Guidelines and recommendations for a circular economy strategy- City of Kerava
Client: City of Kerava, Pioneers into Practice Climate KIC
Year: 2020
Place: Kerava, Finland.
BACKGROUND
The City of Kerava hosted the Housing Fair 2024, the goal was to incorporate circular economy urban solutions for the new area, that will act as a testing ground. Initially, the city department of planning asked space&matter, a concept design studio focusing on the betterment of communities for the health of the planet, to create a concept. The studio developed the concept and questionnaire for the city as a starting point to think about circular economy solutions for the area. The original concept consisted of 6 focus areas; mobility, heating, energy, food and biodiversity, resource management, and water. However, the Civil Servants planning the Housing Fair 2024 did not feel capacitated to know how to transform the concept and questions into solutions. I was asked to facilitate a learning process that supported familiarization with Circular Economy as well as creating more realistic guidelines that could be turned into actions.
PROJECT
In this month-long engagement, I acted as a facilitator, supporting the Civil Servants in:
Deepening their understanding of circular economy through workshops
Understand the relevant existing materials present in the area to identify flows of inputs and outputs
Finding relevant local stakeholders for a circular economy transition
Created a set of Guidelines to follow in the process of designing the Housing Fair 2024
OUTCOMES
I designed and facilitated two workshops where Civil Servants and key Stakeholders were invited. The objective of the workshop was for the client to identify material flows that could give opportunities for circular economy solutions in the areas of mobility, heating, energy, food and biodiversity, resource management, and water.
The objective for inviting additional stakeholders was to already create partnerships and support the client in the effort of implementing a circular economy strategy.
In addition to the workshops I provided a set of guidelines for continuing the work.
LEARNINGS
This project was insightful for me in working as a foreigner consultant with Civil Servants who work and operate in Finnish. I had to modify the language I use as a designer and consultant to make it more intuitive for the actors I was engaging with. Additionally, the workshops I hosted had to have translations in both Finnish and English, for every participant to feel comfortable. It was a huge learning experience for me in understanding that I am capable to provide consulting work in Finland, while not being fluent in Finnish.