Copenhagen Circularity Lab – Locals turning waste into value

Client: Sydhavn Genbrugscenter, Technical and Environmental Administration, City of Copenhagen

Partners: EIT Climate-KIC

Sectors: Reuse, Recycling and Waste, Public Administration

Services: Citizen participation, open innovation, program design, research

Year: 2019

Transforming waste into value

Assembling a civic task force to enable an entrepreneurial path to five fold increase in direct reuse, we delivered a comprehensive social innovation program producing five actionable prototypes and new connections for collaboration.

Challenge: How could we turn locally available waste into value? This was the question to cover, when City of Copenhagen flagship Sydhavn Recycling Center engaged citizens to uncover creative, entrepreneurial paths to increasing direct reuse. To identify practical opportunities and test possible solutions, we delivered a visible and accessible program inviting citizens to co-benefit from municipal aims.

Approach: We convened 30 locals across sectors and industries, to flourish their diverse areas of expertise into practical innovations. Our five-session innovation program enabled participants to rapidly learn, ideate and test out solutions – based on a strong sense of community, with a close connection to external stakeholders.

Results: Our action framework enabled rapid validation of each solution, based on locally sourced resources. The City now has a clearer image of the most effective solutions for increasing direct reuse by unleashing the available local powers of entrepreneurship and beyond – including several promising, staffable solution concepts.

Key: Our social approach has allowed the community to live on beyond the program itself. As we move forward, we continuously ask: “How can we use social relations to strengthen the green transformation?”

Want to know more?

Want to know more about this case? Contact partner Kai Paludan-Müller on +45 26 258 253.

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