City Practitioners Handbook: Circular Food Systems

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About the City Practitioners Handbook

This handbook provides local governments with concrete tools their peers are using to facilitate the transition to circular food systems, from stakeholder engagement to designing effective policies. It draws on experiences from the ICLEI network and its Circular Development pathway, learnings from the ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD Network and best practices from the Milan Pact Awards. This publication features experiences from 50 local governments and was designed by ICLEI experts in collaboration with champion cities for the benefit of city practitioners.

Have you used this Handbook and did you find it helpful? Please contact us at circular.development@iclei.org

Guia para gestores públicos: Sistemas alimentares circulares na América Latina

Este guia fornece aos governos locais da América Latina ferramentas concretas que seus colegas estão utilizando para facilitar a transição para sistemas alimentares circulares em suas cidades, desde o engajamento das partes interessadas até o desenho de políticas públicas eficazes.

Baseia-se nas experiências da rede ICLEI e seu caminho para o Desenvolvimento Circular, de experiências do Programa CityFood e dos projetos desenvolvidos pelo ICLEI com suas cidades membros e não-membros em parceria com instituições de referência, além das boas práticas do Pacto Urbano de Política Alimentar de Milão. Esta publicação é destinada à administração pública da América Latina e Caribe. O ICLEI e a FAO trabalharam conjuntamente para adaptar este guia ao contexto da região.

Guía para gestores públicos: Sistemas alimentarios circulares en América Latina

Esta guía proporciona a los gobiernos locales de América Latina herramientas concretas que sus pares están utilizando para facilitar la transición a los sistemas alimentarios circulares, desde la participación de las partes interesadas hasta el diseño de políticas eficaces.

La guía se basa en las experiencias de la red ICLEI y su ruta de Desarrollo Circular, los aprendizajes del Programa CITYFOOD y de los proyectos desarrollados por ICLEI con sus ciudades miembros y no-miembros en asociación con instituciones de referencia, y las buenas prácticas del Pacto de Política Alimentaria Urbana de Milán. Esta publicación presenta las experiencias de 22 gobiernos locales y ha sido diseñada por expertos de ICLEI en colaboración con ciudades referencia para el beneficio de los gestores públicos.

Q&A

Who is it for?

This handbook is designed for local and regional governments working on their food systems circular transition. Local action on food systems can be initiated by different departments, such as environment, health, urban planning, public works or education. To facilitate inter-departmental collaboration, most sections of this handbook have been designed in a presentation-friendly format, allowing them to be used directly in stakeholder outreach materials.
What are circular food systems?

Circular food systems prioritize regenerative production, favor reuse and sharing practices, reduce resource inputs and pollution and ensure resource recovery for future uses. As such, they close resource loops and pursue cross-sectoral synergies (e.g. with water and energy systems) that contribute to the resilience of a territory.

Adopting a food systems lens means looking at all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes.

This handbook combines learnings from both the circular economy and food systems approaches and builds on existing work and local good practices to offer practical recommendations for designing circular food systems at the local level that also deliver socio-economic benefits.
Why should my city work towards circular food systems?

The framework of circular food systems offers actionable steps to decrease overall waste production and resource consumption. It also offers various co-benefits:

Climate action: Circular food systems decrease need for new production, protect carbon sinks and create new sources of sustainable energy (e.g. from waste heat, anaerobic digestion of organic waste).

Resilience: Circular food systems reduce reliance on scarce resources, support resource efficient infrastructure and diversify the sources of key resource flows such as energy and water.

Biodiversity protection: Circular food systems reduce waste production and pollution as well as pressure on natural resources.

Inclusion: Circular food systems increase access to products and services through the promotion of waste prevention and resource sharing.

Innovation: Circular food systems create opportunities for local innovations and business opportunities.

Other ICLEI Circulars tools on food systems

CITYFOOD: Linking Cities on Urban Agriculture and Urban Food Systems

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Supporting Circular Food Systems Through Public Procurement

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The Urban Nexus: Integrating Resources for Sustainable Cities

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Circular Food & Agriculture – Webinar series: Circular Cities in Action

Co-hosted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, this month’s webinar showcased city-led and -supported circular food and agriculture interventions that allow to shift away from the linear model of take-make-waste model in food systems to reduce food loss and waste in a systemic way. This was built on the City Practitioners Handbook: Circular Food Systems, released last year.