As a CCRI Pilot city, Guimarães has received expert advice and support for the implementation of Circular Systemic Solutions. As a result, Guimarães has become an exceptional model for other Pilot cities and regions with high circularity potential to develop a circular bioeconomy that saves energy, food and water, and creates valuable, sustainable products from biowaste collected door-to-door across the city.

The challenge: getting people involved

A challenge of any sustainability initiative is getting the public to participate. Involving everyone within Guimarães in the circular bioeconomy requires citywide awareness and mobilisation of the community for the circular solution. Involving its citizens in waste reduction, recycling, and composting programmes has ensured that sustainability initiatives are well-supported and aligned with local needs.

Putting citizens at the centre of the bioeconomy transition

The greatest successes of the Guimarães Pilot region can be seen in its comprehensive and innovative approach to advancing a circular bioeconomy by creating a governance ecosystem that has citizens in the centre of the transition process.

The door-to-door biowaste collection programme has been key to achieving waste reduction, which led to a 68% reduction in mixed waste and a 64% increase in the collection of packaging and food waste. Operating in Guimarães since 2022, the biowaste collection programme has increased the rate of separate biowaste collection drastically. As a result, 35% of biowaste is now collected separately and the number of citizens who compost in the community has doubled.

The door-to-door collection strategy involved checking the biowaste bins and grading the waste with stickers according to the quality of biowaste collected. For example, good biowaste collection would get a green sticker on the biowaste bin and mixed waste would get red. These efforts ensure that Guimarães’ message of sustainability is widespread and accessible, promoting a culture of recycling and waste reduction across the city, promoting waste collection and enhancing citizen engagement.

Guimarães receives support for its circular solution like this and is essential for success. As a Guimarães Pilot coordinator makes clear, other Pilots have much to gain: ‘By participating in the CCRI, Guimarães aims to enhance collaboration with other cities, fostering the exchange of technical and scientific knowledge, and developing joint projects to advance the transition to a circular economy.’

Circularity awareness campaign

To get the public involved in the aim of becoming a ‘One Planet City’, Guimarães' ran an awareness campaign to educate citizens, particularly the younger generation, about the importance of waste reduction, proper waste separation, and sustainable practices. This was achieved through public awareness efforts including communication through newspapers, street campaigns, and door-to-door outreach.

To target the younger generation, the campaign focused strongly on educational initiatives within schools. For example, the ‘360.come’ project, which reduced food waste by 10% in 15 school canteens by teaching students about the importance of minimising food waste, eating healthily, and highlighting the positive connections between healthy eating, local consumption, and the circular economy. Now, the city has plans to expand the scheme to 88 schools across the whole of the city. As a result, the message of sustainability is widespread and accessible and there is now a culture of recycling and waste reduction across the city, especially among the younger generation.

The coordinators attribute some success to Guimarães' involvement with the CCRI, explaining that ‘The CCRI methodology has been central to Guimarães' strategy, particularly in developing a closed-loop bioeconomy, [giving] technical assistance and funding opportunities to implement its action plan for bioeconomy, focusing on innovative and sustainable solutions tailored to its unique context.’

The Waste Map

Knowing where waste is being produced in a city and developing systems to collect the waste is a time and energy intensive process. Part of the Guimarães’ huge success is due to its innovative Waste Map, used to monitor and analyse waste generation, types, routes, and flows throughout the city with ease.

The innovative map gives detailed data on waste creation for effective management, allowing the city to optimise waste collection and implement more controlled and efficient systems. Due to the map, the city has a greater understanding of specific waste streams and their sources, which has enabled authorities to create programmes and systems that target waste separation and collection. The Waste Map has also played a crucial role in supporting the Zero Waste Plan 2030, earning the city certification from Zero Waste Europe.

Promoting circular economy practices by mapping material flows has fostered collaboration between the municipality, private companies and non-profit organisations, further innovating waste valorisation projects, such as collecting biowaste through community composting for organic fertiliser. In addition, the city has encouraged households to compost organic waste by offering 1 200 composters across the city and providing tax benefits to those who successfully compost.

Improving water efficiency in buildings

Buildings have extremely high environmental costs, from initial construction and maintenance to electricity and water demands. To tackle these inefficiencies, Guimarães has improved the water efficiency of its municipal-owned buildings through its Circularity Water Plan, which monitors and reduces water consumption and reuses wastewater. As part of this, the project repurposes water from swimming pools for street cleaning and other non-potable uses, effectively reducing the demand for fresh water and optimising resource utilisation.

Guimarães also invested in upgrading its municipal buildings with water-efficient technologies, such as low-flow fixtures, automated water systems, and rainwater harvesting systems. As a result, municipal buildings’ water consumption decreased by 31% between 2013 and 2023. Aiming for greater efficiency, Guimarães will continue implementing water loss control strategies to ensure an additional reduction of about 5% until 2027, reaching water loss below 20% by 2037.

The CCRI methodology has been central to Guimarães’ success in driving the green transition. Now, Guimarães is firmly on its way to achieving its aim of becoming a One Planet City. Having embedded sustainability into its citizens’ lives, the city’s closed-loop system creates economic value from waste, turning what was once a cost to dispose of into a valuable resource.