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The REFLOW Project aims to develop circular and regenerative cities through enabling active citizen involvement and systemic change to re-think the current approach to material flows in cities. The project utilizes Fab Labs and maker spaces as catalysts for change in urban and peri-urban environments.
REFLOW is an EU Horizon 2020 research project aiming to enable the transition of European cities towards circular and regenerative practices. The project will provide best practices aligning market and government needs in order to create favorable conditions for the public and private sector to adopt circular economy (CE) practices. REFLOW is creating new CE business models within six pilot cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Cluj-Napoca, Milan, Paris and Vejle.
Together with the Municipality of Milan, Eutropian is involved in WP5 – Pilots – more specifically in the fulfillment of T5.5 – Citizen Engagement and Capacity Building Strategies.
REFLOW uses Fab Labs and makerspaces as catalysers of a systemic change in urban and peri-urban environments, which enable, visualize and regulate “four freedoms”: free movement of materials, people, (technological) knowledge and commons, in order to reduce materials consumption, maximize multi-functional use of (public) spaces and envisage regenerative practices.
Together with the Municipality of Milan, Eutropian is involved in the WP5 – Pilot cases: more specifically in the fulfillment of T5.5, which can be defined as Citizen Engagement and Capacity Building Strategies.
For all the Pilots, engaging citizens in the transition towards a circular economy is fundamental to understand the complexity of the challenges faced by their city. Cities need to be able to understand the dynamics and perspectives of all the stakeholders involved.
In a traditional linear economy, consisting of a model shaped in design, manufacturing, purchasing, consuming and disposing, citizens are involved in the last three phases only. In an alternative circular economy model, where we design for recyclability, manufacture with recycled resources, purchase and consume consciously, and dispose for collection and recycling, citizens play a key role. Their participation is required for this transition to happen, and the value arising from their participation has to be acknowledged.
Circular Citizens Handbook produced by Eutropian and the City of Milan is based on the analysis of the activities undertaken by the six Pilot cities in developing their own strategies and the engagement of the citizens. Six recommendations targeting policy makers and municipalities for citizen’s participation in the circular economy transition are suggested and formulated with consideration of the different dimensions of REFLOW: material flows and tracking of data, technology and platforms, urban dimension, and network of social innovators and entrepreneurs.
We are excited to share the Circular Citizens Handbook with you.
Reflow, a project funded by Horizon2020 is carried out in a number of cities, with a wide range of partners.
REFLOW is creating new CE business models within six pilot cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Cluj-Napoca, Milan, Paris and Vejle and assess their social, environmental and economic impact, by enabling active citizen involvement and systemic change to re-think the current approach to material flows in cities.
For more information on the project, don’t be shy, reach out to project leader Daniella Patti.
