In a most inspiring whirlwind of audience participation, the alliance’s scientific director, Huub Rijnaarts, Professor of Environment and Water Technology at Wageningen University & Research, along with members of his team of researchers, lead a lively World Cafe style workshop in which everyone attending designed short term and long-term transition pathways to make circular hospitals, circular sport facilities, and circular water grids. Zooming in on Amsterdam, the city’s goal for 2030 is to have all municipal properties operate climate neutral and natural gas free. By 2050, properties should also be circular in terms of material reuse. Their broad collaboration researches how to integrate urban and rural societies to make the goal a reality.
Tim Zonjee explained how Amsterdam’s 47 sports parks, five swimming pools, 35 sports halls, and many gymnasiums require energy to heat pools and light the sports fields. The workshop delved into how to generate enough electricity to do that, since the city’s congested network cables are too small to cover such demand. His Circular Sports table came up with ideas like using batteries to power floodlights, charged by spectators’ electric vehicles and heat retained in the pitches themselves.
Jorn de Vos explained how the city’s urban water cycle is more unpredictable than ever, with heavy rainfall one year and too little rain the next, endangering the drinking water supply. His Urban Green vision would use any overall precipitation surplus for a seasonal water demand supply that mitigates our precipitation deficits — instead of simply streaming into the sewer system. His Circular Water table discussed introducing drought-resistant urban vegetation requiring less water, along with rainwater harvesting systems providing greywater for flushing toilets or washing at home, as well as water for keeping parks green—instead of using precious drinking water.
Pim de Jager highlighted hospitals as a mini society that operates on an outdated linear system of disposable medical equipment with a gigantic CO2 footprint, not to mention flushed medicine that does not break down in water and therefore taints sewage with dangerous amounts of harmful compounds that have been shown to mutate wildlife and threaten wastewater treatment. Ideas at his Circular Hospital table revolved around treating the effluent sooner with nature based solutions and creating different hospital protocols that maintain hygiene without so much disposable equipment.