scholarly journals Responsibility as a field: The circular economy of water, waste, and energy

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 866-884
Author(s):  
Federico Savini ◽  
Mendel Giezen
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Sustainability Transitions ◽  
Climate Targets ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Policy Program ◽  
Conservative View ◽  
Utility Services ◽  
Water Waste

Responsibilities are a central matter of concern of environmental politics because they underpin regulatory frameworks of utility services. Yet, in scholarship concerned with sustainability transitions and governance, responsibility is reductively understood as a legal obligation or allotted task. Building on an institutionalist perspective, this paper conceptualized responsibility as a field of contention where actors negotiate, contest, and articulate what we define as subjectivist and collectivist responsibilities. Defining and using the concept of ‘fields of responsibility’, the paper analyzes how responsibilities (mis)match and contradict in controversial policymaking around the ‘circular economy’: a wide policy program for restructuring water, energy, and waste utility services and infrastructures in Amsterdam region. In so doing, it reveals the logic of contemporary environmental governance: in approaching climate targets, actors actively take on responsibilities while at the same time maintaining a conservative view of their role and responsibilities. We call these phenomena over-stretching and under-reaching.

scholarly journals Circling the square: Governance of the circular economy transition in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-31
Author(s):  
Erwin Heurkens ◽  
Marcin Dąbrowski
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Sustainability Transitions ◽  
Closed Loops ◽  
Policy Debates

Circular economy (CE), the new ‘buzzword’ in urban and regional studies and policy debates, is about shifting from a linear production process towards a circular one in which the generation of waste is minimised, materials circulate in ‘closed loops’, and waste is not considered a burden but rather a resource that brings new economic opportunities. However, while there is a consensus on the need to facilitate a transition towards a circular economy, the governing of this endeavour remains extremely challenging because making a circular economy work requires cutting across sectoral, scalar, and administrative boundaries. Drawing on the sustainability transitions literature and the case of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, arguably one of the frontrunners on the strive towards a circular built environment and economy, the paper seeks to identify and understand barriers for CE transition at a regional scale. The findings underscore the multi-faceted nature of the challenge and offer lessons for the governance of emerging regional circular spatial-economic policies.

scholarly journals Future-Proofing Capitalism: The Paradox of the Circular Economy for Plastics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Alice Mah
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Industrial Systems ◽  
Corporate Strategies ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Sustainability Concept

The marine plastics crisis sparked a wave of corporate interest in the circular economy, a sustainable business model that aims to eliminate waste in industrial systems through recycling, reduction, reuse, and recovery. Drawing on debates about the role of corporations in global environmental governance, this article examines the rise of the circular economy as a dominant corporate sustainability concept, focusing on the flagship example of the circular economy for plastics. It argues that corporations across the plastics value chain have coordinated their efforts to contain the circular economy policy agenda, while extending their markets through developing risky circular economy technologies. These corporate strategies of containment and proliferation represent attempts to “future-proof” capitalism against existential threats to public legitimacy, masking the implications for environmental justice. The paradox of the circular economy is that it seems to offer radical challenges to linear “take-make-waste” models of industrial capitalism, backed by international legislation, but it does not actually give up on unsustainable growth. We need to tackle the plastics crisis at its root, dramatically reducing the global production of toxic and wasteful plastics.

scholarly journals Underutilised Resources in Urban Environments

Resources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Kusch-Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Household Waste ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Sound Management

An important opportunity for more sustainable development pathways in an urbanising world is missed where resources remain underutilised, when they could be valorised in a sound and environmentally favourable mode. This Special Issue of the journal Resources was initiated to identify promising solutions and specific challenges in the context of underutilised resources in urban environments. The compiled contributions address two main areas, namely the establishment of circular economy schemes based on valorising wastes that occur in urban areas and the exploitation of renewable energies. Circular economy and renewable resources hold key potential for making cities more sustainable, and the authors of this Special Issue, with their publications, enhance our understanding of how to unlock this potential. Effective regulatory frameworks and policymaking processes which balance the powers between stakeholders are required to successfully manage energy transition and the transition to more circular economies. The positive role of community engagement merits high attention. To recover valuable resources from household waste, a focus on technology and infrastructure is required but is not enough; motivational factors and knowledge of citizens are most essential elements. It also becomes evident that the need to more reliably quantify and better characterise recyclable material streams, especially where population numbers are further growing, remains. The publications compiled in this Special Issue are a rich source to identify promising solutions, challenges and research needed for the sound management of urban resource demands.

Part V Subject Matter, Ch.34 Aviation and Maritime Transport

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romera Beatriz Martinez
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
International Maritime Organization ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Maritime Transport ◽  
International Civil Aviation Organization ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Specific Regulation

This chapter focuses on the main environmental issues relating to aviation and maritime transport, and the key international legal and regulatory frameworks and tools in place to address them. The environmental regulation of aviation and maritime transport activities is orchestrated primarily under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), two United Nations (UN) specialized agencies dealing with all aspects of aviation and maritime transport, respectively. However, the environmental governance of aviation and maritime transport also encompasses actors, processes, and instruments outside these regimes, and interactions with other treaty-based regimes. The chapter then examines the specific regulation of different environmental matters. It also looks at the key issues and pathways for the sustainable future of these sectors.

scholarly journals Agency in Circular City Ecosystems—A Rationalities Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2544
Author(s):  
Antero Hirvensalo ◽  
Satu Teerikangas ◽  
Noelia-Sarah Reynolds ◽  
Helka Kalliomäki ◽  
Raine Mäntysalo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Rational Action ◽  
Communicative Rationality ◽  
Sustainability Transitions ◽  
Relational Agency ◽  
Operating Space ◽  
Plural Rationalities

The concept of agency is increasingly used in the literature on sustainability transitions. In this paper, we add to that discussion by arguing that the concept of rationality opens new avenues to theorizing relational agency in transitions toward a circular economy. To this end, we compare rationality conceptions from management (e.g., collaboration and competition) with critical theory perspectives on rationality (e.g., instrumental and communicative rationality). This leads us to develop a typology matrix for describing plural rationalities underpinning relational agency. We illustrate this typology using excerpts from an in-depth case study of an ongoing city-coordinated ecosystem that develops a smart technology-enabled urban area based on the principles of circularity. The first contribution of this interdisciplinary paper is to offer a rational perspective on theorizing the antecedents of relational agency in circular economy transitions, where communicatively rational action enables agency and change. Secondly, our paper contributes to the literature on circular cities through conceptualizing circular transition as simultaneous collaboration and competition. Thirdly, our paper introduces a dyadic perspective on rationality to the literature on coopetition and provides an operating space from which professionals can navigate, depending on the type of coopetitive situation.

scholarly journals Advancing edible insects as food and feed in a circular economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 935-948
Author(s):  
A. van Huis ◽  
B.A. Rumpold ◽  
H.J. van der Fels-Klerx ◽  
J.K. Tomberlin
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Edible Insects ◽  
Value Change ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Unique Aspect ◽  
Biological Contaminants ◽  
Food And Feed ◽  
Insects As Food

An overview is given of the special issue on edible insects covering a number of aspects along the value change. The articles presented cover topics about producing insects both as food for humans and feed for animals, ranging from environmental impact, facility design, (left-over) substrates, the role of microbes, genetics, diseases, nutrition, to insect welfare. Possible health benefits of insects for humans and animals are discussed as well as the potential dangers in terms of allergies and chemical/biological contaminants. Regulatory frameworks are examined and assessed for remaining obstacles. The technologies dealing with the processing and extraction of proteins, lipids, and chitin were also reviewed. Consumers’ perception of insect-derived food products is discussed as well. A unique aspect of this special issue within the ‘Journal of Insects as Food and Feed’ is a first attempt to discuss the economics of the industry. The special issue concludes with a discussion of policy and challenges facing the sector.

scholarly journals University Contributions to the Circular Economy: Professing the Hidden Curriculum

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Nunes ◽  
Simon Pollard ◽  
Paul Burgess ◽  
Gareth Ellis ◽  
Irel de los Rios ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Hidden Curriculum ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Material Flows ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Road ◽  
Economic Significance

In a world dominated by linear economic systems, the road to improving resource use is multi-faceted. Whilst public and private organisations are making progress in introducing sustainable practices, we ask ourselves the extent to which education providers are contributing to the circular economy. As engines for skills and knowledge, universities play a primary role in propelling circular economy approaches into reality and, as such, hold the potential for raising the bar on sustainable performance. A rapid evidence assessment (REA) was therefore undertaken to examine the interactions between university estate management and the circular economy. This assessment identified six pertinent themes: campus sustainability, the hidden curriculum, environmental governance, local impact, university material flows, and the role of universities as catalysts for business and examined 70 publications. A second part of the study reviewed the environmental activities of 50 universities ranked highly in terms of their environmental credentials or their environmental science courses. The results are presented and then discussed in terms of how universities can affect material flows, promote sustainability outside of the formal curriculum, and act as catalysts with business. The economic significance of universities provides an appreciable demand for circular products and services. Universities should develop “hidden curriculum” plans to promote improved environmental behaviours of staff and students. Universities can also catalyse a circular economy by working with business to improve eco-effectiveness as well as eco-efficiency. For example, projects should extend the focus from decreasing carbon footprint to achieving carbon positivity, from improving water efficiency to treating wastewater, and from recycling to reverse logistics for repurposing. Pilot projects arising from such work could provide valuable research bases and consultancy opportunities.

scholarly journals Trading Radical for Incremental Change: The Politics of a Circular Economy Transition in the German Packaging Sector

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Machteld Simoens ◽  
Sina Leipold
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Regulatory Change ◽  
Sustainability Transitions ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Packaging Waste ◽  
Lock In

Understanding environmental politics is crucial for sustainability transitions. We study the transition politics of the shift to a circular economy in the German packaging sector, particularly the curious case of the 2019 German Packaging Act. While the policy was born out of the unanimous wish for radical regulatory change, all stakeholders evaluate the outcome as incremental. Applying the Discursive Agency Approach and drawing upon stakeholder interviews and documents, we show that stakeholders’ perceived fear of radical changes are critical for transition politics. This fear created a lock-in of two narratives proposing conflicting organizational designs of packaging waste management. While the narrative lock-in could be resolved by trading radical for incremental change, it left many conflicts and challenges unresolved. Our findings suggest that stakeholders’ fears not only prevent radical regulatory change but also create incremental change that may intensify unresolved conflicts and, thus, further weaken the stakeholders’ capacity for future transition politics.

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