Circular economy, the ranking of Italy's best cities
Economy & innovation — di Valentina Neri
For the first time, researchers from the Cesisp at the University of Milan-Bicocca have graded Italy's cities on circular economy.
Circular economy, the ranking of Italy's best cities
For the first time, researchers from the Cesisp at the University of Milan-Bicocca have graded Italy's cities on circular economy.
In recent months, the city of Milan seems to have been sweeping the board on many fronts. For the first time in history it tops the quality-of-life ranking drawn up by the Sole24Ore; for the fifth consecutive year it is the best Italian smart city according to ICity Rate 2018; and it has won the Wallpaper design award, which recognises the vanguard of design, architecture and art. It has also secured some far less praiseworthy records, of course, such as that for land consumption as recorded by Ispra.
Read also: Milan has declared a climate and environmental emergency
Now, however, another record arrives — this time unquestionably positive: Milan is the city in the Bel Paese that best puts the principles of the circular economy into practice, followed by Florence and Turin. The finding comes from a study carried out by Cesisp, the Centre for the Economics and Regulation of Services, Industry and the Public Sector at the University of Milan-Bicocca. The results were presented at the annual congress, held on Monday 20 May in the university's lecture rooms.
The ranking of Italy's most "circular" cities
- Milan
- Florence
- Turin
- Bologna
- Rome
- Genoa
- Bari
- Naples
- Palermo
- Catania
The five pillars of the circular economy
"We believe that the circular economy is above all a glocal challenge, one that starts from the everyday behaviour of urban communities," the researchers write in their presentation. Hence the idea of grading Italy's cities — a certainly fascinating insight, but by no means straightforward to put into practice. It is no surprise, then, that the ranking is merely the end point of a rather complex research process.
As a first step, the Cesisp researchers divided the world of the circular economy into five broad areas and, for each of them, selected a series of indicators to be measured objectively, assigning a score from 1 to 5. The average of the twenty indicators corresponds to the final score.
Presentata oggi in Milano-Bicocca la prima classifica delle città più performanti sul piano della #sostenibilità e della #circulareconomy, a cura del Cesisp. Milano in testa, seguita da Firenze e Torino. Comunicato stampa 👉 unimib.it/citt%C3%A0circ…
The starting point is what are known as sustainable inputs (the share of energy efficiency and solar photovoltaic energy production, the number of electric and hybrid vehicles in circulation and of charging points, and the density of green areas); the second pillar is far less "technical" and far more "social". Under the umbrella definition of level of social sharing, the researchers examined the proportion of volunteers in the total population, the number of urban allotments, and the number of empty homes.
Putting the circular economy into practice also means finding new business models to offer products as services, focusing on public transport, cycle lanes and car sharing. The fourth pillar is represented by solutions for the so-called end of life of products: second-hand goods, water treatment, waste management and the separate-collection rate. Finally, there are measures to extend the useful life of goods and services: local authority spending on maintenance works, efficient land use, water-network efficiency and policies to foster civic responsibility.
The circular economy podium in Italy
Ten Italian cities were examined by Cesisp — all those with more than three hundred thousand inhabitants. The podium goes to Milan, Florence and Turin, though there are some surprises. Rome, for example, "wins" in the field of sustainable inputs, partly by virtue of its very large territory and low energy consumption relative to urban GDP. Genoa shares with the Lombard capital the top spot for extending the useful life of resources, while Florence leads in terms of volunteering.
Looking more closely, one notices that Milan's gold medal is a mix of light and shadow. Chief among the shadows are photovoltaic energy and the presence of green areas, both still well below expectations. It is precisely on these fronts that — the researchers suggest — the city administration should act decisively, also by harnessing enormous opportunities such as digital technologies, which could be put to use in the self-production and sharing of food, and the redevelopment of railway yards, set to transform the face of the urban fabric.