Vejle
Circular Economy as 'Resilience Strategy'
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Circular Economy as 'Resilience Strategy'
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City/Country
Vejle, Denmark
Initiative
The overarching initiative on city level is nested in the Vejle Resilience Strategy for 2016-2020, which is part of the 100 resilient cities network. More specifically, the second (out of four) pillar of the strategy focuses on climate resilience promoting a series of policies for wastewater management and mobility. Many circular economy-related measures and actions can be identified in this context, even when not explicitly referred to as such.
On country level, Denmark has published on 2018 the national Strategy for circular economy to promote a transition to circular product design, new business models, and increased recycling.
Level
City level; Country level
Period of
Implementation
2016-2020; 2018-2030 (The 2018 national Strategy for Circular Economy does not specify an exact timeframe of implementation. The range is derived from the authors’ interpretation of the strategy.)
Core vision
The Vejle Resilience Strategy is being developed on the principles of co-creation, innovation, and sustainable growth to enhance cooperation across the city management, civil society and local business community to tackle some of the main challenges related to climate change, globalization, immigration and population growth.
The main objective of the Strategy for Circular Economy is to support a transition to more circular economy, including better use and recycling of resources and the prevention of waste.
With the introduction on the Resource Center Vejle the city council aims to boost its recycling operations and engage with citizens in matters of circularity.
Implementation & Governance
A broad array of stakeholders from the local government, research institutions, businesses and civil society organisations are involved in the implementation of the various actions of the Vejle Resilience Strategy. The main goals of the climate resilience pillar are to:
protect Vejle from water-related threats and turn water into an asset for urban and social capital,
establish public-private partnerships for resilient utilities, and
secure growth by using sustainable resources, renewable energy and green transport.
Some indicative support measures that entail elements of circular economy are the following:
Holistic strategic wastewater plan: The Municipality of Vejle is developing an integrated wastewater strategy that addresses the challenges of climate change, water supply, existing municipal water plans, and water quality. The aspiration is to pioneer this approach and set a goal for other municipalities to develop more efficient and sustainable solutions. The plan is to provide the municipality with an overview of the current systems and identify where further investment is needed to secure an improved and resilient wastewater system for Vejle.
Shared bicycle scheme:The capacity of a shared bicycle plan is being researched in order to offer mobility options to educational institutions and businesses from the railway station. The goal is to promote alternative modes of transportation and incentivise behavioral change.
Energy neutral waste collection trucks: The Municipality of Vejle is investing in the conversion of waste to biofuels to power waste collection trucks, reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption within Vejle. If this goal proves successful, converting the bus fleet to biofuels would be next.
Improved waste collection in housing estates: (Municipality of Vejle, Green Forum) The Municipality of Vejle is providing information and separate waste bins in order to improve awareness of waste segregation amongst citizens and encourage them to be more aware of sustainability and inspire social responsibility.
TVIS district heating collaboration, to retrofit for biomass: TVIS is a biofuel district heating collaboration between Kolding, Middelfart, Fredericia and Vejle municipalities. Established in 1983, it utilises the waste heat from the Shell refinery, DONG Energy power plant Skærbækværket and the waste incinerator Energist in Kolding as a resource which provides an eco-friendly and affordable district heating network.
Instruments and Levers
On a national level, several policies have been designed to enable enterprises as a driving force for circular transition; support circular economy through data and digitalisation; promote circularity through design; change consumption patterns; create a proper functioning market for waste and recycled raw materials; get more value out of buildings and biomass.
The recycling of municipal waste is projected to reach at least 55 percent in 2025, 60 percent in 2030, and 65 percent in 2035. While the recycling of packaging waste at least 65 percent in 2025 and 70 percent in 2030.
The waste directives also contain a number of new requirements for, among others, source-separation of organic waste from 2023 and extended producer responsibility for packaging waste from 2025.
Governance
Municipality of Vejl
Partners
Partners include local communities, NGOs, businesses and other cities which inform exploratory activities for the identification of resilience building opportunities.
Vejle’s resilience strategy is handled by a Steering Committee, which guides the core group of decision makers and stakeholders. These include the City Council, the Financial Committee and the Executive Board as well as the Municipality’s Innovation Committee which acts as an Advisory Board. Partnerships also exist with the Educational Council, the Business Relations Committee and the Housing Strategic Steering Group.
Furthermore, the Resilience Forum has allowed researchers and interest groups to contribute to the development and understanding of resilience.
Indicators and
Monitoring system
The municipality has developed several smart-city projects to explore adjustments for greener and smarter urban areas. For example the municipality monitors the city center’s Wi-Fi signals to create an overview of the citizens’ movements. The information is utilised to create more efficient and climate-friendly transportation opportunities.
Budget allocated
Not specified
Results, impacts and learnings
Indicatively, since the introduction of a new waste scheme in 2016, including the installation of sorting garbage and the introduction of garbage trucks running on biogas, significant results have been shown. Based on the Klima 100 report, in 2018 Vejle citizens sorted approximately 81% of the 125 kg food waste that each Dane produces annually while the amount of organic waste collected has increased by 180%, paper and cardboard by 19%, and plastic by 25%.
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