Constructive Metabolic processes For material Flows in urban and peri-urban environments across Europe (REFLOW)

Abstract:

The project ‘constRuctive mEtabolic processes For material flOWs in urban and peri-urban environments across Europe’ (REFLOW) received funding (10 Million Euros) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (H2020-CE-SC5-03-2018) under grant agreement No 820937.REFLOW is a partnership between 27 European partners representing 10 European Countries and is led by Associate Professor, Cristiana Parisi, Copenhagen Business School. The REFLOW project's mission is to develop circular and regenerative cities through the delocalisation of production and the reconfiguration of material flows at different scales within cities. More specifically, the project will use Fablabs and makerspaces as catalysers of a systemic change in urban and peri-urban environments in order to enable, visualize and regulate “four freedoms”: free movement of materials, people, knowledge (through a blockchain technology) and commons. The expected outcome is the reduction of materials consumption, the maximization of multifunctional use of (public) spaces and a positive social, environmental and economic impact. Concretely, REFLOW will provide relevant best practices aligning market and government needs in order to create favourable conditions for the public and private sector to adopt circular economy (CE) principles. In order to provide critical examples of ways in which cities can adopt CE practices and reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, REFLOW will create new CE business models within 6 European pilot cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Cluj-Napoca, Milan, Paris, and Vejle and assess their social, environmental and economic impact. Moreover, the project will make use of blockchain technologies in order to incentivise the circular practices in local ecosystems, and data visualisation tools to enable continuous monitoring and optimisation of “urban metabolic” processes and rapid interventions management.