Smart City and Circular Economy

A big part to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by the UN includes the transformation in how we do the economy. The business as usual of a linear economy where a product will end up in a landfill when its lifecycle ends is no longer sustainable as this promotes the extraction of our limited and ever more scarce natural resource. Franchina et al. (2021) explains the importance of shifting into a green supply chain management through the idea of Circular Economy (CE). Circular Economy is the idea of recycling resources in the natural and industrial environment to improve the performance and reducing the need for raw resource extraction. CE believes that products still have innate value even in the end of their lifecycle.

To realise a Circular Economy, Smart City can take a big role in bridging the gap and closing the loop using ICT and infrastructure. In Smart Cities, technology can accelerate the spread of information and build awareness of the issue, as well as connect the public as consumers, companies as producers and distributors, thus enabling the circulatory system in the economy. Smart City is an ideal facilitator of sustainable practice from the individual level to supply chain level. 

Reference:

Franchina, L., Calabrese, A., Inzerilli, G., Scatto, E., Brutti, G., & de los Ángeles Bonanni, M. V. (2021). Thinking green: The role of smart technologies in transforming cities’ waste and supply Chain’s flow. Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 2, 100077.

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