Steering systems change through data science and innovation.
Projects
Our work spans a range of economic sectors, including cities and regions, the built environment, and high-impact industries such as food, chemicals, and textiles.
- All
- Agrifood
- Built environment
- Chemicals
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
- Climate change
- Economics
- Energy
- Industries
- Metrics & Tools
- Products and Services
- Technologies
- Textiles
- Water
- Cities and Regions
Circular area development in the Achtersluispolder
Transforming an industrial site into a circular, energy-neutral, mixed-use neighborhood.
- Built environment
- Cities and Regions
New strategy for raw material management in the Southern Region of Denmark
Striving for sustainability across the entire value chain
- Cities and Regions
- Industries
Mapping the flow of textiles in the Central Region of Denmark
Identifying public solutions for a more circular textiles system.
- Circular Economy
- Products and Services
Recycling Unpacked
Exploring the potential for a fully circular beverage packaging sector in the US: focusing on aluminum cans, glass bottles, and PET plastic bottles.
- Circular Economy
- Metrics & Tools
The alternative materials tool
Developed with WWF Singapore, a science-based software tool that guides businesses towards the most sustainable packaging decisions.
- Agrifood
- Circular Economy
Towards a circular agri-food system in the Baltic
Analyzing nitrogen and phosphorus flows in the Baltic Sea catchment area to identify key opportunities for nutrient capture and reuse.
- Circular Economy
- Metrics & Tools
Improving purchasing procedures for circular IT
This guide for Rijkswaterstaat evaluated purchasing criteria for IT equipment, aiming to reduce environmental impacts through a circular economy approach.
- Chemicals
- Energy
Hychain: Analysis of hydrogen technologies for production
Improving the implementation of green hydrogen by evaluating supply chain technologies for industrial production and manufacturing.
- Institute
- Metrics & Tools
Materiom: Open-source knowledge platform for nature-based materials
Providing open data on how to make materials that nourish local economies and ecologies, using abundant local biomass ingredients.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
A waste analysis of the Capital Region of Denmark
Mapping material flows and environmental impacts to identify hotspots and circular opportunities in the Danish waste system.
- Economics
- Institute
DLT4EU: Using blockchain technology for public good
Piloting a European ecosystem of distributed ledger technologies for social and public good.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Circular Boulder: Pioneering towards a zero waste and climate neutral city
Co-creating a vision and roadmap for circularity in collaboration with the U.S. city of Boulder.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Assessing all materials consumed for building in the Netherlands
Mapping the Dutch construction sector with the goal to become 100% circular by 2050, analyzing material flows, environmental impact, energy use.
- Climate change
- Economics
Systems modeling for measuring financial risks to ocean assets
Exploring sustainability pressures and financial risks to the Blue Economy with WWF, using a systems modeling approach in the Baltic Sea.
- Metrics & Tools
One Planet Approaches: A guide to setting science-based targets
Produced with WWF, a quick reference guide for organizations beginning the journey towards setting science-based targets.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
REFLOW: Designing circular resource flows in European cities
Creating a blueprint for the management of critical urban flows, fast-tracking the transition toward circular and regenerative cities.
- Agrifood
- Institute
FOODE: Creating sustainable food systems for European cities
Prototyping citizen-centered urban agrifood systems, to plant the seeds for the sustainable food solutions of the future.
- Circular Economy
- Energy
Critical metal demand for electric vehicle production
Analysis of critical metals demand for electric vehicles, and recommendations on how to make the transition to sustainable and fair transport.
- Metrics & Tools
Ecological footprint of the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency
Analyzing the ecological footprint of the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI), to realize efficiency and environmental impact goals.
- Agrifood
- Climate change
EIT Climate-KIC: Food Value Chains Strategy
Helping Europe’s largest public-private climate innovation initiative tackle carbon emissions and climate resilience in the food system.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Dordrecht: Identifying circular business cases for the city
A material flow analysis of Dordrecht's construction and manufacturing sectors, to identify circular opportunities and business cases.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
PlastiCity: Replicable models to increase plastic recycling
Working with partners to map waste flows and develop new value chains, to increase plastics recycling rates in selected urban environments.
- Cities and Regions
- Climate change
Strategies for smart integrated decentralised energy systems
Analyzing Smart Integrated Decentralised Energy (SIDE) systems to realize the renewable energy transition by increasing flexibility from the bottom-up.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Eindhoven Internationale Knoop XL: Circular area development
Creating a circular urban development plan for the Internationale Knoop XL district in the Dutch city of Eindhoven to be sustainable from the outset.
- Circular Economy
- Metrics & Tools
Measuring climate-neutral and circular public procurement
In line with Dutch policy ambitions, Metabolic was commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat to map various instruments and frameworks for measuring the impact of Green Public Procurement.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
REPAiR: Geo-design tool for urban waste and resource management
A new geo-design tool - REPAiR reveals local, spatially specific challenges of waste and resource management using life cycle analyses (LCA) and urban metabolism.
- Circular Economy
- Water
Vitens: Circularity in drinking water production
Mapping the material flows and waste valorization strategies of Spannenburg - Vitens' biggest production facility - to identify opportunities for industrial symbiosis and circularity.
- Circular Economy
- Energy
Critical metal demand for the renewable energy transition
Analyzing the supply chain dynamics of wind turbines and solar panels to identify whether current global supply of critical metals is sufficient to meet growing renewable energy demands.
- Agrifood
Alpro: Setting science-based targets for nature
This pilot project pioneered development of science-based targets for plant-based food and drink producer Alpro’s almond and soya supply chain.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Guidelines for achieving circularity in regional value chains
Developing a roadmap for building circular value chains across multiple regions in Europe, focusing on identifying local circular economy potential and cross-regional synergies.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Charlotte: Becoming a zero waste and inclusive city
A circular vision and strategy to help North Carolina's City of Charlotte - the first US city to commit to a circular transition - to tackle waste and poverty.
- Textiles
Analyzing the textile materials flows of Taiwan
A detailed analysis of Taiwan's textile flows, informing a holistic vision and progress roadmap for how the Taiwanese textiles sector could transition to circularity.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular DGTL festival: Analyzing waste, water, and energy flows
For a second year running Metabolic teamed up with DGTL to map the festival's material, waste, water, and energy flows and identify intervention points for circularity.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Rotterdam: New jobs in a zero waste economy
A circular economy strategy for Rotterdam, informing the city's efforts to create 3,500 to 7,000 new jobs and reduce material consumption by 50% by 2030.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Monitoring circularity in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam
Developing a monitoring framework to track progress towards a circular economy in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular North-Netherlands: A vision and roadmap for a circular economy
A vision and roadmap for transitioning to a circular economy in the provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland.
- Chemicals
- Circular Economy
Industrial symbiosis between the steel and chemicals industries
Assessing the implications of CO recycling for Europe, specifically with regards to reducing carbon emissions and meeting European chemical demands sustainably.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Vlieland: Sustainability on the Frisian Islands
Metabolic and partners analyzed the material, water, nutrients and energy resource flows of Vlieland island and developed a roadmap for circularity.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
City of Amsterdam: Circular building tendering for sustainable innovation
Metabolic and SGS Search have developed circular tendering procedures that are helping municipalities, developers and construction companies to embed sustainable innovation.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Circular tendering for new social housing projects
Metabolic and SGS Search developed a set of key performance indicators for housing through a series of workshops.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Circular Amersfoort: Urban mining potential in the built environment
An analysis of material flows in Amersfoort, to help inform the municipality's goals to close material cycles in its built environment.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Amsterdam: Spatial analysis for effective city planning
Spatial analysis to examine how Amsterdam's circular economy goals and achievements can be strengthened by considering neighborhood characteristics.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
DGTL Festival: Zero waste strategy
Helping DGTL festival to transition to becoming waste-free, and creating tools other festivals can adopt to move to circularity.
- Agrifood
- Circular Economy
A circular vision for Northeast Brabant’s food system
Working with the Dutch province of Northeast Brabant to explore dynamics within regional agriculture activities and circular interventions.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Delfland Circulair
Metabolic advised the Delfland Water Board on the creation of a closed-loop system, to become more self-sufficient in terms of energy, water, and materials.
- Agrifood
WWF: An Analysis of the Global Food System
Analysing the current state, behaviours and global trends, key impacts and challenges, and a holistic outlook for a sustainable global food system.
- Industries
- Metrics & Tools
WWF: One Planet Approaches
Evaluating models and methodologies for identifying key tipping points and translating global or regional boundaries down to company or sector levels.
- Circular Economy
- Cities and Regions
Circular Friesland
Metabolic is a strategic partner of the Province of Fryslân, with whom we work to develop a circular economy in the region.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Prospecting the Urban Mines of Amsterdam
A method to assess the metal contents of residential buildings in Amsterdam, bringing the city one step closer to a circular construction sector.
- Agrifood
Leveraging consumer behaviour to transform the food system
Identifying strategic ways to shift consumer behaviors in relation to the food system and beyond.
- Agrifood
WWF: Systems Thinking on the European Food System
A guidebook applying systems thinking methods to address critical challenges facing the European food system.
- Industries
Smart Freight Centre: An Analysis of the Freight System
Metabolic worked with the Smart Freight Centre (SFC) to bring a systems-thinking perspective to their global freight sector activities, with specific focus on their efforts in Beijing.
- Built environment
Be Happy
Be Happy is a revolutionary housing concept designed to facilitate happiness and wellbeing, and help residents reduce personal ecological impact.
- Agrifood
WWF: Living Planet Report 2016
Metabolic contributed a chapter to WWF's Living Planet Report, focused on understanding root causes, and taking a systemic approach when tackling sustainability challenges.
- Built environment
- Cities and Regions
Schoonschip: A sustainable floating neighborhood
Metabolic developed the sustainability masterplan for a cutting-edge community of floating villas in Amsterdam North.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
Circular Buiksloterham
A vision, roadmap and action plan to transition Buiksloterham - a 100 hectare site in Amsterdam-North - into a fully circular neighborhood.
- Industries
Analyzing Supply Chain Impacts of Electronics
A comprehensive framework and approach to track materials and impacts through an electronic product’s supply chain.
- Circular Economy
- Textiles
C&A: Circular Textiles
A circular economy strategy for C&A, one of Europe’s largest fashion retailers, helping them take steps to achieving a fully closed-loop material cycle with new business opportunities.
- Built environment
- Circular Economy
De Ceuvel: A cleantech playground
De Ceuvel is Amsterdam's circular living lab: a ‘cleantech playground’ with a popular community cafe, living examples of decentralized technologies, and full recycling of local resources.
- Cities and Regions
Mapping total resources consumed for the global economy
A Global Metabolism Flow analysis conducted in 2010 shows that we have extracted an estimated 71,8 billion tonnes of material from the Earth to fuel the global economy.
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