Accelerating public-private partnership for circular public spaces through inclusive digital technologies

Research Line: Urban Rural Circularity / Seed Call: i4CS April 2024

Public spaces require millions of euros annually for their design, planning, management, and maintenance, which involves a significant use of materials. Predominantly, these materials are new and derived from primary raw materials. There exists an opportunity to reduce material usage through material exchange, reuse, and high-quality recycling, leading to notable cost savings and CO2 reductions. Given the carbon footprint of public space materials and the extent of material usage in the Utrecht region, this is a crucial area for progress within the circular economy.

The potential contribution that public spaces can make to the circular economy agenda is recognized by local, regional, and national stakeholders. With the embrace of digital technologies by local governance in the move towards a circular economy, the connection between sustainable and digital transformation is termed the “twin transition.” However, although digital tools offer substantial potential, they are still niche innovations, and their impact, user base, and contribution to the circular economy remain unclear. These digital tools are dispersed across various local government domains, including planning and building, requiring significant work to consolidate and understand their capabilities. Moreover, the government needs to develop the necessary capacities to make this twin transition successful. Building on the work of the DiGiC program, this project aims to further develop and enhance the possibilities of digital tools for advancing the circular economy.

Objectives and Route to Impact

Three aspects -circular economy, digital tools and public-private partnerships- are brought together in our project on capacities, which we conceptualize as necessary requirements for governance actors and arrangements to implement circularity in public space building practices. In a recent EU project PADST in which Utrecht University and the city of Utrecht collaborated, local government capacities were identified that are needed to tackle the twin transition- the digital and sustainable transition.

Figure 1: Local Government capacities for Twin Transitions

The PADST project demonstrated that despite increasing attention to the twin transition, the strategic, tactical, and operational capacities needed to tackle the twin transition are still in their infancy. To accelerate the twin transition, there is. a need to focus on the tactical level; facilitate public-private networks and partnerships.
Our project builds on the knowledge gained from the PADST project to examine how digital tools and technologies can facilitate public and private partnerships around the reuse of materials in public space and on the government capacities required to do so. We assess the socio-technical challenges and barriers of existing digital tools for different stakeholders (e.g. government, businesses, citizens) and identify gaps and ways forward on how digital tools and technologies can facilitate public-private partnerships for the reuse of building materials in the public space.

The central question that guides the work is:
How can current and future digital technologies facilitate public-private partnerships in the Province of Utrecht for the reuse of building materials in public space?

The work is structured into three sub-questions:

• What digital tools and technologies are currently available to municipalities in the Province of Utrecht that can foster public-private partnerships for the reuse of materials in public spaces?
• What strategic, tactical, and operational capacities hinder or facilitate the usage and implementation of these tools for public-private partnership
• What are necessary (user) requirements for strengthening current and the development, implementation and scaling of future tools aimed at fostering public–private partnerships to reuse of materials in public space?

Contribution to Cross-EWUU Collaboration

Our interdisciplinary team combines expertise across digital technologies, local governance, stakeholder engagement, and circular value chains to address the knowledge gap in “Digital innovations that support the transition to a circular region.” With a focus on the role of digital tools in local governance (UU), information systems design (TU/e), collaboration (WUR), and innovation management (TU/e), our team integrates both technical and social science perspectives.

The team’s complementary methodological skills—ranging from qualitative interviewing and co-creation to design science methodology—enable effective data collection, analysis, and dissemination. By blending technological and governance insights, we aim to enhance the scalability and effectiveness of digital tools for circular public spaces, ensuring they are useful, impactful, and inclusive for stakeholders across local and provincial governance.

Team

• Vikrant Sihag – TU/e Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences – Principle Investigator
• Dujuan Yang – TU/e Built Environment
• Kirsty Holstead – UU Public Administration and Policy
• Erna Ruijer – UU Utrecht University School of Governance