On Monday, June 15, the meeting of the Circular Economy Community of Practice took place at Urban Lab Torino, under the title “From Impact to Net Zero: The Role of the Social and Circular Economy in the Climate Transition.”

The event, organised together with the City of Turin, NetZeroCities and Fondazione Piemonte Innova, explored the Municipality’s strategies to support the territory on its path towards climate neutrality, with a focus on the role that companies, third sector organisations, associations, foundations and startups can play as co-protagonists of a systemic, territorial and shared transformation.

At the centre of the meeting was the Climate City Contract, the tool through which Turin participates in the European Mission 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, promoted by the European Commission to support 100 pilot cities in achieving climate neutrality by 2030.

The city’s plan starts from a baseline year, 2019, and from a very precise objective: reducing CO2 emissions by 85.2% by 2030, acting on a total volume of 2,396,907 tonnes. The pathway is structured around 31 strategic actions, 27 of which are dedicated to the direct reduction of emissions and 4 to absorption.

The priority actions are organised around several macro-areas: buildings and energy, mobility and transport, waste and circular economy, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions. Projects already underway include EfficienTO, the energy efficiency plan for municipal buildings developed through a public-private partnership with Iren; the CACER Desk, supporting Renewable Energy Communities; the construction of Metro Line 2; the renewal of the local public transport fleet with new electric buses; and interventions on parks, hillside forests, riverbanks and urban tree-lined avenues.

A section of the meeting was dedicated to the role of the circular economy, with particular attention to the opportunities for local organisations to contribute to emissions reduction through models of reuse, recycling, eco-design and more efficient resource management.

The Climate City Contract is not a call for proposals, nor a regulatory obligation or a bureaucratic certification. It is a voluntary, concrete and verifiable commitment, open to organisations carrying out projects within the Municipality of Turin: actions already implemented since 2019, ongoing activities, or interventions to be carried out by 2030.

Within this process, Fondazione Piemonte Innova manages the labelling process and the participation opportunities connected to the Climate City Contract, supporting interested organisations in the different forms of engagement.

Organisations can participate through two levels of involvement, linked to the Torino Green Light label: Member, for those implementing actions to reduce climate-altering emissions, even when the impact has not yet been directly quantified according to standard methodologies; and Partner, for those presenting actions whose impact has already been quantified or can be quantified through technical data useful for assessment.

The data collected will be entered into the CLICC platform, developed by Politecnico di Torino and enabled by the Energy Center, and must be complete, consistent and verifiable. Alongside more infrastructure-based interventions, actions such as energy optimisation software and environmental training and information activities aimed at employees, citizens and target audiences are also valued.

During the meeting, several case studies were also presented as concrete examples of how the circular economy can be applied in different contexts: from the installation of filtered water dispensers to reduce plastic use, to the operational rental of refurbished devices to reduce electronic waste, and the recovery and redistribution of leftover food from events through agreements between third sector organisations and local distributors.

The day concluded with the workshop “Simulate Your Climate City Action,” during which the participating organisations, divided into working tables, experimented with the development of possible pilot projects. The simulation followed the steps of the actual application process: technical description of the action, identification of the relevant macro-area, definition of timing and investments, analysis of co-benefits, and assessment of expected impact.

The final feedback session highlighted several areas of work that are particularly relevant for the territory, including urban greenery, reuse, energy efficiency and technological innovation. The exchange confirmed the potential of the Community of Practice as a space for collective learning and activation, capable of bringing together companies, institutions and social economy organisations to make a concrete contribution to the city’s climate transition.