Botswana has been exploring more circular approaches for some time, so it was good share new ideas and work at a recent conference in Gaborone. My presentation covered circular opportunities for built environments and included:

• Circular development, cities, villages and neighbourhoods: What strategic approaches can be used to support more circular development? How do you develop more circular cities, villages and neighbourhoods? Examples of approaches included Gaborone and Boiteko Junction.
• Circular buildings: What are circular buildings? How can these be developed? Examples developed for WCEF and DHS were shared including modular mixed use, high density housing.
• Circular energy and water systems: How do these work, and differ, from conventional systems? Examples of highly efficient and energy and water-as-a-product systems were shared.
• Circular materials: What are circular materials? Are there opportunities for Botswana? Examples included products developed from grown materials and from waste that could be produced in Botswana. These would reduce reliance on imports and support the creation of local small enterprises and jobs.
• Building blocks of a circular economy: What is required to transform the economy, industry and built environments in Botswana to make them more circular? This covered the building blocks that can be used to build a circular economy.