The opportunity: After consulting with local residents and businesses, Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust (HWFI CDT) saw an opportunity to create a vibrant ‘circular high street’ for the local community. ReLondon worked with the CDT to strategically design a first step towards delivering this concept: a circular economy hub.
The response: In December 2023, HWFI CDT launched a physical space (The Loop) to host circular businesses that create more circular choices for businesses, and residents. The space is complemented with activities to stimulate innovation and growth in east London.
The learnings: The Loop offers a replicable example of how repurposing temporary-use spaces (known as ‘meanwhile spaces’) towards circular activities can unlock collaborations between business start-ups and communities and create ripples of positive change.
What was the challenge?
Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust (HWFI CDT) is an organisation dedicated to preserving the rich cultural life of Hackney Wick and Fish Island. One of the key ways they do this is by an ethical community-led landlord that secures buildings for the local area to flourish in the long term.
In 2022, the CDT engaged with 30 local businesses and residents to understand local priorities and inform the focus of their work. Through conversations, they found that the lack of a local high street was negatively affecting local culture, quality of life for residents, and limiting visibility for local businesses. The core thread running through discussions was a unanimous desire to tackle issues of the environment and climate by acting locally.
In parallel, we at ReLondon were hearing from our network of 700+ businesses exploring the circular economy that finding space to carry out circular activities was becoming more difficult. Businesses expressed that, to help sustain and grow their operations, they were looking for ways to share resources, logistics, equipment, facilities and talent – bringing down costs and ramping up their ability to create positive impact.
The stars aligned for ReLondon and HWFI CDT to work together when the CDT identified an opportunity to create a circular economy hub, giving local businesses and people more access to sustainable products and services that reduce their carbon footprint.
Ella Shone, Founder, TOPUP TRUCKCircular economy transition requires small, localised loops and hubs to take off, so small businesses can minimise transportation.
What was the response?
HWFI CDT approached ReLondon to act as strategic partner for the circular economy hub. We worked closely with the CDT to refine the scope of the site, leveraging our network and involving circular economy innovators in the iterative site design so that the hub would meet their needs. We also accompanied the CDT in attracting relevant businesses to the opportunity, operating a structured process that saw over 50 businesses from across east London engaged.
HWFI CDT were able to secure a physical space in Wallis Road, Hackney Wick for the duration of 18 months, to deploy a first iteration of the concept called The Loop. This is being delivered by a consortium of partners: SHIFT London, Plexal, ReLondon and University College of London (UCL); funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UK SPF), and complementary to the Future Industries Demonstrator accelerator programme.
Patrick Scally, Executive Lead, HWFI CDTWe’ve leveraged a broad partner network to get to this point, and I’m thrilled to be part of a movement of organisations, big and small, who want to see a paradigm shift in how business is done in East London.
The Loop hosts the operations of established, circular businesses and connects them with like-minded peers. It offers the space and network for businesses to trial new processes and undertake research and development locally, with support from University College London academics. Conveniently located within a 5 minute walk of Hackney Wick Station, it allows for a range of key processes needed for circular operations – namely, light industrial activities, storage, logistics and also desk/studio space to collaborate with like-minded businesses.
BusinessI think this is a real opportunity to create something innovative and meaningful, which can be scaled in other parts of the UK and internationally.
What are the learnings so far?
This work has helped clarify the CDT’s priority for 2024: namely, to catalyse system-level change and transition the area to a circular economy. As a first-of-its-kind ‘meanwhile’ project, The Loop also offers helpful insights and lessons on how the model might be replicated in other parts of London:
1 – The activities of a physical, circular economy hub should be tailored to the priorities of the people living and working locally.
A structured engagement process with residents and local businesses enabled the Loop to understand what kinds of sustainable products, services and waste-busting alternatives were desirable to the people living and working locally – and these therefore informed which types of circular solutions to prioritise for the space. For example, reducing single-use packaging and plastic came up as a theme from the local community and is a key problem tackled by one tenant, Are You Mad.
On top of ensuring the space will remain relevant for local users, this approach also meant that the Loop was able to tap into the energy and relationships of the local network to enhance the offering at the site– for example greening the space and making vegetation accessible with Growing Concerns’ garden centre. The CDT continues to actively engage the local community through regular cultural interest groups
2 – Circular spaces should be co-designed with potential tenants to be relevant and effective.
Throughout the entire process, circular innovators were asked to feedback on the design of the space through workshops and iterative conversations to ensure the space could accommodate different businesses’ needs and logistics. This was particularly necessary given the sometimes unusual requirements of innovative, circular business models.
Through this process, businesses were able to share their operational challenges, as well as identify opportunities to effectively work together within the space to each scale their circular activities. For example, one tenant (Fantasty Fibre Mill) has partnered with a local business that also addresses fashion textile waste (Yodomo ) to create a demonstrator textile garden, that aims to highlight the often-overlooked connection between textiles and plants and will be a living showcase of plants used in textile production.
3 – The design and scope of the hub should start focused – but be flexible and respond to feedback and interest.
Being specific and upfront about the types of activities the hub can host makes the engagement with circular innovators more straightforward and means that businesses giving up their time towards the project are clearer about what might come out of it. Being narrow about the scope of activities hosted at the site also increases the chances that the space can accommodate the needs of different tenant businesses.
This was especially important in the case of The Loop, which – being in a meanwhile space – needed to develop the site within specific budgetary, time and operational constraints. For example, the scope initially included (re-)processing and transporting of food and organics; however, this was dropped when it became clear that the site wouldn’t be able to safely or practically host these operations without significant investment in changing the layout and securing additional certifications for health and safety.
At the same time, we saw several fashion and creative industry innovators express interest in occupying a more flexible space, which lent itself well to the meanwhile space model. So, when starting a project of this kind, consider what is realistic to do within the space and whether it’s worth designing it with a specific scope or widening the range of activities that can be hosted on site.
4 – Developing a hub as part of a collaborative consortium allows partners to leverage different capabilities and develop a better space.
The Loop leveraged multiple individuals and organisations’ expertise and networks – from circular economy specialists and the business innovators themselves articulating which configuration of facilities would create greatest positive impact for local employment and waste; to architects and workspace operators such as arbeit studios who expertly translated these requirements into a viable, lettable layout.
All the businesses involved in the project also had the opportunity to develop relationships with Hackney Council, Newham Council, LLDC/ SHIFT Future Industries Demonstrator, HWFI CDT, ReLondon and UCL’s academic network. These relationships provide small businesses the access to resources, mentorship, knowledge, networking needed to succeed in early stages.
The Loop is a replicable example of how repurposing physical spaces for circular activities can unlock collaboration between local communities, businesses and public sector organisations, and be fundamental to create systemic change in an urban context. The site continues to develop and reached 100% occupancy three months after first occupation.
The Loop is a demonstrator initiative, and a fantastic example of community-led approach to shaping circular economy neighbourhoods. Learn more about ReLondon’s framework to Circular neighbourhoods and how ReLondon can support you in developing a common vision for a circular economy neighbourhood.
See The Loop in action
Although The Loop is not accessible to the public day-to-day, HWFI CDT and Arbeit will be opening the hub to the public on 19th September. Visitors will be able to connect and visit the studios,, learn about the unique community ownership model behind the project, and engage in an exhibition and workshops. You can find out more here.
