Advancing the Circular Economy through Planning, Programs, and Policy

Participants will learn how to forge intersectional partnerships and strategies that advance the circular economy and shared goals around climate action, private sector ESG commitments, landfill diversion, affordable housing, and community heritage.

In 2019, the City of San Antonio adopted SA Climate Ready, its first climate action and adaptation plan. A major strategy in the plan is to Advance the Circular Economy. Because landfill waste is a major contributor to the municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory, the City has invested in innovative policies and programs to reduce consumption, minimize waste, and encourage material reuse. The city’s goal, like many across the world, is to reach net zero emissions by 2050.  ReWorksSA, a commercial waste reduction program, rewards businesses for reducing commercial waste sent to landfills as well as for implementing other sustainability initiatives.  With a goal of reaching a 60% recycling rate for residential customers by 2025, the city offers services and incentives such as organics diversion and paying less for a smaller trash cart.  New material reuse policies applied to the local housing construction sector are aimed at preserving quality building materials and community character while reducing landfill waste and promoting circularity.

ReWorksSA, led by the Solid Waste Management Department, launched in 2018 to help the local business community voluntarily start or improve recycling in the workplace. Since its inception, the program has helped companies of all sizes across all industry segments implement best practices in the areas of recycling and composting. In 2021, the program was expanded to include water conservation, energy conservation, renewable energy, transportation and travel efficiencies, and sustainable consumption. Those who meet all or most of the certification requirements for sustainability are recognized with the highest honor called the Pinnacle Award. To date, 152 companies have been recognized at various levels. As Environmental, Sustainability, and Governance commitments are increasingly prioritized for companies, customers, and shareholders, the ReWorksSA program provides a framework for businesses to track their progress while learning successful strategies from peers.  

In 2022, San Antonio became the largest city in the United States to adopt a deconstruction ordinance after more than four years of collaborative, integrative, community-driven work spearheaded by the Office of Historic Preservation. The ordinance ensures that San Antonio's oldest housing stock - if approved for removal - will be dismantled by hand instead of destroyed to maximize material salvage and reuse. To support this policy, the City of San Antonio also launched the Material Innovation Center in 2022. The campus - located within repurposed military housing constructed in the early 1900s at the former Kelly Air Force Base - houses a Material Warehouse, San Antonio Tool Library, and Living Heritage Trades Academy.  Workforce development is a major co-benefit of the program.  

Through these diverse but related initiatives, the Office of Sustainability, Solid Waste Management, and the Office of Historic Preservation are working across departmental lines to create buy-in around the city’s sustainability efforts in their respective areas of influence. San Antonio's prioritization of the circular economy through planning, programs and policy is a groundbreaking example of a municipality's work to advance shared goals through intersectional partnerships resulting in greater community impact that extends well beyond the typical regulatory role of a city.