Circular Vienna - The Strategy to Save Resources in our City Startseite wien.gv.at
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2.3 The City of Vienna’s strategic focal points and levers

2. Vienna’s Approach to Save Resources and to the Circular Economy

How we achieve the resource transition: we focus on the biggest levers and act where the City can be most effective

Much has already been set in motion, yet much remains to be done to save resources and to establish a circular economy. This transformation is not self-propelling – it requires a clear strategy, followed by concrete action plans, implementation programmes, monitoring and continuous adjustment. “Circular Vienna – the Strategy to Save Resources in Our City” is designed to support exactly this: as orientation, as a source of impetus and as a tool to help shape this joint effort successfully.

The public sector has many ways to drive forward the circular economy. The Austrian Circular Economy Strategy (see also Chapter 2) identifies important areas of intervention such as market incentives, the regulatory framework, the development of information and knowledge, cooperation and digitalisation.

For the first time, this strategy presents the many levers that advance resource saving and the circular economy at the city level in a cross-sectoral manner for Vienna. With broad participation from experts from across the City administration, key areas were developed and structured in such a way as to make the key potentials for saving resources in Vienna clearly visible. The circular economy is a cross-cutting theme – which is why Chapter 3 describes the levers that contribute to saving resources across all sectors. This toolbox forms the foundation for the two subsequent chapters, which focus on two major areas of potential: saving resources in everyday life and in the built environment.

The chapter “The Circular Economy as a Tool for Saving Resources” identifies the cross-cutting themes for Vienna’s transition to a circular economy:

  • Markets, companies and cooperation in the circular economy: Through requirements, the establishment of processes and public procurement, the City of Vienna can help shape efforts to strengthen the circular economy in the metropolitan region.
  • Innovations for the circular economy: Collaboration with research stakeholders, pilot projects, and funding and advisory services are key instruments of the City of Vienna in its role as a partner for innovation.
  • Awareness-raising and skills for the circular economy: Integrating saving resources and the circular economy into the City’s information and communication channels and into its qualification programmes is a key factor for success.

These three priority areas contain important levers that the City of Vienna can use to support the transformation towards Vienna’s circular economy. For the transformation to succeed, it is also essential to address the sectors that are particularly resource-intensive (see also “Transformation Priorities” in the Austrian Circular Economy Strategy). In doing so, the City of Vienna focuses on those sectors that can be derived from the consumption-based greenhouse gas balance and the material footprint (see Chapter 1).

In the chapter “Saving Resources in Everyday Life in Vienna”, the City of Vienna focuses on three further priority areas in which saving resources directly affects people in Vienna in their private and professional everyday lives. These areas concern, among others, short-lived consumer goods, food, and services in the health, care and social sectors:

  • Resource-saving consumption:Structures for the circular economy in everyday life and a wide range of waste-prevention measures are important levers for reducing the material footprint in the area of consumer goods.
  • Resource-saving food production, catering and nutrition: The City of Vienna focuses on the major potentials along the value chain of our food - within its own sphere of influence as well as by raising awareness in private consumption.
  • Saving resources in Vienna’s health, care and social sectors: Due to the high social relevance, the high level of material use and the specific requirements, the City of Vienna bundles its levers for saving resources in the health sector.

In the chapter “Saving Resources in Vienna’s Built Environment”, three further priority areas of the City of Vienna address the construction sector, which is particularly resource-intensive. This includes long-lived assets such as housing and infrastructure of services of general interest:

  • Structural foundations for resource-saving building and civil engineering: Through new procedures, requirements and digitisation, the City of Vienna is systematically advancing the circular economy in planning and construction.
  • Saving resources in urban development: By making use of the existing urban fabric and embedding the circular economy in new urban districts, the City of Vienna is setting pioneering framework conditions and processes for resource-saving urban planning.
  • Resource-efficient infrastructure for services of general interest: The City of Vienna uses its sphere of influence to promote resource conservation in securing the supply of water, energy and mobility.

Together, these nine priority areas contain a total of 33 levers for Vienna’s transformation towards saving resources and towards the circular economy up to 2050. Specification and implementation will take place within the short- to medium-term measures planning framework through the City’s programmes and projects. There are various opportunities for participation and involvement for people in Vienna. Existing implementation programmes will be further developed on the basis of the Circular Vienna strategy.

Vienna’s climate implementation strategy, the Wiener Klimafahrplan, also integrates climate mitigation, climate adaptation and the circular economy as interdisciplinary cross-cutting themes. The Klimafahrplan is updated every five years. Each update provides an opportunity for civil society and companies in Vienna to contribute to the refinement of the City’s climate policy levers.

Monitoring and evaluation of the goals and measures of the Circular Vienna strategy are foreseen within existing processes (including the Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna, the Wiener Klimafahrplan and the Wiener Klimabudget - Vienna’s climate budget).

Circular Economy as a Tool for Saving Resources

Priority Area & Levers: Markets, Companies and Cooperation in the Circular Economy

  1. The City of Vienna as a Guarantor of Circular Demand through Public Procurement
  2. Circular Processes and Products as a Competitive Advantage
  3. Markets, Logistics and Cooperation for Resource Exchange in the Vienna Metropolitan Region

Priority Area & Levers: Innovation for the Circular Economy

  1. Innovation Support and Advisory Services for Circular Business Models
  2. Co-Creation as a Basis for Accelerating the Transition to the Circular Economy
  3. Research Translation and Scaling for a circular Vienna

Priority Area & Levers: Awareness and Skills for the Circular Economy

  1. Information and Communication to Save Resources and for the Circular Economy
  2. Skills and Competences to Save Resources and for the Circular Economy
  3. Vienna’s Creative Industries in the Context of the Circular Economy

Saving Resources in Everyday Life in Vienna

Priority Area & Levers: Resource-Saving Consumption

  1. Structures and Spaces for Sustainable Consumption in the Grätzl (Local Neighbourhood)
  2. Knowledge and Participation for Resource-Saving Living in the Grätzl
  3. Multi-Use Systems for a Lived Circular Economy
  4. Understanding Waste as a Resource

Priority Area & Levers: Resource-Saving Food Production, Catering and Nutrition

  1. Holistic Food Strategy at the Regional Level
  2. Halting Food Waste
  3. Resource-Saving Communal Catering and Gastronomy
  4. Vienna Produces Regionally and Organically
  5. Biogenic Waste in the Circular Cycle

Priority Area & Levers: Saving Resources in Vienna’s Health, Care and Social Sectors

  1. Process and Workflow Optimisation and Digitalisation in the Health and Care Sectors
  2. Waste Separation and Recovery in the Health and Care Sectors
  3. Vienna-Wide Circular Economy Programmes in the Health and Care Sectors

Saving Resources in the Built Environment

Priority Area & Levers: Structural Foundations for Resource-Saving Building Construction and Civil Engineering

  1. Measurability of Circular-Ready Planning and Construction
  2. From Theory to Practice: Circular Piloting as a Key Driver of Transformation
  3. Legal Anchoring of Circular-Ready Construction
  4. Digitalisation and Modern Workflows for Resource Efficiency in Construction

Priority Area & Levers: Saving Resources in Urban Development

  1. Renewal of the Existing Urban Fabric for Maximum Resource Saving
  2. Resource-Saving Urban Expansion in Urban Development Areas
  3. Circular Design of Urban Open Spaces
  4. Logistics and Spaces for Circularity in the Construction Sector
  5. Circular Management of Excavated Soil

Priority Area & Levers: Resource-efficient Infrastructure for Services of General Interest

  1. Resource-Efficient Mobility
  2. Resource-Efficient Water and Wastewater Systems
  3. Circular Economy in Climate-Neutral Energy Systems