Governing the circular economy

The document identifies key governance challenges for cities implementing circular economy (CE) models, such as administrative silos, lack of holistic visions, and insufficient data for monitoring. It proposes four strategic pillars for urban policymakers: creating shared visions with inclusive strategies, establishing supportive regulatory and financial instruments (particularly circular public procurement), facilitating multi-level collaboration, and utilizing Urban Living Labs to scale innovations from local pilots to city-wide implementation.

• Urban policymakers face four primary challenges in implementing circular economy strategies: a lack of data and tools for assessment, administrative fragmentation and silos, a prevalence of narrow or linear thinking, and a lack of scale to accelerate these strategies.
• Many cities struggle with a narrow interpretation of the circular economy, focusing primarily on technical aspects like recycling and energy recovery while neglecting the social and behavioral impacts necessary for a transformative transition.
• Public procurement is identified as a critical municipal instrument for accelerating the circular economy, with the authors suggesting the integration of CE principles throughout the procurement process, specifically in areas such as transport, IT, food, and furniture.
• The document recommends the use of Urban Living Labs—real-life environments for co-creating and testing novel policies—to bridge the gap between small-scale pilot projects and city-wide scaling.
• Effective governance of the circular economy requires a shared vision developed early with diverse stakeholders, including academia, businesses, government, and the public, to ensure accountability and commitment.
• There is a significant gap in the ability of municipal governments to monitor progress due to missing indicators and insufficient data, which hinders the ability to learn from experience and scale up practices.

APA

Rezaie, S., Vanhuyse, F., André, K., & Henrysson, M. (2022). Governing the circular economy. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/circular-economy-urban-policymakers-2.pdf

Chicago

Rezaie, Shogofa, Fedra Vanhuyse, Karin André, and Maryna Henrysson. Governing the circular economy. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/circular-economy-urban-policymakers-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rezaie |first1=Shogofa |last2=Vanhuyse |first2=Fedra |last3=André |first3=Karin |last4=Henrysson |first4=Maryna |title=Governing the circular economy |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=September 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/circular-economy-urban-policymakers-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rezaie2022governing, author = {Rezaie, Shogofa and Vanhuyse, Fedra and André, Karin and Henrysson, Maryna}, title = {{Governing the circular economy}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/circular-economy-urban-policymakers-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }