Neither is behavioural change a straight path, which you can travel with seven-mile boots. It is a winding road, which – with any luck –  you stumble along. This was our vision when developing the Learning Movement of Rotterdam Circular.

The assignment is: write and implement a communication strategy that promotes behavioural change that contributes to a circular economy. So that the three main target groups (entrepreneurs, residents and civil servants) are enabled to contribute to: working sustainably, producing sustainably, buying and owning less & sustainably, throwing away less & sustainably. In other words: Re-think, re-fuse, re-duce, re-use, re-furbish, re-pair, re-purpose & rot.

This was a co-creation with Diana van Ewijk, communication strategist Rotterdam Circulair, Tanja Oosterveld, organisational advisor to the Municipality of Rotterdam, Eline Lagendijk, programme manager Rotterdam Circulair and a large group of other municipal officials and people in the city involved in Rotterdam Circulair.

A movement helps to discover the way together; from many perspectives, many wisdoms and many disciplines. With our communication strategy, soon renamed by colleagues and ourselves ‘The Movement Strategy’ and later ‘The Learning Movement’, we shape Rotterdam Circular as a movement, with people inside and outside the municipal organisation, city-wide and at neighbourhood level. In order to contribute to: a greener, more sustainable, more affordable, economically resilient, healthier and cleaner Rotterdam.