One of the six priority work areas of the Circular Economy Coalition for Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on metrics. This space aims to improve knowledge of metrics, contribute to more significant alignment and implementation of circular economy indicators, to facilitate the measurement of progress and impacts of the transition to the circular economy in the region.
The circular economy proposes a resilient, diverse, and inclusive economic model that creates opportunities for sustainable growth contrary to the logic of "extract, make, consume, and dispose of."It also fosters long-term productivity and green jobs, contributing to development and, at the same time, preparing us to cope better with climate change.
Understanding the need to boost this trend, the Circular Economy Coalition of Latin America and the Caribbean, a regional initiative created in 2021 to promote the transition to a sustainable economic system, joined forces with Enel to encourage dialogues and design metrics around the circular economy.
The initiative has been organized through two working groups, one linked to the institutional world and the other to the business sector, bringing together government officials and a wide range of representatives from relevant international institutions, companies, and academia from the different member countries of the Circular Economy Coalition. The invitation is to collectively imagine the region's future based on sustainable growth that works on a larger scale to design new metrics and tools to establish criteria to contribute to the circular economy of each country.
The objectives of these roundtables consisted of the following:
· Sharing practices and ongoing ambitions of companies and institutions in the region
· Discuss best global practices for measuring circularity
The meetings included short presentations and a space for open discussion and exchange among the participants. This instance of collaboration has also allowed the identification of some initial conclusions and laid the groundwork for drafting a series of Guidelines for the implementation of circularity metrics.
This program is carried out with the support of strategic partners such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE).
"Through the development of new tools and indicators, the initiative aims to contribute to the transition towards a more resilient, diverse, and inclusive economic model, both from the institutional and business sectors," notes Vanessa Esslinger, circular economy expert, coordinator of the Circular Economy Coalition at UNEP.
"As a leading company in the energy sector, we are interested in promoting a sustainable development model. The latter is why the circular economy is a strategic driver for us, as it allows us to redesign our activities' raw material and energy flows along the entire value chain while achieving greater competitiveness. To achieve this, we know that it is essential to coordinate with the different actors linked to our value chain because it is not possible to be truly circular if we do not work with a broad and integrated view, allowing us to obtain new solutions," explains Luca Meini, Head of Sustainability Initiatives and Circular Economy at Enel Holding.
After an initial launch in 2022 and given the excellent participation of both the private and institutional sectors, the Coalition and Enel are working on expanding the best practices exchange activities with a new program developing during 2023.
To learn more about this work, please visit the Coalition's website at the following link: https://coalicioneconomiacircular.org/metricas/.