Our impact

How we’re making a difference for London and beyond

ReLondon is a purpose-led organisation: our vision focuses ultimately on the climate emergency and how changing the way we consume ‘stuff’ can, and must, make a huge difference – not just on waste volumes but also on greenhouse gas emissions and the ability of our planet to keep providing for us all.

Our latest impact report is a powerful presentation of evidence for the positive impact we had during the 2023-24 financial year to accelerate the transition to a low carbon circular economy in London and beyond.

We aim to achieve impact across four pillars, which cover our main audiences and areas of work:

Pillar 1 Building evidence to inspire action
Evidence and inspiration

We produce research and data to help ourselves and others build interventions to effectively tackle waste and climate change. This includes running pilots to test innovative ways of building a low carbon, circular city and sharing the results through insightful publications, engaging webinars and inspiring events.

Pillar 2 Equipping local authorities to embed circular practices
Local authorities

We provide one-to-one and one-to-many advisory support to local authorities. We also produce toolkits, case studies and assets to help them reduce waste, boost recycling and create more resilient communities.

Pillar 3 Empowering businesses to grow the circular economy
Businesses

We collaborate with London-based business to empower systems change. Plus, we run an award-winning programme of funded support for the capital’s innovative small and medium-sized businesses who want to tackle the climate emergency by using or scaling circular business models.

Pillar 4 Encouraging Londoners to embrace circular lifestyles
Citizens

We design, build and deliver powerful behaviour change campaigns and interventions to help citizens waste less, change the way they consume, and reduce their impact on the planet.

Our focus on circular economy and consumption-based emissions

45% of damaging global greenhouse gas emissions come from all the food, materials and products that we make, use and consume every day.

To avert the climate emergency, we need to reduce our consumption-based emissions and transform how we make, use and dispose of ‘stuff’. We must reduce waste, increase recycling, and improve resource efficiency – we need a global shift to a circular economy.

We engage with business, local and regional government, and citizens and communities to tackle waste systemically at points much higher up the hierarchy, not just as an inevitable output of an economy focused on consumption.

2023-24 in numbers

38
pilots and demonstration projects delivered in collaboration with local government, architects, universities and business innovators
83 %
of local authorities who engaged with our work say it has enhanced their knowledge and competencies to take actions
199
businesses supported to adopt or scale circular business models with our team giving 425 hours of advice, training and brokerage across the year
91 %
of surveyed shoppers at our Love Not Landfill pop-up shop feeling encouraged to shop second-hand more frequently following their visit

“I am so excited to have become the new Chair of ReLondon and am already excited to build on and showcase the innovation and best practice happening within waste authorities, businesses and the waste sector that deliver against the ambition for a zero waste London.

ReLondon, as a partnership between the Mayor of London and the London boroughs continues to sit at the heart of this aim, and the work they do will continue to grow in importance.

We look forward to building on these achievements, and working with existing and new partners and continuing to demonstrate the critical role of cities in the global circular economy.”

Mete Coban, Board Chair, ReLondon & Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy