Latvian scientists create a tool for assessment of circularity of municipalities

On Wednesday, September 11 the first Circular Economy Index of Latvian Municipalities was presented – a tool developed by Latvian scientists to assess local governments’ circularity, says Agita Baltbārde, the initiator of the Circular Economy Index and a Member of the Management Board at CleanR Grupa.

The Circular Economy Index of Latvia is a unique and the first evidence-based practical tool that will help Latvian municipalities assess their current circularity performance and plan their future development steps more effectively.

The findings of the Circular Economy Index divide the overall scale into five groups: leaders (more than 500 points), experts (450-499 points), practitioners (400-449 points), conscientious local governments (350-399 points), and those that choose to wait it out (less than 349 points).

There are two municipalities in the Leaders group – the City of Ventspils and Līvāni Municipality. They have achieved the highest scores in circularity performance, involved their residents in achieving circularity objectives, and raised awareness of the importance of circularity for well-being and sustainability.

The Experts, on the other hand, manage circular economy elements, put them into practice, and are able to explain their efforts to residents. In total, there are seven municipalities in this group: Dienvidkurzeme Municipality, Valmiera Municipality, the City of Daugavpils, the City of Rezekne, Kuldīga Municipality, the City of Liepāja, and Smiltene Municipality.

Meanwhile, the Practitioners group, recognized for significant implementation of circular economy in municipalities and involvement of residents, includes 19 municipalities: the City of Riga and municipalities of Ogre, Jēkabpils, Balvi, Cēsis, Aizkraukle, Jelgava, Salaspils, Augšdaugava, Ķekava, Tukums, Alūksne, Dobele, Olaine, Valka, Gulbene, Madona, Mārupe and Ropaži.

The group of the Conscientious is made up of 11 municipalities that implement circular economy principles and explain them to residents. These are municipalities of Bauska, Preiļi, Talsi, Limbaži, Ventspils and Rēzekne, the City of Jelgava, and municipalities of Saldus, Varakļāni, Saulkrasti and Ādaži.

Finally, the Wait It Out group includes municipalities identifying the opportunities to integrate circularity in the provision of municipal functions: Ludza and Krāslava municipalities.

“Municipal functions that have an impact on circularity have been assessed, from wastewater management to circularity measures, availability of coworking spaces, and others. Local governments have done a self-assessment and a population survey was carried out to determine residents’ opinion of their local government’s performance, these two components define the group scores of the Circularity Index, but in developing the methodology we wanted to go further, to create a practical tool that allows municipalities to improve their performance, which is why researchers did an in-depth analysis by category,” says Baltbārde.

The categories of the Circular Economy Index – resource management, economic and business transformation, community engagement, and skilful management – make it possible for each municipality to understand in more detail which are the areas where further improvements are needed.

“I am most pleased about the data we have obtained. Finally, we will be able to proudly present the example of Latvian municipalities to audiences worldwide and showcase and promote them as good practice. According to the categories, municipalities will be able to assess their priorities in order to improve their performance. I would like to emphasize that, from a scientific standpoint, the situation in the first six months of 2024 has been determined and it is not evaluated as good or satisfactory, but as a basis for measures to be taken in future: public engagement, fostering entrepreneurship, attracting investment, changing attitudes and so on. For objective action, additional analysis of the information provided by municipalities and their budgets is needed, but this is a matter for the future,” explains Dr. oec. Dzintra Atstāja.

The sustainability expert also added that municipalities would have access to more detailed data on their performance and recommendations in each category to plan their actions in the future.

The Circular Economy Index has identified leaders in each category. In resource management, the top 5 are the cities of Ventspils, Liepāja, Rēzekne and Daugavpils, and Valmiera Municipality. In the economy and entrepreneurship category these are the cities of Ventspils and Daugavpils and municipalities of Jelgava, Aizkraukle and Ogre. In the public engagement category – municipalities of Dienvidkurzeme, Līvāni and Salaspils and the cities of Riga and Rēzekne. Meanwhile, the five best performers in the skilful management category are municipalities of Dienvidkurzeme, Smiltene and Kuldīga and the cities of Daugavpils and Jūrmala.

The objectivity of the data is also based on how residents evaluate efforts of their local governments, as well as their own actions, in the context of the circular economy. A total of 3,223 questionnaires were filled out.

The data reveal that residents generally believe that municipalities’ circularity performance is better than that of residents themselves. At the same time, respondents point out that local authorities could be more resource-efficient. That is, while local governments believe that they save enough on different resources – fuel, water, electricity, heat and various materials such as stationery and equipment, residents’ opinion of local governments’ performance in this category is much lower.

The survey has also found that, in the opinion of residents and municipalities also, local governments are mostly better at management than residents, for example, they use renewable energy, improve energy efficiency of buildings, use smart technology and e-signature.

There also are exceptions: waste (sorting and reducing) and use of inventory (using second-hand goods, repairing what is broken rather than buying new items), where residents gave municipalities modest scores, as did the municipalities themselves.

An interesting observation is that even though municipalities often provide different circularity-related infrastructure, such as various shared or public services, they are often not used by the public.

“Shared services such as car rentals, outdoor gym equipment and, to a lesser extent, public transport are perceived by residents to be more accessible than the extent to which people actually use them. This indicates that municipalities have prepared their infrastructure for the circular economy, but the challenge is to integrate it fully into day-to-day management together with residents. But this is certainly possible! The findings of the survey reveal that there are great examples in Latvia where citizens are actively involved in the circular economy, namely in terms of sorted waste containers – both availability and intensive use of these containers are evident. This good practice should be replicated in implementation of other circular economy principles,” recommends Dr. sc. soc. Andris Saulītis.

A presentation of all the data from the study will be published on CleanR Grupa’s website.

The group and category leaders will also be honoured in person on October 3 at a CleanR Grupa forum on transformation of the circular economy and the environmental services sector.

As reported, work on the Circular Economy Index commenced this past January, followed by the development of the index formula and the questionnaire. From May to July, a survey of municipalities was carried out, in which of all municipalities participated, and a survey of residents, and in August all findings were collated and analysed.

The Circular Economy Index study was initiated by Agita Baltbārde, Member of the Management Board at CleanR Grupa, and the methodology was developed by a group of Latvian scientists headed by economics and sustainable development expert, Dr. oec. Dzintra Atstāja. Work on the population survey and data analytics was led by Dr. sc. soc. Andris Saulītis. The Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments helped coordinate involvement of local governments. In total, more than 20 Latvian scientists and researchers participated in the development of the Circular Economy Index.

The essence of the index is to assess the overall situation using the weighted average method. It is based on three key data sets. First is self-assessment of local governments, a questionnaire filled out by all Latvian local governments. Second, a representative population survey to determine how residents evaluate their understanding of the circular economy, how they pursue it in their daily lives, and thus also to assess whether residents understand and are engaged in their municipalities’ efforts.