A methodological proposal for developing a Municipality Indicator of Circular Economy (MICE)

The multidimensional nature of Circular Economy (CE) has been investigated by using composite indicators including variables that sometimes can be assumed only indirectly related to the concept of CE. This paper defines a new composite indicator based exclusively on environmental variables, grouped into the five areas of green enterprise, sustainable mobility, sustainable energy, biodiversity, emissions and pollution and applicable to local territories such as municipalities. Our Municipal Indicator of Circular Economy (MICE) is then tested on the 329 municipalities of Emilia- Romagna region (Italy). Based on our results, MICE detects circularity patterns at local level; moreover, we observe that small municipalities tend to be slower in adopting CE practices, while large municipalities are more proactive and perform better under the different environmental dimensions of CE. Our results confirm what has been found in previous studies, i.e. that CE is linked with industrial specialization.