JPI Urban Europe SUGI - Waste Food-Energy-Water Urban Living Labs - Mapping and Reducing Waste in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (WASTE FEW ULL)
Lead Research Organisation:
Coventry University
Department Name: Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili
Abstract
The aim of the WASTE FEW ULL project is to develop and test internationally applicable methods of identifying inefficiencies in a city-region's food-energy-water nexus. We will undertake this through an international network of industry/civic society-led Urban Living Labs (ULL) in four urban regions - UK (Bristol), Netherlands (Rotterdam), South Africa (Western Cape) and Brazil (Campinas). Partners in Norway and the USA will provide economic valuations of potential impact, and impact-led public education, outreach and dissemination.
Waste occurs across food, energy and water systems; at the interface of these systems, waste increases significantly the over-consumption of our limited resources (FAO, 2017): food (e.g. energy lost in food storage), energy (e.g. used to clean water) and water (e.g. nutrients lost in sewage). Resource scarcity is not only a matter of efficiency, but of access, distribution and equality (Exner et al, 2013). Each urban context has different pressures and opportunities (Ravetz, 2000). The focus of the WASTE FEW ULL project is therefore not so much on the specific downstream challenges, but on upstream processes by which cities can identify, test and scale viable and feasible solutions that reduce the most pressing inefficiencies in each context.
Waste occurs across food, energy and water systems; at the interface of these systems, waste increases significantly the over-consumption of our limited resources (FAO, 2017): food (e.g. energy lost in food storage), energy (e.g. used to clean water) and water (e.g. nutrients lost in sewage). Resource scarcity is not only a matter of efficiency, but of access, distribution and equality (Exner et al, 2013). Each urban context has different pressures and opportunities (Ravetz, 2000). The focus of the WASTE FEW ULL project is therefore not so much on the specific downstream challenges, but on upstream processes by which cities can identify, test and scale viable and feasible solutions that reduce the most pressing inefficiencies in each context.
Planned Impact
Our international partnership has impact at the core of its mission; it is led as a partnership between academics and industry-researchers in urban planning, who will coordinate the close interaction of researchers and consultancies with public and private industry and a dedicated platform for effective and transferable education and outreach activities to maximise real world impact and research excellence.
It is not possible to estimate what the potential market might be for the project results given that the focus areas of each of the ULLs has yet to be identified by the stakeholders who will be involved, but we can say that economic valuation is core to the project, which will focus attention on economic and commercial impact, and we can illustrate the type of market potential by considering the focus area that has been already discussed in the UK ULL: the dysfunctional linear waste of phosphorous from the food chain through water-based sewage disposal to the sea. At the moment, it is uneconomic to extract the phosphorous, but by looking at the system as a whole and considering how the price of phosphorous might change over time, it seems likely that risk-adjusted decision-making backed up by economic evidence could have major implications for city-regions worldwide.
We know that knowledge brokerage taking place where real world problems are identified, and in partnership with both practitioners and researchers, is critical to achieving impact. ULLs therefore provide a very useful conceptual framework; an opportunity for bridging academic and real world practice and hence enabling such knowledge exchange. This project is fully focused not only on research excellence, but on real world solutions, that will be co-developed and co-designed in the ULLs by bringing together urban entrepreneurs, city managers, urban planners and other stakeholders to connect the flows and identify opportunities and leverage points for the FEW nexus in every city. This co-development and co-production of results will support local ownership and hopefully uptake of proposed solutions, and therefore increase the direct impact of the project at the four different ULL sites. This emphasises the intrinsic importance of stakeholder dialogue and the significant role of economic valuation and risk management as well as outreach and communication relevant to key stakeholders and the general public for the project's long-term impact. Beyond the ULLs, we will link value impact and risk to real world practitioners and disseminate the results, enhance public literacy and investigate the application of the project outcomes to other cities worldwide.
The case studies in our project will generate high-level models reflective of commonalities found in the FWE nexus across these different ULL locations in the 4 cities worldwide. We anticipate the application of some proposed real-world strategies and all the tools to close identified loops across ULLs. Some ULLs will have demonstration capabilities. For example, UoCT's Water Hub at Franschoek (www.youtube.com/watch?v=GITmjqfY3qs) where end-users will be able to see at the small scale how a sustainable surface water management train (Charlesworth and Booth, 2017) can treat storm-water at the end of which are ponds to farm fish, extract phosphorus and produce biofuels. Using social media and video, as well as programs for increasing public literacy, will be key for dissemination and knowledge brokerage in our project.
It is not possible to estimate what the potential market might be for the project results given that the focus areas of each of the ULLs has yet to be identified by the stakeholders who will be involved, but we can say that economic valuation is core to the project, which will focus attention on economic and commercial impact, and we can illustrate the type of market potential by considering the focus area that has been already discussed in the UK ULL: the dysfunctional linear waste of phosphorous from the food chain through water-based sewage disposal to the sea. At the moment, it is uneconomic to extract the phosphorous, but by looking at the system as a whole and considering how the price of phosphorous might change over time, it seems likely that risk-adjusted decision-making backed up by economic evidence could have major implications for city-regions worldwide.
We know that knowledge brokerage taking place where real world problems are identified, and in partnership with both practitioners and researchers, is critical to achieving impact. ULLs therefore provide a very useful conceptual framework; an opportunity for bridging academic and real world practice and hence enabling such knowledge exchange. This project is fully focused not only on research excellence, but on real world solutions, that will be co-developed and co-designed in the ULLs by bringing together urban entrepreneurs, city managers, urban planners and other stakeholders to connect the flows and identify opportunities and leverage points for the FEW nexus in every city. This co-development and co-production of results will support local ownership and hopefully uptake of proposed solutions, and therefore increase the direct impact of the project at the four different ULL sites. This emphasises the intrinsic importance of stakeholder dialogue and the significant role of economic valuation and risk management as well as outreach and communication relevant to key stakeholders and the general public for the project's long-term impact. Beyond the ULLs, we will link value impact and risk to real world practitioners and disseminate the results, enhance public literacy and investigate the application of the project outcomes to other cities worldwide.
The case studies in our project will generate high-level models reflective of commonalities found in the FWE nexus across these different ULL locations in the 4 cities worldwide. We anticipate the application of some proposed real-world strategies and all the tools to close identified loops across ULLs. Some ULLs will have demonstration capabilities. For example, UoCT's Water Hub at Franschoek (www.youtube.com/watch?v=GITmjqfY3qs) where end-users will be able to see at the small scale how a sustainable surface water management train (Charlesworth and Booth, 2017) can treat storm-water at the end of which are ponds to farm fish, extract phosphorus and produce biofuels. Using social media and video, as well as programs for increasing public literacy, will be key for dissemination and knowledge brokerage in our project.
Organisations
- Coventry University (Lead Research Organisation)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (Co-funder)
- State University of Campinas (Collaboration)
- GENeco (Project Partner)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (Project Partner)
- University of Cape Town (Project Partner)
- YTL (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- BlueCity (Project Partner)
- DRIFT (Project Partner)
- Isidima Design & Development (Pty) Ltd. (Project Partner)
- East Rand Water Care Company (ERWAT) (Project Partner)
- Bristol Food Network C.I.C. (Project Partner)
- Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (Project Partner)
- The Schumacher Institute (Project Partner)
- Stellenbosch University (Project Partner)
- Centre for Sustainable Energy (Project Partner)
- University (State) of Campinas (Unicamp) (Project Partner)
Publications
Adina Paytan
(2022)
The Waste FEW ULL project - searching for inefficiencies in the Food-Energy-Water nexus
in Research Features
Black D
(2023)
Comparing Societal Impact Planning and Evaluation Approaches across Four Urban Living Labs (in Food-Energy-Water Systems)
in Sustainability
Black D
(2023)
Testing Food Waste Reduction Targets: Integrating Transition Scenarios with Macro-Valuation in an Urban Living Lab
in Sustainability
Ester Dal-Poz
(2019)
The institutions for institutional transitions
Francisco É
(2023)
Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus: Sustainable food production governance through system dynamics modeling
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Greer R
(2020)
The diffusion of circular services: Transforming the Dutch catering sector
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Greer R
(2021)
The Waste-Resource Paradox: Practical dilemmas and societal implications in the transition to a circular economy
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Parsa A
(2021)
Intersection, interrelation or interdependence? The relationship between circular economy and nexus approach
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Rocha LA
(2019)
Corruption, bureaucracy and other institutional failures: the "cancer" of innovation and development
in Economics Bulletin
Soares Dal Poz M
(2022)
Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Climate Change in Cities
Soares Dal Poz M
(2022)
Food, Energy and Water Nexus: An Urban Living Laboratory Development for Sustainable Systems Transition
in Sustainability
Winter K
(2023)
Solutions to waste management in informal settlements in South Africa
in Open Access Government
| Description | In the Waste FEW ULL project, funding for which finished in September 2021, 4 Urban Living Labs (ULLs) were set up to exchange knowledge around similarities and differences in the Food-Energy-Water nexus. These were in South Africa, The Netherlands, Brazil and the UK. Through Waste FEW ULL, we found that each ULL had its' own way of investigating the Nexus and very often this was not comparable. This was obviously due to site-specific factors such as geographical location, socio-political context, local factors (site/ business focus, site management, ability to engage with stakeholders/ management (this was negatively affected by Covid), governance structures etc) as well as the individual ULLs ways of working (approaches used, numbers of personnel, size of site, specific models used to simulate the nexus etc). Each ULL therefore operated within the project as a separate entity to a certain extent. Also of interest was the emphasis placed on food, energy or water, whereby each ULL concentrated on 2 mainly, for example food and water, with the third not considered as much. This made modelling difficult, although an ongoing PhD study is making great strides in this respect using system dynamics to investigate the nexus across the ULLs (see: Parsa, A., Van De Wiel, M. J., & Schmutz, U. (2021). Intersection, interrelation or interdependence? The relationship between circular economy and nexus approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 127794). A second PhD contextualises our project in a South African perspective around the legacy of Apartheid and social inequality. A third PhD developed the Waste-Resource Paradox model whereby the circular economy results in waste becoming a resource, valorising it and thus its production becomes financially beneficial (see: Greer, R., von Wirth, T., & Loorbach, D. (2021). The Waste-Resource Paradox: Practical dilemmas and societal implications in the transition to a circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 303, 126831 and Greer, R., von Wirth, T., & Loorbach, D. (2020). The diffusion of circular services: Transforming the Dutch catering sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 121906). The Brazilian ULL, based in the metropolitan Sao Paulo area was the largest and utilised agent based modelling and the Delphi approach in their investigation of agroecology (or community supported agriculture: CSA), water quality and the protection of the Atlantic Rainforest finding that even short distances between eg Ibiuna and Paraheilo revealed different profiles for the CSA sub-indicator and also that the distinct hydrographic basins and water/climate conditions affected water quality differently for the 2 areas, with impacts across the food producing sector. In the UK, economic studies of the Bristol ULL found that it is more efficient to reduce food waste at source, but with 30% of wasted food inedible, it requires disposal in the most efficient way: in comparison to incineration or landfill, anaerobic digestion has the most positive outcomes, although some methods can increase particulate pollution. It is best to move unavoidable food waste from residual (black bins) to recycling, with many significant environmental benefits for Bristol. At the Water Hub in South Africa, one of the smallest ULLs, the community has been trained to maintain and operate medium scale bioremediation which cleans polluted river water flowing through an informal settlement and is used to irrigate small urban gardens producing vegetables for sale, or for the community to use. This technique avoids the use of chemicals, and also energy as it uses vegetation to remove nutrients and other pollutants. The vegetables were analysed and conformed to South African guidelines as being safe to eat. |
| Exploitation Route | As the models and concepts become public, these could be used by others to justify our findings and also apply to other ULLs investigating the FEW nexus. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The following example impacts from the Bristol ULL, categorised based on Reed (2016), Struyer et al (2000) and UKRI (2020). We have reduced to 350 words and provide full details of impact in separate report. Instrumental Impacts: (e.g. changes in policy or practice) WASTE FEW ULL contributed "most definitely" (BFN) to Bristol winning Going for Gold and becoming second UK city to be awarded 'Gold Sustainable Food City': https://www.goingforgoldbristol.co.uk/bristol-named-gold-sustainable-food-city/ The micro-valuation work was "very helpful" and "gave confidence" (in supporting so clearly the waste hierarchy) Bristol Waste will be using it in its campaign this year (2022). Can "help evidence need for waste hierarchy when talking to local authorities" (RF) "The Schumacher Institute's new 'Hexalemma' framework - developing in WASTE FEW ULL - now being used to look at energy transition involving major UK Distribution Systems Operator (DSO)." (TSI) Conceptual (E.g. Broad new understanding / awareness-raising) The newly integrated conceptual macro-economic/scenario model "helps shape directions of solutionswalk you through that complexity'" (RF). It is "fascinatingmakes you think about things differentlyneeds a bigger conversation" (Bristol Waste); "very helpful for us taking a look at the One City Plan goals" (BFN). "fascinating - right to try to pick out who would be winners and losers at a global levelthe numbers are big/striking on their own." (WW) Attitudinal or cultural* (research) (E.g. willingness in general to engage in new collaborations) "The project added to the capacity, credibility and profile of The Schumacher Institute demonstrated the value of systems approaches to complex interactions of infrastructure and people." (TSI) "Very useful in bringing key actors together, wouldn't have happened otherwiseempowering with key people on the Food Waste Action Group" (BFN) "The project forged close ties among the ULL participantsplans and initiatives involving the FEW nexus will be smoother and more likely to succeed." (TSI) Enduring connectivity (E.g. follow-on interactions) Presentation scheduled with the Food Waste Action Group, with potential for follow on meetings with Bristol CC at Cabinet level and the One City Team. Schumacher Institute (TSI), Resource Futures (RF), Bristol Food Network (BFN), Wessex Water (WW), Bristol Waste (BW) |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Creative Economy |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Future engagement with policymakers |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Influence on policy and policymakers, Sao Paulo, Brazil ULL |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Quality of sustainability of food production value chain P.S. as an example, SP ULL has developed a decision tool that fosters innovation adoption and diffusion for sustainability practices in agriculture, as agroecological practices and food production integration, as aquaponics. The government of the State of São Paulo Secretary of Agriculture (our partners) has a Community Supported Agriculture Platform, in which prices and environmental footprints can be managed, reducing food losses and waste. The ULL decision tool is part of this platform, supporting community of producers, supply chain actors and food buyers to choose the most "sustainable" way of food production and trade. But this is supposed to be an evolutionary process, in which a higher level of "sustainable production and commercialization will rise, once this initiative has only begun in 2019. We see this new community joint decision making process as a "situation arena", in which a learning process to choose more sustainable forms of agricultural practices and commercialization can evolve for a so called "transition for sustainable food systems". |
| URL | http://agrosp.sp.gov.br/ |
| Description | Training of practitioners and community stakeholders, the Water Hub, South Africa ULL |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Training on the concepts of the nexus, waste reduction using the circular economy and the role of the Water Hub to improve sustainability of food production systems. introduction of the ability to improve water quality using bioremediation, irrigate food crops, and generate energy from the developed systems. |
| URL | http://www.futurewater.uct.ac.za |
| Description | Coventry University Internal award: PhD studentship |
| Amount | £56,916 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Coventry University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2019 |
| End | 05/2022 |
| Description | Future Earth |
| Amount | £80,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Coventry University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | PhD studentship |
| Amount | £11,383 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Coventry University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2019 |
| End | 05/2022 |
| Title | Delphi foresight data |
| Description | Details are in this publication Dal Poz, M.E.S.; Ignácio, P.S.A.; Azevedo, A.; Francisco, E.F.; Piolli, A.L.; Silva, G.G.; Ribeiro, T.P. Food, Energy and Water Nexus: an Urban Living Laboratory development for sustainable systems transition. Sustainability, 14, 1763, 1 - 22, 2022. Doi: 10.3390/su14127163 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dal Poz, M.E.S.; Ignácio, P.S.A.; Azevedo, A.; Francisco, E.F.; Piolli, A.L.; Silva, G.G.; Ribeiro, T.P. Food, Energy and Water Nexus: an Urban Living Laboratory development for sustainable systems transition. Sustainability, 14, 1763, 1 - 22, 2022. Doi: 10.3390/su14127163 |
| Title | Rotterdam ULL database; Western Cape water quality database |
| Description | Setting up a Waste Tracking database at Blue City (Rotterdam) including data on their water, energy, material consumption and outputs. To be used in the mapping exercise. Monitoring water quality and vegetation analysis in the Water Hub, the Western Cape, SA. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | None as yet |
| Title | SPIN tool |
| Description | A tool & method developed by the Sao Paulo ULLthe SPIN tool (Sustainability Policy Innovation Network). It is the result of a large actor's network definition on sustainability indicators from productive sectors and policy makers. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | It is not available publicly yet |
| Title | Two new modelling PhD studentships |
| Description | One PhD student will use agent-based modelling of linked circular economies, by analysing the potential for waste reduction in urban food-energy-water nexus by explicitly linking the circular economies. It will focus on Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) of food, energy and water fluxes in urban or urbanising environments. Innovatively, these fluxes will be modelled as emergent properties arising from agents' (i.e. stakeholders') decision making, explicitly recognizing that they depend on power relations between the various stakeholders and on non-linearly propagating effects. The second will use system dynamics modelling of linked circular economies by analysing the potential for waste reduction in urban food-energy-water nexus by explicitly linking the circular economies. The PhD focuses on System Dynamics Modelling (SDM) methodology of food, energy and water cycles in urban or urbanising environments. Innovatively, these cycles will be modelled as an integrated system, explicitly recognizing that they do not operate in isolation and that feedbacks can cause non-linearly propagating effects. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | None yet |
| Description | Connection with WASTE FEW ULL consortium in Sao Paulo |
| Organisation | State University of Campinas |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We were invited to give a research seminar at FCA-Unicamp, Sao Paulo State by professor Ester dal Poz. Here we also met with those working in one of the poorer areas of Brazil, and also with indigenous Guarani people, to observe their methods of managing water. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We were able to explain the connection with the WASTE FEW ULL project, by giving details of the use of sustainable drainage to manage excess surface and greywater, particularly focused on informal settlements. We met with Professor Manuel Cesario, Professor of Healthy Cities: UniFACEF - Franca, SP, Brazil, discussed our research areas, and agreed a way to collaborate in the future, based on the outcomes of our research projects. At UNICAMP, we met with Kelly Cristina Tonello, Associate Professor, Forest Hydrology/ Watershed Management/ Recovery Degraded Areas from the Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar, Environmental Department Science, Sorocaba - São Paulo - Brasil to discuss the Brazil (Zika) project, and also her PhD student Carina Pensa, also based at UFSCar Sorocaba. Our meetings generated many ideas for future collaboration with the groups that we engaged with. |
| Impact | None as yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Associated with RGS conference Special Session is a Special Issue in the journal Sustainability: The food-energy-water nexus: boundaries, processes, and the circular economy and can be found under "Sustainable Water Management" in the journal. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This activity has sparked interesting and positive debate amongst the consortium about the proposed publications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Blogs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a blog to update progress for the South Africa ULL, at the Water Hub, Franschhoek. Called: "Nature-based Urban Living Lab as a catalyst for the circular economy in South Africa", it details the lessons learnt, how the polluted water has been treated, and recirculated into the small urban gardens. It states that: "The nexus has potential to be one of the most powerful organising frameworks for re-adjusting and disrupting linear economies by introducing policies and strategies that are deliberately directed at achieving sustainable environments and human well-being". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/wastefewullweeblycom |
| Description | Bristol ULL stakeholder workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Stakeholders attended several meetings and workshops that has lead to the organising of larger online workshops being scheduled for February, March and May 2021 to reach a wider audience to explore each of three areas (food waste, the phosphorous issue, and plastics/contamination) and looking at the bigger picture of the economics of change, in particular the upstream v downstream focus. However, we have been restricted in the amount of face-to-face workshops we have been able to hold due to Covid 19. The research group held meetings over the period to which our core stakeholders, from Wessex Water, Bristol Waste Company, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Resource Futures and Bristol Food Network attended eight meetings and workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/ |
| Description | Bristol ULL workshop films |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We now have edited films of the workshops held in Bristol (there are not publicly available, but will be used in our analysis). The films from the 3 workshops are structured as follows: Introductions (both to WasteFEWULL and the workshop exercises) Card writing: participants were asked to individually write onto cards the areas/topics where their specific sector was interconnected with one or both of the other two sectors (identifying nexus areas/connections). We asked them to make a distinction based on the connections being existing (coloured cards) or potential future ones (white cards) Sorting/ clustering: Then, as a group, the collected cards were moved into clusters, and titles were identified for each of these clusters. This still exists in the form of photographs, the original cards and typed up on Lucidchart. Group work/ 3-fields: Then we asked the participants (usually with one of our team joining) to break into groups (we had 2 or 3 on the three different days) and work on one particular cluster (nexus connection) at a time. Again, we have photos of these results, the originals (at Ryton) and the typed-up versions on LucidChart. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| Description | Bristol ULL workshop to test the Decision Tree model |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Held on 25 February, this workshop was run by PhD candidate Rachel Greer (Rotterdam ULL) to test the Decision Tree she's developed as part of her PhD study. This was held virtually in Bristol, the results of which are yet to be analysed. Title: Heuristics and Decision Making in the Circular Economy Details: Transitioning towards a more sustainable future requires overcoming our current linear approach to resources use. However, transitioning to a Circular Economy (CE) is not unproblematic and comes with its own challenges. In this workshop, we will present a Circular Decision Tree developed at DRIFT, a leading Dutch research institute in the field of sustainable transitions. We invite you to reflect with us on the uncertainties, paradoxes and dilemmas of decision making in CE transition, and to learn and discuss about the proposed heuristic, and to identify its potential practical benefit within your and other fields. This workshop is run under the Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI) funded project called WASTE FEW ULL that is looking at inefficiencies in the Food, Energy, Water (FEW) nexus through an Urban Living Laboratory (ULL) approach. See https://wastefewull.weebly.com/ . This workshop has already been successfully run in Rotterdam, with participation from Industry, local government, regulators, consultancies, academia and the not-for-profit sector. This Bristol workshop is open to anyone with an interest in sustainable transitions, the Circular Economy, circular innovations and/or the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. Background for the development of the Circular Decision Tree Current societal problem: Funding and support for sustainable innovation is commonly indiscriminate/unsystematic/ disproportional to the potential contribution of the innovation towards the transition to a circular economy. "Circular innovations" can be transformative, non-transformative, or counter-transformative to this transition. Often business models or innovations that close loops may actually be an optimization of a linear economy, leading to lock-in of the current regime. Thus, there is a need for a paradigm shift and change towards a different type of decision-making logic. There is a fundamental problem observable in our daily decision-making: often, we are making decisions based on linear decision-making mechanisms. This contributes to strengthened inertia supporting the linear economy, which leads to greater resistance to change - hence, counter-transformative. The current way of decision-making can be counter-productive to reducing waste inefficiencies because of its support for incremental innovation. This need for a new type of decision-making logic led to the development of the framework for the decision-making tree we pose as one potential solution. Knowledge gap: Case studies of small, incubated pilots of such a decision-support tool (DST) for intentional waste reduction are sparse at best (CLEWS in Qatar, ICLEI for FEW), and none targeting circularity on a practical level could be found. A few loosely related tools have been developed by and for academics, but none currently exist to assist practitioners in navigating their decisions - thus, there is an enormous gap between knowledge in scientific literature/environmental impact databases and the accessibility and implementation of this knowledge in practice. Goal: This tree aims to answer the question: How can policymakers, investors, societal activists, businesses and entrepreneurs contribute towards circular innovations to support the transition towards a circular economy? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Conference presentation/ poster: Estimating income effect of food waste reduction at the food-energy-water nexus |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This is a working paper presented in a Poster session in the 2020 Dresden Nexus Conference (DNC). The key message from the paper is that while food waste reduction is good for environment and resource savings, it likely accompanies with reduced food production activities, inducing income losses, at least in short-term for some economic agents who earn income from food production. This implies that any policy aiming to promote food waste reduction has to consider how to compensate these agents so that the barrier is largely removed for the policy to achieve its goal of food waste reduction. This may raise the attention of policy makers to take care of the economic losses of certain agents and help remove the barrier for food waste reduction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://2020.dresden-nexus-conference.org/custom/media/DNC_2020/Posters/10_Wei_T.pdf |
| Description | Establishment of a network of staholders and shareholders of sustainable food systems at the border of the Atlantic Rainforest, Sao Paulo, Brazil ULL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The main goal of Sao Paulo ULL is to establish a network of stakeholders and especially share holders, in order to have an evolution through sustainable food systems. Actors from the government of the State of São Paulo - Brazil, on a local and regional spectrum: Agriculture and Food Supply Secretaries (from two city majors, and the State of São Paulo government, regulatory agencies for environmental impact control. Also producers, food cooperatives, regulatory environmental agencies and NGO partners. It is a socio-technical approach of impact planning and for innovation diffusion as expected impacts of sustainability problems. An "ecosystem services" (Ostrom, E. 1999) assumption, which means SP ULL has to face, promote and foster "situation arenas" of discussions and decision making processes, involving relevant stakeholders, shareholders and policy makers. 2020, in person, till February. We keep on going after this, by ICT platforms. The laboratory has been holding a series of meetings to establish a network of stakeholders in the transition to sustainability. There are four types of stakeholders: a) governments and regulatory bodies, b) food producers and cooperatives and c) community, such as NGOs and d) private enterprises from the FEW nexus market sectors. The central objective of these meetings, more than 40 in the last year, was to establish institutional partnerships for the development, validation and dissemination of a decision-making tool that allows the transition to sustainability to be promoted. This tools has a double face, concerning transition dynamics: to be an innovation for sustainability catch up and diffusion promoter, and to be an actor's accountability developer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/satildeo-paulo-ull.html |
| Description | Final meeting of the Sao Paulo ULL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | January, 20th 2022 the SP ULL presentation meeting, with Fapesp representative (Dr Jean Ometto, the agency's Climate Change Programme coordinator), and 30 stakeholders participants (from the following institutions): - São Paulo Infra-structure and Environment Secretary, - 2 NGOs - State of Sao Paulo Food and Nutrition Security Commission and "Brazil Organics" Association, - São Paulo State Environmental Regulatory Agency (CETESB) - Sao Paulo State Forests Foundation -Conexão Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Rainforest Enterprise) - Ligue os Pontos (Link the Dots, a joint organization - Sao Paulo City Agriculture Secretary for agroecological transition (you have visited them, at Parelheiros region) and a operational NGO (that makes the transition happen, with producers capacitation and rural support, based on agroeconomics research) - Academic people(from University of Sao Paulo, from Unicamp and from Sao Paulo State Federal University ) - Two Food production cooperatives (CAISP, from Ibiuna area, and Cooperapas, from Parelheiros area) - Consumer Supported Agriculture agents (a restaurant association for food verticalized chain) -Sabesp - the State of Sao Paulo Water and Sewage Co. (they are our partners till the Wast FEW project submission) - Representatives of 2 other Belmont Forum projects, in the State of Sao Paulo (Getulio Vargas Foundation , about municipal waste management, and the Sao Paulo University project, about agroecological policy initiatives (governamental and public-private joint projects). - Embrapa partners (Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Research Enterprise: The Embrapa Environment Unit and the Embrapa Informatics and Satellite Unit) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | International meetings, stakeholder workshops, ULL and WP lead meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On August 7 2018 we held a full project meeting at which we were hosted by GENeco, Bristol Sewage Treatment Works, Wessex Water, and following the meeting were given a tour of the sewage treatment works to contextualise one of our foci in the project which is the recovery of dissolved phosphorus from the plant's effluent which currently flows into the estuary. The Bristol Food Network also attended enabling a discussion of small urban gardening projects which could benefit from the recovered phosphorus. The Centre for Sustainable Energy completed the FEW triangle with a discussion around the use of waste to generate energy. Other activities of the whole consortium include: • International Kick-off in London (June) • Kick off in Bristol (GENeco) (August) • 2-day International Meeting (UoBath) + site visits (October) • Economics Meeting (Jan 2019) • Bristol ULL Meetings: Workshop planning (November) -; Wessex Water (November);Bristol Food Network (Jan); Schumacher Inst (Dec + Jan); Stakeholder analysis prep (Dec-Jan) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/ |
| Description | Post graduate and post doctoral research assistant webinar on project progress |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | 8 presentations given by PhD students and Post Docs on project progress |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation and workshop at the Water Hub ULL, South Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A presentation and workshop attended by 30 people to introduce the work of the Water Hub ULL and motivation to invite small businesses and startups to engage with the Living Lab for developing their business with support of university researchers, Green Cape and the Dutch Consulate in Cape Town |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://cocreatesa.nl/2020-waterhub/ |
| Description | Researcher and practitioner interactive workshops (x2), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, ULL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Two workshops with practitioners and researchers, reflecting on 1) societal challenges and tradeoffs surrounding waste inefficiencies and 2) the usability and internal logics of a decision-making heuristic created during the project aiming to reduce the uncertainties and dilemmas faced. Twenty stakeholders - principally from policy, research, and government - participated in the first workshop, in which we unpacked implicit financial risks, hampering factors, trade-offs, and organizational dilemmas that factor into circular decision-making. In the second workshop with similar participants in terms of numbers and fields of expertise, we tested the tool's internal validity, investigating its usefulness to stakeholders and the soundness of its internal logics. We exemplified the pathways of the CDMT stepwise, illustrated with a case on plastics. After the initial introduction to the tool, participants joined breakout groups to explore and discuss the tool individually and then collectively. In a plenary session following, the results from all breakout groups were conglomerated in an interactive session, collecting feedback from actors for tweaking the tool from the practical perspective of various sectors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| Description | Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Annual Conference, Tuesday 31 August to Friday 3 September 2021. Special session sponsored by PERG (Planning and Environment Research Group) The food-energy-water nexus: boundaries, processes, and the circular economy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | There were 5 presentations at the conference in the Special Session: 1. Learning at the institutional liminality of transitions. Urban Living Labs as inter-boundary spaces of the FEW Nexus: Richard Nunes, (University of Reading), Jana Friend (Coventry University), Ester dal Poz (Unicamp, Barzil), Kevin Winter (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Dr Timo von Writh (DRIFT, Norway) 2. Modelling the urban FEW-nexus : approaches, problems and possibilities: Marco Van De Wiel, Ali Parsa, Matt Johnston (Coventry University); Erika Francisco, Ester Dal Poz (University of Campinas, Brazil); Ian Roderick (Schumacher Institute, UK) 3. Residues from biomass thermal treatment and wastewater treatment plants as agricultural fertiliser: Nutrient harvesting from waste: Anna Bogush (Coventry University) 4. Valuation of inefficiencies in the food cycle - crossing the actor boundaries: Ian Roderick (The Schumacher Institute), Daniel Black (Daniel Black + Associates | db+a), Taoyuan Wei (CICERO Center for International Climate Research) 5. São Paulo in Natura Lab - "OUR LAB IS THE NATURE" Ester Dal Poz from University of Campinas (Brazil) Each of the presentations generated lively discussion with the attendees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Short film of the developments and progress at the Water Hub (South Africa, Western Cape ULL) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibCnOfMmM08 A short documentary on the Water Hub Project, Franschhoek, South Africa. Nature-based solutions are used for cleaning surface water from an informal settlement and reusing treated water for irrigating vegetables and breeding freshwater fish. This is a urban living laboratory. and https://www.thewaterhub.org.za/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Stakeholder meetings at BlueCityLab, Rotterdam |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Engagement with individual small-scale business entrepreneurs to gather information on their FEW nexus activities to map energy and resources flowing within and across boundaries. The mapping and analysis will investigate how to close the loop at the small scale, and whether this can be scaled up using Acceleration Potential Mapping. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| Description | Stakeholder meetings with individual Urban Living Labs. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Visit of high ranking Tunisian delegation visited the Water Hub, to be shown the demonstration area of biofiltration, small scale gardening and engagement of the community in producing vegetables from the treated effluent. This was an important visit since Tunisia is struggling with its water resources and city of Tunis is heading towards a 'Day Zero' in the same way that the city of Cape Town has been, thus the officials were hoping to learn a few things from the Western Cape ULL and with the potential to influence policy internationally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GITmjqfY3qs |
| Description | Stakeholder meetings with individual Urban Living Labs. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our project includes 4 Urban Living Labs in South Africa (Western Cape), Brazil (Sao Paulo), the UK (Bristol) and The Netherlands (Rotterdam). Each one of these has engaged with appropriate stakeholders in their countries and cities to promote the project and to exchange relevant knowledge. Some general details on stakeholder engagement is given on the project's website at: https://wastefewull.weebly.com/stakeholder-engagement.html, and specific detail of, for example, work undertaken in the Western Cape ULL is given on: https://wastefewull.weebly.com/capetown-ull.html. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/capetown-ull.html |
| Description | Urban Transformations website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Urban Transformations is a network based at the University of Oxford showcasing ESRC research on cities. We have a page on their website on our project: WASTE FEW ULL - MAPPING AND REDUCING WASTE IN THE FOOD-ENERGY-WATER NEXUS. It has a short description of the project, a list of partners and a list of collaborator/ stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/project/waste-few-ull-waste-food-energy-water-urban-living... |
| Description | Visit to Ibiuna, a green belt city in February 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | First meeting and visit to Ibiuna, a green belt city in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo city which has large areas of horticulture with associated demands on water and energy. Members of the team in Sao Paulo will be responsible for investigating: Water and energy footprints; Water policy patterns; Water use best practices and technologies; Stakeholders selection and contacts, communication and education for sustainability; Governance of FEW and ULL. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | WASTE FEW ULL website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/ The website is given above. It hosts blogs, results of meetings, workshops, visits, updates on the activities of the Urban Living Labs, the economics and dissemination/ communication groups. We can refer to it in any external activities, and it is regularly updated to include any resources, such as publications pertinent to our project, but will also host any publications we have generated. It is currently advertising 2 PhD studentships, one of which is funded by SUGI, the other funded by Coventry University and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience which is researching a topic closely allied to the WASTE FEW ULL project. It also includes minutes of meetings, workshop outputs etc. as well as contacts for the project. Partners and collaborators are encouraged to update this regularly, so it is up-to-date with activities and outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/ |
| Description | Waste Food-Energy-Water Nexus - a Bristol Urban Living Laboratory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The final conference for the WASTE FEW ULL (Bristol) project with presentations given including: • An introduction to the research project • Nexus and Circular Economy - what are the differences, benefits and barriers? • Valuing food and plastic waste • Insights from systems dynamics of the FEW nexus in Bristol • Bristol's social networks and the FEW nexus • The Food-Water-Energy nexus: What's in it for Bristol's future? Significant interest was shown in the results of the Bristol ULL, with questions raised and debate during the day, and after the event had officially finished. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Waste Reduction by Computer Modelling |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Poster at Doctoral Capability and Development Conference 2020, outlining how system dynamics modelling can help understand the dynamics of the FEW nexus. Limited direct benefit. This poster provides a very brief a conceptual outline that needs to be converted into practical system dynamics model before any benefits can ensue. However, the event invited debate and discussion, enabling refinement of the approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Webinars given by experts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the webinar series was to open up debate around the nexus and the circular economy. We hoped to give some context to our project, and to consider wider issues and concepts. Each of the webinars generated lively debate, and this is something we will continue for the rest of the project. Each speaker was an international expert in their field: Friday April 17th 2020. Speaker: Gijs Diercks. Title: The state of transition towards and circular economy Thursday 4th June 2020. Speaker: Kevin Bell. Title: Plastics, disposables, and sustainability in the post-recycling era Thursday November 26th 2020. Speaker: Iris Zohar. Title: Phosphorus recycling - From waste to resource Thursday January 7th 2021. Speakers: Tamee Albrecht and Arica Crootof. Title: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A systematic review of methods for nexus assessment Friday January 29 2021. Speaker: Walter Belik. Title: Challenges for Reducing Food Losses and Waste |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://wastefewull.weebly.com/wastefewullweeblycom |
| Description | Webinars given by experts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Webinars 9 February 2021: Challenges for reducing food losses and waste: Walter Belik May 20 2021: Reflections on capacity development in complex settings: Jon Padgham and Hassan Virji. June 15: Living Labs for citizen-centred transitions in waste management processes: Fernando Vilarino (ENOLL) 10 February 2022: Reducing food waste: Using non-market and socio-environmental evaluations to quantify potential impacts for Bristol. Eleanor Eaton |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | follow up process for policy diffusion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meetings arranged with: - The Conexão Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Rainforest NGO): the executors of the biggest rainforest recuperation (funded by the World Bank and by the Interamerican Bank of Development) and the São Paulo State Forest Foundation (governmental, and the research branch of this partnership). - Brazilian Organic Food Association (they have a huge demand on policy design and scientific evidence of agroecological and organics production for new cycles of policy and funding) For future activities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |