Abstract:PurposeCircular economy (CE), as a new economic paradigm, has gained traction in recent years. Cities' role in driving CE forward has been perceived as being increasingly important to achieve sustainable development (SD). For this reason, there is an urgency to understand what a circular city is and how it might be composed. This research explores the ways in which the city-state of Singapore is transitioning to a CE.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review on CE and cities was carried out usi… Show more
“…We looked for and uncovered a variety of literature based on circular economy and sustainability of data centers from around the world. The research centered on scientific papers (e.g., journal articles, conference papers, and dissertations) as well as non-academic papers (e.g., government publications, surveys, reports, newspaper articles, white papers by data center organizations) [12].…”
We are living in an age when data centers are expanding, require abundant spaces, and are an integral part in the urban communities, using massive amounts of environmental resources, and remains in the foreseeable future as the primary driver of the global energy consumption. This demand is disruptive and at times of both peril and opportunity due to impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which is altering the demand of digital infrastructure around the world. With the global call for zero carbon emissions, there needs to be solutions put in place for the de-carbonization of data centers. New innovations are made available, which will have an economic, social, and environmental impact on data centers. Concepts such as circular economy and fourth industrial revolution technologies are useful procedural tools that can be used to systematically analyze data centers, control their mining and critical raw materials, can be utilized in the transition towards a sustainable and circular data center, by objectively assessing the environmental and economic impacts, and evaluating alternative options. In this paper, we will look at the current research and practice, the impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, and look at future strides being taken towards more sustainable and circular data centers. We had discovered that decreasing the environmental effect and energy consumption of data centers is not sufficient. When it comes to data center architecture, both embodied and operational emissions are critical. Data centers also have a vital societal role in our daily lives, enabling us to share data and freely communicate via social media, transacting on the blockchain with cryptocurrencies, free online education, and job creation. As a result, sustainability and efficiency measures have expanded in a variety of ways, including circularity and its associated tools, as well as newer technologies.
“…We looked for and uncovered a variety of literature based on circular economy and sustainability of data centers from around the world. The research centered on scientific papers (e.g., journal articles, conference papers, and dissertations) as well as non-academic papers (e.g., government publications, surveys, reports, newspaper articles, white papers by data center organizations) [12].…”
We are living in an age when data centers are expanding, require abundant spaces, and are an integral part in the urban communities, using massive amounts of environmental resources, and remains in the foreseeable future as the primary driver of the global energy consumption. This demand is disruptive and at times of both peril and opportunity due to impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which is altering the demand of digital infrastructure around the world. With the global call for zero carbon emissions, there needs to be solutions put in place for the de-carbonization of data centers. New innovations are made available, which will have an economic, social, and environmental impact on data centers. Concepts such as circular economy and fourth industrial revolution technologies are useful procedural tools that can be used to systematically analyze data centers, control their mining and critical raw materials, can be utilized in the transition towards a sustainable and circular data center, by objectively assessing the environmental and economic impacts, and evaluating alternative options. In this paper, we will look at the current research and practice, the impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, and look at future strides being taken towards more sustainable and circular data centers. We had discovered that decreasing the environmental effect and energy consumption of data centers is not sufficient. When it comes to data center architecture, both embodied and operational emissions are critical. Data centers also have a vital societal role in our daily lives, enabling us to share data and freely communicate via social media, transacting on the blockchain with cryptocurrencies, free online education, and job creation. As a result, sustainability and efficiency measures have expanded in a variety of ways, including circularity and its associated tools, as well as newer technologies.
“…In the past decade, Singapore has been recognised as one of the greenest cities in Asia (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, 2011). This can be attributed to the progressive urban environmental planning philosophies beginning from the Garden City initiative in 1967, followed by the City in a Garden strategy in 2003 and the most recently announced City in Nature vision in 2020 (Carrière et al, 2020;Tan et al, 2013). With the growing impetus to build sustainable cities following the rise in the ecosystem service approach to sustainable development (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Program), 2005; United Nations, 2017), the urban developments in Singapore have become more intentional in increasing ES provision .…”
In the face of rapid urban densification, many cities have seen a decline in the extent of urban green spaces which are also the very landscape that provide a myriad of benefits for human well-being. This results in a mismatch between the ecosystem service supply from the urban natural landscape, and demand from the urban dwellers. While the mapping of ecosystem service supply and demand has been widely conducted for ecosystem service assessments, spatially explicit assessments of supply-demand balances and distributions are rarely explored in the urban context. Using Singapore as a case study, we mapped out the distribution of mismatches in six urban ecosystem services. In addition, we investigated the potential influence that a lived experience of ecosystem service supply-demand mismatch may have on residents’ perception towards the importance of ecosystem services. We found that the level of mismatch is predicted by proportion of unmanaged vegetation and distance to nature reserves. This is likely due to the distribution of unmanaged vegetation around the island state. Except for the noise abatement ecosystem service, we failed to find evidence of correlation between mismatch and Singaporeans’ perceived importance of ecosystem services, except in the case of noise abatement. This could potentially be influenced by the hyper-connectedness of Singapore’s landscape, allowing a locally unmet demand for ecosystem services to be fulfilled in a location with higher supply.
“…Besides, there are some incentives toward a CE, such as government research grants. As an example, two million dollars is available for zero waste projects, and the National Environment Agency (NEA) practices to adopt a CE economy approach (Carrière et al 2020 ). Fig.…”
Nowadays, due to the continuous developments in economies, various dilemmas are emerging, including energy demand, waste management, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHE). A promising approach to address these issues is a transition toward a circular economy (CE), and one of its successful approaches is the waste-to-energy (WTE). By exploiting WTE, there will be less demand for raw materials and resources. In this study, two developed countries, including France and Singapore, are evaluated based on their CE transition using the WTE method. Both countries are developing rapidly in terms of a successful CE. Reducing landfills as the major problem in Singapore is one of the most vital plans in their CE project. The planned target in Singapore is reducing landfill by 30% by 2030. Furthermore, Singapore aims for reaching a 70% recycling rate by 2050. On the other hand, the CE in France includes more comprehensive laws in four different sectors, such as production, consumption, waste management, and mobilizing actors. It is planned that by 2025, the recycling rate in France will reach 100%. A roadmap toward building a CE cannot be succeeded unless some practical strategies are developed for overcoming the encountered obstacles. The roadmap of both countries shows a specific milestone to reach a better CE, cleaner environment, and less use of natural resources. Most of the Singapore sustainable plans are planned to be caught by 2030, while France is trying to complete them by 2025. It should be noted that due to the current pandemic situation caused by COVID-19, there are some issues in implementing the obligations and plans thoroughly.
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