Arup has joined forces with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to produce a report on the value of circular economy (CE) in real estate.

CE offers real estate investors a framework for achieving environmental and social goals while delivering better economic performance. How do real estate business models need to change - apart from eco-design - if CE principles are to scale up in this sector?

The report defines five models to improve financial performance to the benefit of real estate investors and construction clients:

1. Flexible Spaces
2. Adaptable Assets
3. Relocatable Buildings
4. Residual Value
5. Performance Procurement.

This study aims to assist the European Commission to identify policy options that support the uptake of circular economy principles for buildings’ design in European, national and local policies.

The goal is:

• to increase the service life of buildings
• to facilitate the use of secondary materials and
• to improve resource efficiency across the building life cycle.

The study also provides key insights and recommendations on actions for a roadmap supporting the uptake and implementation of circular economy principles for buildings’ design.

The brochure Circular Cities shares knowledge and experience of circular solutions from the Netherlands to inform and inspire people and to stimulate international cooperation. The brochure was developed by Holland Circular Hotspot together with Circle Economy.

Textiles are an important issue for cities, as people generate more and more textile waste. City authorities are required to provide for separate collection of used textiles but have limited ways of putting the waste generated to good use.

Eurocities’ paper on circular textiles is published ahead of the Commission's new Strategy for Sustainable Textiles, planned for autumn 2021, to help the EU shift to a climate-neutral, circular economy (CE) where products are designed to be more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable and energy-efficient. It focuses on a sustainable recovery of the textile sector from the Covid-19 crisis by:

• making it more competitive,
• applying CE principles to production, waste management, etc.
• and directing investment, research and innovation.

The COVID-19 may have hit the pause button on tourism, but it also highlighted the need to switch to the circular economy.

This report summarises the findings of a two-year policy dialogue with the city of Granada in Spain, and provides recommendations and a vision to transition to a circular economy. It draws on Granada’s own experience with the transformation of a wastewater treatment plant into a bio factory in 2015, which contributed to increased water reuse and the production of new material from waste. The report argues that the city of Granada can play a role as a promoter, facilitator and enabler of the circular economy. This will require a collective and coordinated approach across all stakeholders and levels of government.