Towards City 5.0: Building Resilient Communities Through the Interplay of Circular Economy, Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains, and Reverse Logistics

The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (S.D.G.s) acknowledge cities as powerhouses of economic growth as evidenced by their contributions to global G.D.P. However, cities nevertheless contribute to 70 per cent of global carbon emissions and over 60 per cent of resource use and are still vulnerable to uncertainties, such as the recent impact of COVID-19. Concepts such as reverse logistics (R.L.) and circular economy (C.E.) sustainable and resilient supply chain (S.R.S.C.) could leverage the transition to sustainable and resilient cities and communities. Therefore, this chapter provides a broad overview of these concepts, highlighting how integrating these concepts, principles, and practices could act as a catalyst for building sustainable and resilient communities. Synergies are highlighted among the practices, principles, and concepts. The chapter explores how the synergistic application of these concepts leads to sustainable communities and cities that thrive on uncertainties, thus seeing them as opportunities rather than threats. In identifying the challenges and risks associated with building resilient communities, this chapter discusses how the concepts of C.E., R.L., and S.R.S.C. come together. Incorporating the resilience concept into sustainable supply chain design and vice versa has been critical to ensuring greater preparedness for the unexpected. The outcome of this chapter is a conceptual framework that describes the mechanisms for integrated circular business models, sustainable and resilient supply chains, and reverse logistics that could be used for the conceptualization of the three concepts (C.E., S.R.S.C. and R.L.) to the sustainable cities and communities attributes. The proposed conceptual framework will provide practitioners and policymakers with a reference model for assessing uncertainties and challenges to achieve the targets set out in S.D.G.s 11. Further, the Circular Business Models (C.B.M.) value propositions at the asset end-of-life stage, and reverse logistics could be used in addressing the key challenges and uncertainties facing resilient communities.