Metabolic

The Netherlands has high policy ambitions to become 100% circular by 2050, and consume 50% less primary raw materials in 2030. Public procurement can be an incredibly powerful tool, and the Dutch government sees climate-neutral and circular procurement as a means to achieve significant CO2 reductions. However, a framework to quickly and easily assess what is green, circular and climate-neutral can be challenging.

Metabolic proposed a framework for impact measurement of Green Public Procurement, did an analysis of the current state of impact measurement and developed a roadmap towards a harmonized model for the public sector in the Netherlands. We approached the study on three different levels: the level of a product group, the level of an organization and the level of national reporting. Subsequently, we developed a roadmap with actions that should be taken in the coming 5 years in order to arrive at a more uniform impact monitoring for climate-neutral and circular procurement.

Implementation of the roadmap produced in the study will help the Dutch government develop a clear monitoring framework that helps public organizations compare purchase options and make sustainable purchasing decisions more easily.

Whenever a mobile phone is thrown away, we lose the value of its components but also the value of its production, transportation, and labor. Currently, only 20% of electronic products are formally recycled, while integrated construction makes repairing and reusing electronic components increasingly difficult. Fairphone is attempting not only to recycle, but also to re-use and repair electronic components and source them from ethical supply chains.

Read our interview with Fairphone co-founder Miquel Ballester Salvà to learn what other impacts Fairphone is trying to minimize, what drives them, and where the compnay is is headed.

The nitrogen emissions crisis has seen as many as 18,000 construction and infrastructure projects stall across the Netherlands, and hundreds of farmers protesting in their tractors. But nitrogen impacts represent one of the greatest threats to our planetary life support systems, with big consequences for biodiversity and climate change.

So, why are nitrogen emissions a problem in the first place? Is the issue primarily related to construction, farming, or something else, and how do we fix this?

Our Industries team lead Pieter van Exter undertook some detailed analysis and outlines potential pathways out of the crisis.

The Municipality of Dordrecht, a city in South Holland, tasked Metabolic with undertaking material flow analyses of the construction and manufacturing sectors, in order to identify circular opportunities. The report is publicly available (in Dutch, linked below) and we are proud to share it with you.

We undertook two Material Flow Analyses (MFAs) for Dordrecht’s building and demolition sector, as well as the manufacturing sector. We identified concrete as the biggest opportunity for circular solutions. The business cases have the potential to create 8-30 jobs and reduce CO2 emissions by 22,500 tons per year in the region. The transition towards a circular concrete chain is considered as a good starting point for the further development of a circular economy in Dordrecht. The knowledge and experience gained can then be used to realize other circular opportunities, such as wood, metals and e-waste.

Are you feeling 'climate anxiety'? You are not alone.

Annebel Dommer wrote about her search for ways to reverse her feeling of helplessness. She came across the summer school course on circular cities, offered by Metabolic in collaboration with the Universiteit van Amsterdam. In her blog, Annebel opens up on how the course equipped her with practical and solution-oriented approaches to environmental problems, and embedded her into a class full of motivated students with a sense of climate optimism.

Click through to read her blog and hear her thoughts

The World Economic Forum estimates that the world generated 50 million tonnes of e-waste in 2018.

One circular economy solution is to develop product-as-a-service models like that adopted by Dutch headphones startup Gerrard Street. Customers pay a monthly fee, and in return have access to modular headphones that use no glue and are easy to disassemble.

We interviewed co-founder Dorus Galama about the challenges and advantages of circular economy solutions for e-waste. One key insight: "in direct sales, sustainability doesn’t work too much."

Read the full story!

Part of the transition to a circular economy is measuring how circular our current economy really is. Metabolic fascilitated a workshop with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL), which brought government ministries and municipalities to the table, to discuss how best to measure the circular economy in the Netherlands. Intra-governmental cooperation is crucial to measuring the different levels of the circular economy across cities and regions. Check out the report! (in Dutch)
https://www.pbl.nl/publicaties/meten-om-te-weten

And read more about our work here: https://www.metabolic.nl/news/measuring-the-circular-economy-the-dutch-pioneers-leading-the-way/

TU Delft, AMS Institute, and Metabolic are working with an international consortium of parties to develop an interactive online application that maps resource flows in peri-urban Amsterdam – one of six living laboratories for the REPAiR project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

The tool equips city planners and urban designers with an interactive map of waste streams and shows how they could be usefully redirected, identifying the significant opportunities in peri-urban areas where the city and the countryside meet.