Antwerp Circular South - engaging the community in an online and offline circular economy

The Antwerp Circular South project aimed at positioning circularity as a community challenge for the New South district (a newly created district in Antwerp) and to engage its new residents in co-creating online and offline initiatives. A number of advanced technical solutions covering different resource streams (energy, water and waste) were tested. Circular South inhabitants experimented with the so-called 'behavioural nudging', receiving cues to adapt their consumption behaviour of energy, water and waste in the most ideal circular way. Circular behaviours were automatically rewarded by an alternative online currency, the Circular Coin, through a blockchain based reward and exchange system. The most engaged Circular South participants formed a local Energy Cooperative sharing an innovative collective energy system. In addition, a Circular South Community Centre was set up to host a number of initiatives related to sharing, repairing and reusing activities.

During its implementation, the UIA project has capitalised on its experience so that it can be shared with peers. The outputs displayed on this page are the result of this process.