Developing a Framework for a Circularity Analysis at UBC
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
data provider: DSpace
contributor: University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
contributor: University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning
creator: Wong, Brittney
creator: Belotti, Giulia
creator: Oreoluwa, Glory
creator: Travers, Josh
creator: MacNicol, Rona
issued: 2022-10-26T19:46:19Z
issued: 2021-12-21
description: The idea of a circular economy (CE) has captured the interests of academics and decision-makers as the world attempts to shift towards sustainable economic systems. Circularity identifies opportunities to design out waste and enable better resource management by recovering materials at a product’s end-of-life. A circularity analysis assesses the current state of material flows and identifies opportunities to increase the circularity of a specific item, sector, or system. A circularity analysis within a specific case is a useful preliminary step in shifting to circular practices, but what inputs are needed for a circularity analysis are unclear and context dependent. This research aims to support the University of British Columbia (UBC) with the development of a circularity analysis by drawing on best practices from other institutions and exploring the context-specific factors within UBC. We utilize a document analysis, observations, and semi-structured interviews with both key external stakeholders who have experience conducting circularity analyses, as well as internal stakeholders whose work relates to a transition to circularity. We explored the factors that were key to the success of circularity analyses at other institutions, as well as the challenges they encountered, and specific learnings from their experiences. We used this data to inform our interviews with internal stakeholders in order to determine how these learnings could be adapted to the UBC context. We found that, contrary to much literature on the need for pre-defined indicators, most circularity analyses have been conducted iteratively. Rather than determining the optimal indicators, the circularity analyses we encountered began with preliminary metrics that were refined over time. These preliminary metrics were applied to specific pilot projects, which were then recreated with other targets after incorporating prior learnings. This progressive build-up of small projects, rather than one large ana…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/83061
note: Developing a Framework for a Circularity Analysis at UBC Prepared by: Brittney Wong, Giulia Belotti, Glory Oreoluwa, Josh Travers, Rona MacNicol Prepared for: Course Code: RES 505 University of British Columbia Date: 21 December 2021 Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS Sustainability Program provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student research project and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore, readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Sustainability Program representative about the current status of the subject matter of a report”. University of British Columbia Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Sustainability Program Student Research Report Developing a Framework for a Circularity Analysis at UBCRes 505, SEEDS ProjectBrittney Wong, Giulia Belotti, Glory Oreoluwa, Josh Travers, Rona MacNicolTable of ContentsExecutive Summary.........................................................................................................................1. Background……………………………………………………………………………………..2. Research Question……………………………………………………………………………...3. Methods………………………………………………………………………………………….4. Results…………………………………………………………………………………………...4.1 Document analysis……………………………………………………………………...4.2 Interviews and observations…………………………………………………………….5. Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………….5.1 Piloting as blueprint…………………………………………………………………….1.1 The significance of context…………………………………………………….1.2 Developing policy “after the fact”……………………………………………..5.2 Data ……………………...…………………………………………………………….2.1 Metrics, indicators and narratives…………………………………………….2.2 Learning by doing……………………………………………………………….5.3 Towards a shared understanding of “circularity”………………………………
has type: Report
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0421613
language: eng
peer review status: Unreviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
is part of: UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report
is part of: University of British Columbia. RES 505
subject: Waste
subject: Procurement
subject: Community
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83061