Page 266 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

240 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

is ranked high among European cities with regard to the three indicators of a
compact city: LCPI (Largest Class Patch Index), ED (Edge Density), and ID
(Dispersion Index), and it is the Italian city with the highest investments on
urban projects of green architecture.

WHERE TO FIND THE RESOURCES TO INVEST IN URBAN
CIRCULAR ECONOMY?

It is true that Europe is facing a difficult economic period: most EU members
are trying to lower the public debt rates and find technical and legislative
barriers in increasing public investments. There is a renovated and serious
attention on reducing public spending, and new limits have been set by EU
legislation to member states.
On the other hand, it is generally accepted that urban investments and
radical changes toward a greener and circular economy in cities depend mainly
on public funding.

How to Overcome This Contradiction?
If we consider the case of shared mobility business model as example, we can
realize that public investment is not the only way of making circular economy
real in European cities. The shift to a new model may also include a shift of the
financial paradigm, giving a stronger role to the “publiceprivate partnerships”
(PPP), a historical reality in the United States that has big potentialities for a
rapid growth in Europe also.
A new car sharing scheme, which can take away from the city streets
thousands of parked private cars, does not need any subsidy or fund from the
city government. It creates a sustainable business in itself. Furthermore, it can
take fresh money to the city, through the payment of parking spaces, access to
limited traffic zones, etc. Also, the new bike sharing systems do not need direct
funding either. They are provided generally by advertising companies, who
pay the investments and the costs for the service, in return of the possibility of
having free access to advertising spaces in the city.
One of the main advantages of circular economy is that private companies
and association of companies can become the main driver of success in urban
regeneration, not only through designing and selling more sustainable services
and products but also by creating new systems of financial cooperation with
city administrators and city leaders.
As a consequence, many municipalities are starting new models of PPP in
Europe. Let us also take a look at the field of renewable energies and energy
efficiency: new partnerships are taking a great variety of forms such as Energy
Service Companies (ESCos) and Multiutility Service Companies (MUSCos),
in many cases formed by public and private partners who team up to finance,
build, and manage energy and utility services in urban areas.