but can have beneficial impacts if it reduces car ownership and single car use. The research therefore showed the importance of understanding the impact chain of the initiatives so that regions and cities can make use of it. Another key finding is that impacts of Urban Circular Collaborative Economy initiatives are not different by nature from the ones assessed for collaborative economy initiatives in general. The difference is that, due to the small scale and not-for-profit nature of most initiatives, larger impacts can only be achieved through a multiplication of the number of initiatives, not necessarily through the scaling-up on the initiatives in terms of size.

To help regions and cities in that task and to ensure that the initiatives contribute to circular economy objectives, a set of policy recommendations have been developed around three pivotal areas: better knowledge, better regulation and better funding.

Find all key insights, the full research report, 6 case studies and a practical guide at https://www.collaborativexcircular.com.

Harmen van Sprang's picture #CircularCity
Amsterdam Economic Board, posted

Circulaire schorten frontlinie in regio

In Nederland worden in deze coronacrisis 6 miljoen beschermende schorten per week gebruikt en weggegooid. Deze schorten komen grotendeels uit Azië, zijn daarmee onderdeel van de internationale ‘strijd’ voor beschermende middelen en bovendien van plastic.

Nieuw lid van de Network Council Reade centrum voor revalidatie en reumatologie, Gemeente Amsterdam en RE LOVE Foundation – zijn een initiatief gestart en produceren lokaal de eerste circulaire schorten voor zorgmedewerkers in zorginstellingen.

Lees verder: https://amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/circulaire-schorten-frontlinie-in-regio

Amsterdam Economic Board's picture #CircularCity
Robert Versteeg, Consultant , posted

Tips on designing a 1.5m society using crowd management principles

Society is slowly opening up for business again. More people are going outside. And many businesses and government institutions are redesigning their spaces to give people enough room to keep 1.5m distance. While keeping distance seems like a simple rule, in practice many people find it difficult to stick to them.

That is why I wrote a short blog about the main crowd management principles that are useful to design public spaces for the 1.5m society. These principles are key to optimize the use of our public spaces and make it easier for people to keep their distance (blog is in Dutch).

Robert Versteeg's picture #CircularCity
Amsterdam Economic Board, posted

Nieuwe dingen zijn vaak het mooist

In een circulaire economie herbruiken we spullen, waardoor we ze veel langer gebruiken. Dat is natuurlijk prachtig, maar het druist in tegen onze diepgewortelde waardering voor nieuwe dingen. In deze tijd van de #coronacrisis zie je dat een tekort of juist een overschot met onverkochte voorraad een andere dimensie toevoegt, aan een toch al duivels dilemma.

“Als we volledig circulair willen worden zullen we moeten afkicken van onze verslaving aan nieuw en anders naar kopen van (nieuwe) spullen moeten kijken.”

Lees verder in de blog van Claire Teurlings - Challenge Lead Circulaire Economie:
https://amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/de-nieuwe-dingen-zijn-vaak-het-mooist

Amsterdam Economic Board's picture #CircularCity
Dimitri Bak, Strategic Communication Advisor at City of Amsterdam, posted

Amsterdam Circular strategy 2020-2025 Live (public version and City Doughnut)

Today the City of Amsterdam published the new Strategy Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025. In the next 5 years this strategy and the related implementation programme will guide us towards a circular capital in 2050. Not only do we want to be sustainable within our city walls and improve local employment. We also want to significantly reduce our footprint which our consumer behaviour causes in other places in the world. Like the depletion of natural recources and CO2-emissions in other countries where our consumer goods are being produced right now. But also to improve working conditions of people who are responsible for the production of our clothes and electronics in that same countries.

Furthermore, the City published a Monitor for the circular economy. A tool which will track and trace (raw) materials from the moment they come into our city till they will be discharged and (hopefully) reused.

With the world's first City Doughnut (developed by Kate Raworth) we will monitor our progress towards a circular city. We will challenge ourselves on ecological and social themes, both local and global.

Dimitri Bak's picture #CircularCity
Folkert Leffring, Digital Media Manager , posted

Amsterdam launches next stage of circular economy programme

Amsterdam will launch the fourth stage of its circular economy initiative next week, with 200 new projects planned for the coming year. Its 2020-2025 strategy, set to be published 8 April, will build on last year’s programme that saw 116 projects implemented.

Folkert Leffring's picture #CircularCity
Francien Huizing, Program and Communication Manager at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Learn more about the smart city with these videos! Edition 3: The Circular City

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While most of us are working from home in these surreal times, the Amsterdam Smart City team will support you with some inspiration and learnings about the city. We handpicked videos worth watching!

**Your agenda might still be full with Zoom videocalls or maybe your helping your neighbours with some groceries. Either way, hopefully these videos will be an inspiration and give you some welcoming new insights. Time to check out videos about the development of the city!

We selected these ones about Circularity in the City: recorded in 2019 in Pakhuis De Zwijger, thé dialogue center in Amsterdam.**
16 oktober 2019: De Circulaire Stad (in Dutch)

Hoe bouw je aan een circulaire stad? We kijken we wat er al gebeurt, wat er nodig is om circulaire steden te organiseren en wat wij en de rest van de wereld hier van kunnen leren.
Met ASC partner Metabolic.

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Festival Trouw Duurzame 100 2019: De Circulaire Stad

Van de meest duurzame koplopers tot het belangrijkste burgerinitiatief van 2019: de Trouw Duurzame 100 is vernieuwd! Dit vieren we samen met de winnaars van afgelopen jaren met een verticaal duurzaamheidsfestival in heel Pakhuis de Zwijger. Wie wordt het duurzaamste burgerinitiatief van 2019? https](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPNW-xX0Bdo)

27 mei 2019: Amsterdam Smart City - Circulaire Vooruitzichten (in Dutch)

Steden waarin al het afval volledig wordt gerecycled. Het klinkt als een ideaalbeeld, maar hoe komen we daar? En hoe betrekken we bewoners zo goed mogelijk bij de processen die hierbij nodig zijn? Afval kunnen we gebruiken als grondstof voor nieuwe producten, zowel op lokaal als centraal niveau. Tijdens dit programma kijken we naar een nieuw ‘Circulair Innovatiecentrum’ dat in Amsterdam moet komen te staan. Hoe zorgen we ervoor dat grote bedrijven en bewoners zo goed mogelijk worden betrokken bij het nieuwe proces van afvalverwerking? Hoe wordt dit aantrekkelijk voor al deze partijen? En wat kunnen we leren van een Upcyclecentrum van de gemeente Almere?
Met Amsterdam Smart City partners Hogeschool van Amsterdam en Gemeente Amsterdam.

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Amsterdam Smart City #4: Circulaire vooruitzichten

Steden waarin al het afval volledig wordt gerecycled. Het klinkt als een ideaalbeeld, maar hoe komen we daar? En hoe betrekken we bewoners zo goed mogelijk bij de processen die hierbij nodig zijn? Tijdens dit programma kijken we naar verschillende projecten rondom circulariteit en afvalverwerking va](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rdESl2d9I)

14 februari 2019: Future materials – When fake becomes the new real (In English)

Whether it is about vinyl floors with woodprint, marble print on tiles, polyester with a silk look, or composite terrace parts: imitations give us an illusion of the original. For the most part, fake materials are chosen for cost reasons, cause it is more durable or lower maintenance than the real thing. Where some favour 'faux', it makes other people just cringe. With more awareness about significant environmental impacts that come with the use of materials, we see new alternatives like vegan leather, bio-composites and nanomaterials rise in popularity. What is it that makes us stop questioning authenticity and have us accept and embrace the alternatives? When does fake become the new real?

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Research Files #10: Future Materials: When fake becomes the new real

When is fake accepted as the new way to go? With MaterialDistrict, The Meat Factory, Romancing the Stone & De Vegetarische Slager. Whether it is about vinyl floors with woodprint, marble print on tiles, polyester with a silk look, or composite terrace parts: imitations give us an illusion of the or](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly5SkP8dT08)

28 januari 2020: De Circulaire Stad #52 - Van wie is de circulaire stad? (in Dutch)

Iedereen kan bijdragen aan een groeiende stad waarin alles een waardevolle grondstof is. Maar wie pakt welke rol? De metropoolregio Amsterdam krijgt er 230.000 woningen bij tot 2040. Is dat te combineren met de ambitie om in 2050 een circulaire stad met zo min mogelijk afval te zijn? In dit programma kijken we naar ieders rol; van de bewoners tot de gemeente, ontwikkelaars, wetenschappers en bouw- en grondstoffenbedrijven. Hoe kunnen we de kosten en baten eerlijk verdelen en bewoners betrekken? En wat heeft iedereen daarvoor van elkaar nodig?

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De Circulaire Stad #52: Van wie is de circulaire stad?

Iedereen kan bijdragen aan een groeiende stad waarin alles een waardevolle grondstof is. Maar wie pakt welke rol? De metropoolregio Amsterdam krijgt er 230.000 woningen bij tot 2040. Is dat te combineren met de ambitie om in 2050 een circulaire stad met zo min mogelijk afval te zijn? In dit program](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYSwJebs45o)

Francien Huizing's picture #CircularCity
Herman van den Bosch, Curator at Amsterdam Smart City; professor in management education , posted

Beyond take-make-waste cities

Here is my contribution to the week of circular economy. Our cities reflect the “take-make-waste principle”, which is still dominating our economy. Amsterdam too, although the city is making progress towards circularity. This article might contribute to your understanding of circularity, it explains what cities can do and what Amsterdam is doing.
For the Dutch version: http://hmjvandenbosch.com/2019/12/16/de-kringloop-stad/

Herman van den Bosch's picture #CircularCity
Hannah Grijns, posted

Week of the Circular Economy #9: ECO coin

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Throughout the week of the Circular Economy, we are shining a spotlight on inspiring sustainable initiatives in the Netherlands. Joining forces with startups, social entrepreneurs, creative professionals, leading companies, and forward thinking governments, to showcase what a circular economy can look like. Meet the pioneers, learn from them and get inspired! Closing this series: Lewis Just. He talks us through ECO coin, an alternative currency earned through sustainable actions.

Throughout the week of the Circular Economy, we are shining a spotlight on inspiring sustainable initiatives in the Netherlands. Joining forces with startups, social entrepreneurs, creative professionals, leading companies, and forward thinking governments, to showcase what a circular economy can look like. Meet the pioneers, learn from them and get inspired! Closing this series: Lewis Just. He talks us through ECO coin, an alternative currency earned through sustainable actions.

How did you become involved with the ECO coin?

The ECO coin emerged from a workshop in Brazil led by Next Nature Network . The group noticed an imbalance within our economic and ecological system:: people could get money from cutting down a tree, but no one was actually paying them to grow or protect the forest. What if we paid people for their sustainable actions and rewarded them to protect or grow the ecological surroundings, instead of the other way around? Next Nature Network took this idea back to Amsterdam to further develop it. Here my personal story comes in: I’ve always been fascinated by both community currencies and the rise of cryptocurrencies. I’m originally from Scotland and had been working in London for a while, but missed a sense of real impact in my day-to-day job. So I moved to Amsterdam on a whim in 2016, and had the opportunity to start working on evolving the ECO coin from an idea to a business of its own.

What is the ECO coin?

It is a digital community currency earned through sustainable actions. There are different sustainable actions, or missions that you can do to earn ECO coins, which are customized depending on the context or organization we are working with. Missions range from eating a meat- free meal to recycling plastic bottles or taking the bike instead of the car. Each mission is priced in ECO coins. The more impact the mission has, the more ECO coins you get. Once you’ve earned your ECOs they can then be spent on sustainable services, exclusive experiences and circular products.

The first time the ECO coin was earned and spent was at DGTL festival. That was quite exciting because we’d just started to formalize the concept, and then suddenly had only eight weeks to build the entire system as a digital platform. We used the festival’s NFC wristbands to ‘store’ the ECOs. Now, we’ve moved away from NFC and created a standalone web app, which makes it more applicable to different contexts.

How do you determine the value of an action?

We calculate the impact and translate it into one value: CO2e (the “e” standing for equivalent). For example, we can calculate the difference between a veggie meal versus a meal with and that way come to the avoided CO2-emissions. It’s still generalized, but we’re trying to go further into detail by integrating data that is out there anyways – such as the exact distance you’re biking. The more information we have, the more we can steer people a certain way by showing them the options and related impact. Although it’s really based on the idea of using certain types of data, we’ve always been very aware of privacy issues and are explicit on what part of someone’s data we use.

How do you measure your own impact on the circular economy?

We’ve done seven implementations so far, ranging from large corporates such as booking.com and L’Oréal to organizations like Erasmus University Rotterdam and the City of Amsterdam. We calculate our impact mainly in terms of avoided CO2e per month, monitoring the amount of actions carried out. For instance, at the municipality we reduced 10 tons of CO2e per month with only 150 people carrying out more than 5000 actions. For every action chosen over another action, we are also able to calculate savings in water reduction, energy, and waste. These is the hard data of our impact – but we go further than that. Social impact is a key aspect for us as well, although harder to quantify. It’s a huge win that companies like booking.com are wanting to collaborate, and apparently value sustainability so much that they want to incentivize their employees to act more sustainably. These companies often have global supply chains and so massive potential for impact on transitioning to a circular economy. We always conduct an analysis of an organization before and after implementing the ECO coin, and these almost always show that mindsets have actually shifted. Circular thinking has often really gotten into the DNA of the company. What’s more, even though we focus on working life, the project often leads to attitude change that is also reflected in people’s private life.

Is the ECO coin limited to organizations, or can you also join as a group of friends or neighbors?

We're interested in various types of communities. It's interesting because each community expects something different from using the ECO coin, so you have to co-create it with them. For some parties, it's really about mobility and how people are getting to work, while for others it can be about teaching their employees to separate waste. Eventually we hope to have the platform open to individuals as well, really thinking in larger closed-loop systems, but at this point that’s still more a dream than reality. At this point we’ve only worked with organizations, because the ECO coin is not a self-sufficient currency yet; we need budget from these companies to fund the rewards. It’s also a lot more manageable at this scale, especially in these initial phases when we’re still constantly developing.

We’re currently scaling up and running a pilot with an entire neighborhood (the Knowledge Mile area). This is a neighborhood with all kinds of facilities, so you can essentially earn ECO coins in one place and go down the street and spend the same ECOs at a vendor there. It’s a whole new level of community. The idea is to start with the bigger organizations in the area, and then spread to the smaller vendors. If that’s successful, we’ll hopefully start broadening out to eventually include all of Amsterdam.

Can you tell us more about the reward system?

We believe that the currency should be 50% about ecological value and 50% economic value. People fall for different triggers. One thing that really motivates people is being able to see your personal impact in terms of CO2e, by checking your digital ‘wallet’. You can then spend these ECO coins on all kinds of rewards, ranging from a free coffee or cinema tickets to bike services to exclusive meet and greets. We try to make sure these are as sustainable as possible, for example by looking at partners with excess capacity (such as movie theaters). We’ve now also made it possible to donate your ECO coins, or to spend them on community items like solar panels or plants for your office. It's always green for green: you earn in a green way and you spend in a green way. We also gamify things by working with leaderboards, where you can actually win – individually, but also in teams or per organization. This triggers the competition aspect, which works really well for some people who may not be intrinsically motivated in terms of sustainability.

What's been your favorite case so far?

We had some really great results from the L’Oréal implementation. We did a pilot for them last year. It was fascinating because it was the first time we've gone so deep into corporate culture. I think it worked so well because there was already a very competitive atmosphere; they have several divisions, and are always striving to out compete each other. We played into that and grouped the leaderboards per division. That led to really high engagement. You could feel a buzz throughout the whole building, people joking at the coffee machines like ‘oh, how many do you have? I’m buying my coffee today with ECO coins’.

What challenges have you encountered in setting up ECO coin?

Part of it is regulations. The Dutch National Bank is currently passing new regulations on cryptocurrencies, which may limit our future ambitions. I think the challenge is also to get people to see another kind of value system. People really understand euros, because it’s money they've used all their lives. They don’t see the value of other kinds of money until they can actually spend it and get something from it. I would actually argue that we’re using multiple currencies every single day. We just don't think of them as currencies. Think of your loyalty points at a café, or topping up your public transport card. These are technically also tokens or currencies, designated to be used within a specific value system. The ECO coin represents a sustainable value system.

Another challenge we had mainly at the beginning was getting through to organizations to set up partnerships in the first place. Especially as a smaller start-up, it takes a lot of effort and work to connect with the decision makers of these organizations. Something that’s currently still difficult is getting smaller vendors on board for the reward system. Larger companies see it as value that will eventually flow back, and the publicity is often enough for them. We currently tend to pay smaller companies for their products, from the budget that the organization running the ECO coin puts in. We’re now trying to work through other token and business models, such as buy on get one free offers, to eventually move towards a completely self-sufficient system.

How do you see the ECO coin in 10 years?

We’re pretty ambitious. In ten years, we want it to be a genuine alternative system that you would use every day in Amsterdam. It will have become very normal that, when you tap in or tap out somewhere, you choose which currency you want to use – and for sustainable things you’ll be using your ECOs. The goal is also that eventually you’ll be able to exchange your ECO coins into euros, which would add a whole other layer of worth. We have a couple other ideas that we’re currently working out practically. Ideally, every ECO coin will be backed by a tree, just like every euro used to be backed by gold. This could also be a solar panel or wind farm – anything to give it intrinsic value and to double up the CO2 impact. We’ve recently started collaborating with a foundation on the Veluwe that owns 2 million trees, which is a first step in the good direction. We also want our currency to really be a ‘living coin’, meaning every coin will be programmed so that it gradually loses value over time. We do this partly because certain actions will hopefully become more normal and so worth less, but also largely because it drives people to actually go out and spend it. And you’ll be spending it on sustainable products or services, so that speeds up the whole cycle.

What would you recommend starters wanting to set up a sustainability-related company?

Go and connect with all of the amazing initiatives already out there and figure out where you fit within the bigger ecosystem. Transitioning to the circular economy is about joining multiple things up. You can’t work as an isolated company. It’s what I love about working in this field: traditional startups are constantly competing against each other, but as soon as you step into the sustainability world, everyone’s working towards the same goal and it can only be helpful to work together. It gives you a lot of energy.

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This interview series is a collaborative initiative of Metabolic,** AMS Institute, City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Economic Board and Amsterdam Smart City. Working together within the Amsterdam Smart City platform, these organizations are committed to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.**

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