The City of Amsterdam as frontrunner in sustainability and circular thinking has published its Circular Strategy 2020-2025.
It sees the local economy from a new perspective and shifts the focus on how locals produce, process and consume. The City aims to both significantly reduce its environmental footprint, and make Amsterdam thrive. Two main goals are to halve the use of primary raw materials by 2030 and become 100% circular by the year 2050.
Not least the COVID-19 crisis has shown weaknesses in the global economic system and in the food system. Hopefully it will lead to make a change towards more sustainability and circularity in many aspects of society, including Agri-food. The topic Agri-Food that was recurrently addressed in the RUMORE project and the five actions of the developed Action plan are part of the Circular Strategy 2020-2025.
The strategy uses the model of a City´s doughnut to describe how societies and businesses can contribute to economic development while still respecting the limits of the planet and society.
Amsterdam focuses on three value chains with related ambitions:
Food and organic waste streams
• Ambition 1: Short food chains provide a robust sustainable food system
• Ambition 2: Healthy and sustainable food for the people of Amsterdam
• Ambition 3: High-quality processing of organic waste streams
Consumer goods
• Ambition 1: The City sets the right example by reducing its consumption
• Ambition 2: Using what we have more sparingly
• Ambition 3: Amsterdam makes the most of discarded products
Built environment
• Ambition 1: The transition to circular development requires a joint effort
• Ambition 2: The City sets the right example by formulating circular criteria
• Ambition 3: A circular approach to the existing city
One major instrument for accountability is the development of a monitor to assess the ecological and social impact of the transition. With this it can be seen how much Amsterdam´s economy became circular and in which areas more action is needed.
You can find more on the Circular Economy in Amsterdam here.
Picture by Laura Montagnani/pixabay
