The Hague and the urban circular collaborative economy

Jan Harko Post

Jay Navarro Oviedo

Triggered by national political incentives, the City of The Hague started working on creating a circular economy in early 2014. In 2017, this was further operationalised by The Hague’s sustainability and waste management departments in a metabolism study.

This study defined the three most promising sectors, namely public administration and public services, construction and real estate, and the commercial sector.

Not long before this, in 2016, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Eurocities invited the City of The Hague to participate in the Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy. In the partnership The Hague quickly took up a prominent position in leading three actions, in the fields of waste legislation, resource management and the collaborative economy. In the context of the collaborative economy, the City of The Hague, together with seven other cities, Member States, regions and organisations of the urban agenda partnership, applied for an ESPON Targeted Analysis on the Urban Circular Cooperation Economy.

This ESPON targeted analysis of urban circular collaborative economy (UCCE) initiatives was led by The Hague’s senior advisor on waste and the circular economy, and European affairs officer Jan Harko Post together with Jay Navarro Oviedo, an expert on the circular economy, collaborative economy and participatory urban governance. ESPON interviewed them about the project and its results.

Why did you propose launching the UCCE study?

Harko Post: The sharing or collaborative economy has always been an integral part of our circular economy plan in The Hague and at the Urban Agenda partnership as well. Through this study, we wanted to provide policymakers with evidencebased tools to make better use of the collaborative economy in their territories. We also wanted to contribute to a better understanding of the urban circular collaborative economy (UCCE) by defining the concept, its typologies and potential impacts.

Navarro Oviedo: In our work, the focus is often on the ‘hardware’ or systems world of the circular economy (e.g. resource management, industrial symbiosis, waste legislation). With this targeted analysis, we wanted to understand the human aspect of the circular economy, the ‘software’ or life world (e.g. civic participation, grassroots innovation, circular consumption).

What might be the impacts of the study on The Hague?

Harko Post: For The Hague, we see great potential in the UCCE to combat poverty and increase social cohesion and civic participation. The results of the study will provide insights into which UCCE initiatives to support in scaling up and which ones we can replicate, focusing on the aims and the policy instruments we can use.

ESPON: The study was implemented in cooperation with several cities, regions, countries and organisations united within the EU Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy. What are the most striking results?

Harko Post: We encountered a massive lack of data on a local level. The available data on both indicators and the impact of UCCE were mostly on a national level. Meanwhile, UCCE is a subject that is inherently very local. The available literature on the sharing economy was also directed towards the for-profit sharing economy and dealt with the big global sharing platforms, while the angle of our TA on UCCE was aiming at the local, for-benefit, sharing economy. It would be good to consider more action research to gather this unavailable type of data in the future.

The most striking result was the interconnectedness of UCCE with social, environmental and economic policy domains. In all territories, UCCE has the potential to work as a unifying factor and a tool for transversal collaboration.

Navarro Oviedo: It quickly became clear that the UCCE is a very diverse multi-domain economy, from sharing indoor and outdoor urban space to food and transport sharing. It is characterised by scattered smaller initiatives, which together create the basis for a strong local economy.

Moreover, our old economic models or indicators cannot help us understand this commons-based new economy. In our old economic thinking, we define success by profit, whereas in the UCCE success is also measured by social and environmental return on investment.

ESPON: If tomorrow does not look like yesterday, what should be the contribution of the UCCE to this transformation?

Harko Post: UCCE is a perfect example of ‘glocalisation’. Global issues such as environmental protection and economic crisis are being tackled on a local level. It is all about finding the perfect balance between the blessings and necessity of both the global and the local.

Navarro Oviedo: Many solutions for the current crisis, or any crisis for that matter, can be found in these UCCE grassroots resilience initiatives. UCCE will have a pivotal role in creating the new post-corona economy, which will be much more sustainable, local and resilient