Luca Meini spoke about circular cities and circular economy at Enel, proposing new models and different tools to move towards a mor circular future.
Cities
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27 January 2023At the last Re-think event held in Taranto, one of the topics covered during the three days was sustainable mobility, an important theme as rethinking infrastructure and the way of moving in a more sustainable way is central to innovating different forms of transportation for more efficient use, paying attention to resources such as biofuels, hydrogen, and biomethane; and to move toward reducing pollution risks, protecting the health and public spaces. Emanuele Memmola, T&TS – Sustainable Mobility in Eni, explained during his speech what Eni is doing in the world of sustainable mobility. Today we are in a time of unprecedented climate emergency, Memmola said, so either we take action by introducing mitigation actions, or the globe’s temperature will continue to rise. The figure presented by the United Nations Climate Change Report says that from the pre-industrial era to 2021, the temperature has increased by 1° Celsius, and if we combine this degree with global pollution, its value has risen to about 416 parts per million in atmospheric CO2; the forecast is not optimistic. If measures to lower temperatures are not promptly activated, by the end of 2100 the temperature of planet earth will rise by 2.7° Celsius, far from the 1.5° Celsius predicted in the Paris Agreement. Although the supply of increasingly renewable sources is evident, there is an ever-increasing demand for energy, especially in developing countries where the fuel mix is more skewed toward fossil sources than renewables. In addition, the world population is continuously growing. This has led to a 60 percent emission of CO2 into the atmosphere over the past three decades due to the effects of climate change. The main culprits, of course, are energy-intensive industries and the world of transportation, particularly in Europe. Italy has as many as 39 million vehicles for transporting goods...
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18 November 2022As part of the last Re-think held in Milan in February 2022, Paolo Marchetti, Commercial, Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability Director of ATM, Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, spoke about how important the company’s focus on sustainability and circular economy issues is, what projects are underway and what its goals are. Paolo Marchetti started his speech by remarking on the importance of speaking about sustainability for a company that in the city of Milan has a great impact. ATM is a group composed of 10,000 employees and operates in Milan but also in its surroundings in 96 municipalities, operating around 185 kilometers, before Covid-19, it carried 2.5 million passengers per day. It operates not only in urban and suburban public transport but also in automatic metros and in the backend of the industry, managing rail diagnostic, and maintenance of the fleets, infrastructure, and network technologies. Moreover, to be most integrated, it also manages the bike-sharing system and the car park around the city. All these modes of transportation guarantee the company to build a strong strategic plan with really focused pillars regarding its vision. First of all, Marchetti underlined how ATM is able to make the city of Milan a liveable, sustainable and smart city. At ATM, they work to guarantee this vision by operational excellence in building a stronger sustainability policy, not only regarding carbon neutrality but also all the points of view of the company with the help of technological innovation, and with benchmarks as well. In fact, for instance, the company also operates in Copenhagen, which was very important in improving the automatic metro management. The network in Milan is complex and integrated, there are different layers aimed at guaranteeing all the types of movement in the city: 5 metro lines, 19 tram lines, 4 lines of trolleybuses and 158...
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16 December 2021Circularity and decarbonisation of urban systems: an innovative and systemic approach On October 2020 during our event Re-think Circular Economy Forum held in Milan we had as one of our guests Paolo Cresci, Head of Sustainable Development at Arup Italy who explained us what is Arup and what it does. Paolo Cresci introduced Arup, a worldwide company working across every aspect of today’s-built environment. Starting from recent projects and case studies, he illustrated the approach adopted and the results obtained by setting up an integrated approach to Circularity and Decarbonisation. The intervention highlighted the significant elements, relationships and advantages of a synergistic approach for urban transformation. Considering city as a system, the scientist Howard T. Odum created, in 1973, the concept of EMERGY, a model of natural and human ecosystems. In this concept embodied energy is associated to any kind of human action on the planet. Arup, in partnership with C40, in the last two reports, Deadline 2020 and The future of urban consumption in 1.5 °C world investigated and outlined strategies to set up decarbonisation roadmaps and best practices for our cities. Over the last three years, Arup has also been a strategic partner to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and contributed to develop the ‘circular economy’ thinking and practices in built environment. The transition to a circular economy will require the application of systems thinking and new approaches to the way we design, operate and maintain built environment assets. In 2018, Arup Milan, supported by C40’s Reinventing Cities competition, started L’INNESTO, a carbon-neutral social housing project in Milan. By then, they have been involved in some of the major developments in Milan, looking into decarbonization from a quantitative perspective, which considers six main components (energy, materials, mobility, water, waste, land remediation and green infrastructure) and how they can offset the remaining CO2. In a large-scale development it is possible to find the majority of the carbon components as well as challenges that we face in our urban systems. The analysis shows how the embodied carbon is a relevant component and without considering mobility, it counts 50% at least. This percentage is related to the life...
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11 November 2021Regole per una Città Crcolare In occasione dell’evento Hacking the City, organizzato lo scorso aprile, abbiamo avuto il piacere di avere con noi la Professoressa e Prorettrice agli Affari Giuridici dell’Università di Pisa, Michela Passalacqua, che ha spiegato quali regole seguire per poter creare una città circolare. La professoressa ha iniziato il suo intervento spiegando che la città come la conosciamo noi, è opposta in realtà alla circolarità. Perché? Le città per potersi sviluppare ed esistere, devono consumare il suolo e, invece, la città diventa circolare quando è in grado di contenere questo consumo. Il tema del consumo del suolo è molto importante per la sostenibilità, perché il suolo, in origine concepito come una risorsa nascosta che non vediamo e che è essenziale, rende dei servizi fondamentali per la nostra esistenza, cioè i servizi ecosistemici. Quindi, più ci sviluppiamo nelle città con l’edificato e con le nostre attività produttive, più consumiamo questo suolo e fruiamo dei suoi servizi ecosistemici e quanto più sarà difficile ripristinarli. Infatti, i processi di naturalizzazione non restituiscono mai il suolo con le caratteristiche originarie. L’Unione Europea è molto attenta al tema dell’economia circolare, della sostenibilità e della riduzione del consumo di suolo, ma nonostante ciò, non si è riusciti ad approvare una direttiva in materia dell’ultimo. C’è stata molta discussione a riguardo, ma il progetto si è arenato per gli interessi economici che sono sottesi all’utilizzo del suolo, perché sia la vita nelle città, quindi l’edilizia residenziale, sia le attività produttive, necessitano di consumare il suolo per poter esistere. Purtroppo, perciò, a livello europeo non si è riusciti ad approvare una direttiva quadro che tutti gli Stati membri debbano rispettare. In Italia, le regioni sono attivissime nel fare leggi che promuovano la rigenerazione del suolo ed urbana, e addirittura dal 2013, il legislatore nazionale se...
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17 September 2021Italiano La Professoressa Simona Tondelli dell’Università di Bologna è stata nostra ospite in occasione di Hacking the City lo scorso aprile. Il suo intervento, sintetizzato in questo articolo, si è concentrato sull’applicazione dell’economia circolare nell’ecosistema urbano. Il focus della Prof.ssa Tondelli è sulla circolarità urbana, che è per noi oggi un tema centrale poiché le città sono solitamente luoghi in cui la maggior parte degli impatti che noi generiamo si concentrano, ma li subisce anche perché la gran parte della popolazione mondiale vive qui e continuerà ad aumentare. Inoltre, nelle città abbiamo circa l’81% dei consumi; la metà delle città con oltre 100.000 abitanti tendono a soffrire di scarsità idrica; possono esserci problemi di food security; l’artificializzazione del suolo che causa la perdita di terreni agricoli; si consumano il 60-80% di risorse naturali; si producono oltre il 50% dei rifiuti e oltre i 2/3 delle emissioni di gas serra oltre a consumare circa il 60% dell’energia. Bisogna però tener presente che le città sono tutte molto diverse tra loro, sia al loro interno che tra di loro, avendo queste diversi stadi di sviluppo che possono vedere città caratterizzate da spopolamento o invecchiamento della popolazione provocando quindi l’abbandono di spazi ancora utilizzabili, ad esempio Detroit, e dall’altra parte, ci sono invece città in cui la popolazione tende a concentrarsi perché sono poli economici importanti, spostando invece attività meno redditizie nelle periferie, ad esempio Vancouver. Un possibile approccio alla circolarità urbana è quello sviluppato dalla Circular Cities Hub che spiega quali sono le caratteristiche che una città dovrebbe avere per diventare effettivamente circolare: La “città locale”, nel senso che la chiusura del ciclo a cui si ambisce deve concretizzarsi il più possibile nella produzione e nel consumo all’interno dei confini di questo centro. La “città in loop”, un luogo dove le risorse vengono riciclate, riutilizzate, recuperate e poi usate per...
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20 July 2021English Version Cities are the first cause and at the same time victims of global warming, but can they be the first resource for fighting climate change? Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, was our guest during our Re-think Circular Economy Forum last October. He firmly believes that yes, a city could be the first resource for tackling climate change. He thinks of vegetation as an essential element of architecture and this is what makes his projects special. He started his speech by highlighting how by 2030, 60% of the global population is projected to live in urban areas and that cities consume 75% of the world’s natural resources and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions. To avoid producing new CO2 and absorbing the emissions that already exist in the atmosphere, plants and trees are extremely efficient. His Urban Manifesto explains more about this. During our event, Stefano presented an innovative project Smart Forest City in Cancun, Mexico. He chose this city because, in this urban area, a Chinese company has already destroyed part of the mangroves forest in order to build a mall. The idea of Smart Forest City is the concept of Urban Forestry, to contrast deforestation. The main idea behind Smart Forest City is to create sustainable spaces and help the city to become self-sufficient. The city will host up to 130.000 people, it will have 5 or 6 epicenters around a series of University departments. It will be composed of more than 7 million trees and thousands of other plants. The most interesting part of the project is the buffer zone: the perimeter of this new city is composed of solar panels and a place for agricultural fields, where it will be possible to cultivate and produce part of the food for the...
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16 July 2021English Version Lucia Scopelliti, Head of Unit Economic Development at Municipality of Milan, was our guest during our Re-think Circular Economy Forum last October: She explained the actions undertaken by the city of Milan, with the aim to transform the production and consumption flows from linear to circular. Experiences on the circular economy at the city level show that cities have an active role as promoters, facilitators, and enablers of the transition. Cities can act as promoters on circular economy strategies, but they are also facilitators connecting stakeholders operating along the value chains, that are not necessarily used to collaborate with each other. Finally, cities are also key enablers since they provide the conditions for the circular economy to happen, setting up incentives, infrastructures, and mobilizing funds. As cities play a big role in public investment and procurement, subnational governments account for 60% of public investments in OECD countries. Cities can consider green infrastructures, nature-based solutions, and zero energy options. Cities are also laboratories for innovation that generate social and environmental benefits. Most importantly, they play a key role in the circular economy, given the responsibilities for local public services: transports, solid waste, water, and energy. In this sense, cities can really contribute to the circular approach, by developing a forward-looking vision and promoting synergies across all these sectors. Milan has taken a proactive approach on the circularity front, by joining several international organizations, like the Circular Economy 100 led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which also includes the cities of Toronto and London, leading Silicon Valley companies (Apple, Google), and high-profile European businesses (Ikea, Tetra Pak). Milan was welcomed to this program because of three still ongoing efforts. Firstly, the results achieved against food waste and the city’s commitment to creating shorter food chains according to the city Food Policy. Secondly,...
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15 July 2021By Arianna Sica English Version The term Circular Economy appeared for the first time in Boulding’s article “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth” in 1966, indicating a planned economic system for the reuse of materials in subsequent production cycles with the aim of reducing waste. Since then, this alternative model which aims to substitute the classic one, characterized by a linear production-consumption relation, has entered the discussions of the round tables of the Public and Private Sector, sometimes provoking forms of resistance to its implementation, fueled by individual and social cognitive biases. The footprint of Circular Economy Although the term was conceptualized only during the last century, circular practices such as Upcycling, Downcycling, and Zero Waste aimed at maximizing the value obtainable from resources can already be seen in ancient times. Through the numerous findings received in archaeological excavations, the footprints of the circular economy of the past are being outlined. The goal of these researches is to examine the know-how that cities of the past hold, so that a long-term perspective can help and inform today’s politicians and decision-makers. For example, while today we often discuss the sustainability of “Consumer Cities”, a large part of urban centers in the past was largely self-sufficient through recycling and reuse of resources. Rome In “Recycling and Reuse in the Rome Economy“, several types of materials that the Romans recycled are identified. In the building sector, there were workers involved in the demolition of buildings, and most of the recovered recycled material was presumably acquired from suppliers of building materials. Garments and other textile items that have been recovered from Roman sites feature patches, additions, and other types of repairs that involved the use of material apparently made from used fabrics/garments. Parts of used fabric were also regularly used as padding to...
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16 June 2021By Simina Scripat English Version The crisis caused by COVID-19 and the effects of climate change made the transition to an economic system in which production and consumption are more sustainable increasingly urgent. This implies a total paradigm shift from the status quo. In this new perspective, the needs of the present must be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To achieve such development, in 2015 the Member Countries of the United Nations adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. These goals are based on the three pillars: environmental, social, and economic. Given the close interconnection of these levels, a transformation of the economic system can also bring environmental and social benefits. Generally speaking, studies have shown how the circular model can benefit the achievement of all SDGs. For example, it has a direct effect on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG 6). In fact, several parts of the world currently experience severe water shortages at least once a year. The use of circular practices, such as the development of small-scale water purification technologies or wastewater treatment to reduce the discharge of wastewater into drinking water sources, may offer a solution to this water access issue. Circular economy (CE) can also directly benefit the achievement of SDG 7 – ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. Energy is one of the most polluting sectors, and as a study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation shows, the transition to renewable energy can address 55% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By introducing CE in five sectors (key cement, plastics, steel, aluminum, and food), it would be possible to reduce these emissions by 9.3 billion tons, thus curbing the other...