海角视频

San Diego County is rethinking waste – not as an endpoint, but as an economic resource. In partnership with 海角视频, the County is advancing a Circular Economy Assessment and Roadmap that reframes climate action through jobs, equity, and long鈥憈erm regional prosperity. 

For decades, climate action at the local level has focused on emissions targets, waste diversion rates, and incremental efficiency gains. But as regions grapple with affordability crises, supply鈥慶hain volatility, and widening inequities (alongside accelerating climate risk), those tools are no longer enough on their own. 

San Diego County is testing a different approach. Through its Circular Economy Assessment and Roadmap, titled , the County is reframing materials not as liabilities to be managed, but as assets that can power economic development, workforce opportunity, and regenerative environmental outcomes. Led by 海角视频 as part of the County鈥檚 broader sustainability and social equity framework, the initiative connects climate action to the everyday systems that shape regional prosperity: construction, textiles, food, manufacturing, and the built environment. 

Rather than producing a high鈥憀evel vision that lives on a shelf, the roadmap is grounded in material flow analysis, policy alignment, and extensive community engagement. It asks practical questions: Where does value leak out of the regional economy today? Which materials and sectors offer the greatest opportunity for reuse and regeneration? And how can counties use procurement power, infrastructure investment, and partnerships to turn circularity into a durable economic engine? 

In conversation with Kathleen Hetrick, Circular Design Lead, US, Luke Lombardi, Associate Structural Engineer and Sustainability Consultant, and Amy Stanfield, Graduate Sustainability Consultant | Strategy and Policy, of 海角视频鈥檚 advisory teams, we explore why San Diego鈥檚 timing matters, what surprised the team most in the data, and how this work reflects a broader shift in how regions across the U.S. are approaching climate action – not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for long鈥憈erm value creation. 

What motivated San Diego County to pursue a Circular Economy Assessment and Roadmap now? Why is circularity such a critical piece of climate action at the regional scale? 

Kathleen Hetrick: What鈥檚 striking about circular economy work is that it鈥檚 deeply place鈥憇pecific. Every city or county comes to circularity for different reasons. In San Diego鈥檚 case, this conversation grew out of economic development – specifically, how to energize local business ecosystems, workforce development, and procurement in a way that benefits communities already doing this work on the ground. 
 

Circularity becomes essential to climate action because so much of a region鈥檚 emissions – particularly Scope 3 – are embedded in materials, supply chains, and waste. When you understand material flows, you鈥檙e not just talking about trash; you鈥檙e talking about housing affordability, logistics, agriculture, embodied carbon, and local jobs. Circularity gives climate policy a tangible, human scale. 

Luke Lombardi: Circular economy is really systems thinking in practice. It asks how we value materials and keep them within the ecosystem that uses them. Counties like San Diego are uniquely positioned to shape those boundary conditions – through policy, procurement, education, and infrastructure – so that resources circulate locally and stimulate small business growth.

Circularity takes climate action out of the abstract and connects it directly to jobs, affordability, and everyday life.

Luke Lombardi
Associate | Building Performance

海角视频 is leading this work as part of the County鈥檚 sustainability and social equity framework. What differentiates your approach from traditional waste or climate planning? 

Kathleen: Traditional waste planning often stops at diversion rates. Climate planning can stay high鈥憀evel. Our approach connects policy to implementation – and asks where opportunity already exists. As engineers and designers, we think about what actually gets built, funded, and maintained. This roadmap isn鈥檛 meant to sit on a shelf. It鈥檚 meant to be actionable, investable, and owned by the County and its partners. 

We also push beyond waste streams to look at partnerships – construction, textiles, food systems, breweries, reuse organizations – and understand what鈥檚 already working in San Diego. Circularity isn鈥檛 theoretical here; it鈥檚 happening. The question is how to scale it equitably. 

Luke: What鈥檚 unique is the combination of deep technical expertise and economic development strategy. We operate at both the macro scale (with policy expertise and development of climate) action plans as well as the micro scale (where we are looking at how materials are deconstructed, reused, or remanufactured for individual projects.) Each provide perspective that’s important to inform a roadmap with the potential to bring real change.

How does this project reflect 海角视频鈥檚 broader leadership in regenerative and circular design across the U.S.? 

Kathleen: This project sits at the intersection of several strands of our work. Circular economy planning emerged from our leadership in embodied carbon, supply chain analysis, and adaptive reuse – across portfolios ranging from higher education to cultural institutions to healthcare. From the New York City Green Economy Action Plan to the SPARC Kips Bay circular construction initiative, from embodied carbon leadership across University of California campuses to large鈥憇cale adaptive reuse projects nationwide, we鈥檝e learned that circularity requires both institutional leverage and grassroots participation. San Diego reflects that synthesis: regional scale, strong policy alignment, and deep community engagement. 

Circularity isn鈥檛 a standalone discipline – it鈥檚 the result of aligning climate policy, supply chains, and human behavior.

Kathleen Hetrick
Circular Design Lead, US

The roadmap aims to move San Diego from a linear economy to a regenerative one. What does a regenerative circular economy look like at the county scale? 

Luke: At its core, circular economy has three principles: eliminate waste, circulate materials, and regenerate nature. That last piece, I feel is often overlooked. At the county scale, regeneration shows up through investments that restore ecological systems, strengthen local economies, and rebuild community connection. That can mean enabling reuse infrastructure, supporting regenerative agriculture, or creating physical spaces where materials (and people) circulate productively. This isn鈥檛 one project. It鈥檚 a network of policies, pilots, and partnerships that reinforce one another. 

Amy Stanfield: Regeneration also has a social dimension. Circular systems create pathways for people to turn hands鈥憃n skills – repair, deconstruction, remanufacturing – into livelihoods. That human regeneration is just as important as material loops. 

How did you integrate existing County frameworks like the Climate Action Plan and the Regional Decarbonization Framework into the roadmap? 

Luke: From day one, alignment mattered. We reviewed existing County plans to ensure circular strategies reinforced ongoing efforts. The strength of circular economy work is that it naturally integrates with elements of carbon reduction, waste diversion, workforce development, public health, and equity. This roadmap builds on what already has momentum inside the County, translating high鈥憀evel climate goals into sector鈥憇pecific actions with measurable co鈥慴enefits. 

What stood out in the material flow analysis and how did those insights shape your recommendations? 

Kathleen Construction and demolition materials were a major opportunity, particularly materials like carpet and gypsum that are technically recyclable but not currently captured at scale. Textiles, both organic and synthetic, also represent a significant untapped resource. We also saw clear demand for better systems around electronics reuse and food recovery. In many cases, the issue isn鈥檛 interest; it鈥檚 infrastructure, permitting, and upfront cost barriers for small organizations. That insight directly informed our focus on shared facilities and coordinated investment. 

Which circular interventions rose to the top? Why? 

Luke: Reuse and innovation hubs consistently surfaced as high鈥慽mpact, feasible interventions. They’re exciting because they can close multiple loops at once: workforce training, material recovery, policy compliance, and market creation. Successful examples exist in cities like Portland, Charlotte, and San Antonio. What makes San Diego compelling is the opportunity to tailor that model to local industries, communities, and scale. 

How did community engagement influence the roadmap鈥檚 direction? 

Amy: Community input consistently pushed us beyond narrow definitions of waste. Residents and organizations talked about repair, sharing, food access, education, and dignity. 

Those conversations shifted priorities – highlighting the need for neighborhood鈥憀evel access points, educational pipelines starting early, and strategies that support existing grassroots organizations rather than replacing them. 

What does success look like for San Diego鈥檚 circular economy in five years? Ten years? 

尝耻办别:听Success means sustained investment over time. In five years, that might look like a handful of聽high鈥憊isibility聽pilots proving聽what鈥檚聽possible. In ten years,聽it鈥檚聽a fundamentally聽different way聽of doing business聽with systems setup to make reuse more of the default,聽rather than the exception.

Kathleen Hetrick: Measurable outcomes: hundreds of new jobs, thriving small businesses, adaptive reuse projects across the region, and real trust that public investment is delivering community benefit. 

Which elements of this roadmap could serve as a national model? 

碍补迟丑濒别别苍:听The roadmap is intentionally transferable.聽Its聽approach is designed to work for counties of聽different sizes, political contexts, and resource levels- but the sector of focus and implementation is inherently local. By tying circularity to economic prosperity聽–聽not ideology聽–聽it becomes relevant well beyond coastal metros.聽

What role do designers, developers, and built environment leaders play in the circular transition? 

Amy: They鈥檙e critical. Circularity requires designers and engineers to rethink value – seeing existing buildings, materials, and communities as assets. When those professionals lead, policy and markets follow.