In 2015, the city took its first steps to creating a stronger more circular economy by completing a pioneering Circle City Scan. Taking into consideration Glasgow’s economic and political landscape, the scan mapped the city’s resource flows from consumption to waste. As a result, three leading sectors through which the city’s economy could become more ‘circular’ were identified: healthcare, education and manufacturing.

Manufacturing was chosen as our first sector and, given the city’s heritage, the food and beverage industry was established as a starting point to implement circular innovations and create learnings to carry into future projects in an easy to understand way. As a result, a number of practical and scalable pilot projects were identified, including the creation of a new local beer made from leftover morning bread rolls.

The construction, finance, events, tourism and creative sectors have since been added.