NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Cities–home to half the world’s population–are already ahead of national governments in meeting goals to cut carbon emissions. Many are now also beginning to think about one of the next steps in sustainability: building a “circular economy,” one that is restorative and regenerative by design.

Google is trying to help lead that push. For the last two years, the tech company has been working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization focused on building the circular economy, to figure out how it can embed circularity into its own organization–and how digital technology can help others, particularly cities, make the transition to a circular economy.

“I think for us, because the circular economy framework is a systems approach, it fits very well with how we think at Google,” says Kate Brandt, lead for sustainability at Google. “We’re very much systems thinkers.”