Measuring circularity in Rotterdam
Rotterdam is a European circular hotspot home to 600,000 people. The City is aiming to halve its raw material consumption by 2030, and achieve a full circular economy by 2050.
So how is Rotterdam tracking its progress toward these ambitious goals? I spoke to Eline Lagendijk (circular program coordinator at the City of Rotterdam) and Chandar van der Zande (sustainability consultant at Metabolic) to find out.
What is the city of Rotterdam looking to measure?
Rotterdam is measuring its raw material consumption across four target sectors:
Agri-food and green flows
Construction
Consumer goods (such as electronics, plastic, clothing and paper)
Healthcare
Why did you choose these four sectors?
We chose these sectors based on their impact and momentum:
Impact: these sectors consume large amounts of materials
Momentum: we also considered sectors where there is momentum to become more circular.
What metrics are you using to measure material consumption?
We use two indicators:
Direct material consumption: everything that is being wasted within the City itself (this material is sent to recyclers, incinerators or landfills).
Raw material consumption: materials that are consumed in the production of imported goods. To estimate this, we use raw material equivalent coefficients to calculate embedded materials in imported goods.
Raw material consumption is a concept from the European Commission. Eurostat uses it as well. At the national level, there is an organization called PBL who does all the calculations for the Dutch transition to a circular economy.
What datasets are you using to measure material consumption?
We are using data on:
Waste generation: this includes municipal waste data reported by the City, as well as, waste data from private companies reported under national requirements.
Energy consumption: we use data from the national climate monitor on energy consumption and energy mix (gas, coal, wind, solar, etc.). From this, we can estimate the materials used to produce the energy.
Cosmetics use data: to estimate the amount of shampoos, soaps, detergents that are consumed and disposed via the sewer system
National study on food consumption: this study gives information on everything that’s being wasted other than food waste - i.e. urine/poop down the sewer
How do you measure the material consumption of stocks, like buildings? Do you count them only in the year they are disposed?
We are not accounting for stocks, but this is something we are looking into. Metabolic has created an urban mining monitor with Rotterdam, which assesses all the building stocks in the city. We know the number of buildings and the building typology. From this, we can estimate the amount of materials in building stock. We can also monitor changes in building stock overtime based on demolitions and building permits.
Materials have different environmental impacts. For example, producing a tonne of steel generates more greenhouse gas emissions than a tonne of wood. Is there any interest in monitoring Rotterdam’s environmental impact from material consumption?
At this stage we are not measuring environmental impacts because the margin of error can be quite tremendous. For example, we know (from waste data) how much steel was consumed in Rotterdam. We can also estimate how many greenhouse gas emissions were generated from producing that steel. But we don’t know if the steel has been through six lifespans (i.e. recycled 6 times), which can significantly affect GHG emissions. So connecting greenhouse gas emissions factors to our existing data would have a large margin of error.
Apart from measuring material consumption, do you have any other metrics?
Besides material consumption, we also have a dashboard of transition indicators, including:
Citizen awareness and behaviours: measured through a survey
Number of circular initiatives that the City supports: for example number of grants awarded to circular start-ups. This metric is simply a count. But in the future we’d like to measure the impact of those initiatives.
Do you plan to introduce more transition indicators, or do you feel that the two you have chosen are enough?
We will introduce more indicators over time, but the ones we have are a good starting point. The citizen survey is really useful. For example, we know that most people know about the circular economy and think it’s important. But unfortunately their behaviour hasn't changed over the past year. The survey gives us insights into what behaviours we need to influence through policy making.
Are you interested in measuring sharing activities in the City, such as car sharing and tool lending libraries?
We have a question in our citizen survey related to mobility (e.g. car sharing).
How many resources /people are allocated to measuring Rotterdam’s circularity?
There was a large investment of time to develop Rotterdam’s baseline measurement. But now that we have set it up, a similar dashboard for a city could be created in about 25-30 person days. However, this depends on data availability from the private sector. If data is not available on material inputs and outputs by sector, then it would take more time.
However, we are not finished by just creating this tool. The City has people who spend time helping interpret the outcomes and translating these outcomes into policy.
How does measuring circularity help the City of Rotterdam?
Measuring circularity helps us to understand our baseline, and track our material consumption over time. We also hope it will help the City to make better choices and focus our policy making efforts.
Do you have any advice for other cities looking to start measuring their circularity?
Just start! As you go, you will refine your measures.
Other top tips include:
Consider your own policy goals and chose measures that will help track your progress toward them
Review the range of metrics possible
Identify what data is available to calculate the metrics, do a gap analysis, and decide if you want to fill gaps now, or proceed with a baseline measurement, filling in gaps over time.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank Eline and Chandar for their time and valuable insights on how Rotterdam is measuring the circular economy.
Eline Lagendijk
Eline is the program coordinator of Rotterdam Circulair at the City of Rotterdam. She coordinates, supports and facilitates her colleagues who are working on the next steps in the transition to a circular economy. She has a big heart for the City of Rotterdam and is passionate about creating a sustainable future.
Chandar van der Zande
Chandar is a sustainability consultant at Metabolic: a consulting and venture-building company that uses systems thinking to tackle major sustainability challenges. He leads the Policy Cluster within Metabolic’s consulting division. Here they apply action-research, do policy analysis and apply systems thinking to develop new knowledge and solutions to build a sustainable, regenerative and just economy. Metabolic focuses on circular area development, circular procurement, governance innovations, to help (public) organizations reach their goals towards a regenerative and circular economy.