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is to prepare and build new consortia of actors that are jointly
willing to establish new circular initiatives. When a consortium
was created, the Board withdrew and left it for the consortium
partners to realise the initiative. Many of the circular initiatives
needed to involve not only business, but also local governments,
particularly in their procurement role. Municipalities had to join
forces to realise the circular initiatives envisioned. How this
network governance works in practice is illustrated below.
I started the regional circular economy programme in January 2015,
then as a newly appointed member of the Amsterdam Economic
Board. The Board is a respected triple helix organisation with a
mission to promote innovation and new business development
in key societal urban challenges. The mayor of Amsterdam is
the chair of the Board, which also comprises representatives of
impactful companies, research and educational institutes and local
governments. The Board organisation has a 15 FTE staff. When I
joined the Board in 2014, I proposed to make building a circular
economy one of the key challenges. As this idea was well received,
I started to draft a programme. Being aware of the positive role
the municipalities fulfilled in promoting circularity, I drafted the
programme in close communication with the Regional Board of
Local Governments, business, knowledge institutes and citizens.
Soon after the start, I was accompanied by a staff member of the
Board who acted together with me as transition broker. Another
Board member, an alderman of one of the municipalities in the
region, was willing to act as liaison between the Board and his
colleagues of other municipalities.
The timing of the Board’s circular economy programme was
fortunate for various reasons. Firstly, at that time, municipalities
were searching for new methods in waste management. They had
to achieve higher recycling rates to act in line with national policies.
The waste management sector also responded to the national
policy objectives and gradually began to redirect its strategy