Background and relevance

Apeldoorn aims to meet the targets set out in the Climate Agreement and the National Circular Economy Programme (NPCE). In doing so, the council is building on circular initiatives that have mainly emerged from the bottom up, driven by the motivation of staff. On paper, the national frameworks are clear, but in the practical context of maintenance and management of public spaces, circularity can sometimes prove difficult to translate into concrete decisions.

Research question

How do you translate an abstract climate target into the local challenge of constructing, maintaining and managing public spaces such as roads, bridges and sewerage systems?

Method

Structural Collective and VanWaarde, in collaboration with the municipality, first mapped out the ‘business-as-usual’ approach: how the various types of roads, bridges, sewerage systems and other assets are constructed, and what the annual replacement and construction requirements are. Based on this, the future demand for materials up to 2050 was calculated and linked to the CO₂ impact. To assess these emissions against the Paris Agreement, a specific CO₂ budget for Apeldoorn’s public spaces was established. Interviews with project leaders and working sessions with asset managers also identified where circular practices are already in place and where progress is stalling. In a second phase, thirteen specific interventions, such as extending the service life of asphalt and using zero-emission equipment, were analysed for their reduction potential, with asset managers consulted throughout to assess what is realistically achievable.

Insights

• Under the current approach, Apeldoorn’s CO₂ budget will be exhausted before 2030. Even with the thirteen interventions analysed, the emissions budget will be exhausted well before 2050. This means that simply scaling up existing measures is not enough: a fundamentally different approach to the design and maintenance of public spaces is required, and this also touches on spatial and political choices such as the allocation of budgets between municipal sectors.
• The study also revealed organisational bottlenecks: the reuse of materials such as pavers and tiles still largely takes place on an ad hoc basis, internal clients do not routinely request circularity, and ownership of the processes is unclear.
• The project has laid a solid foundation: an understanding of the scale of the challenge, an overview of promising interventions, and a picture of the organisational bottlenecks. To embed circularity as a standard working method, the municipality will need to develop these insights further and formalise them through administrative decisions.

‍

‍