Healthy soils provide the foundation for life on our planet, and yet most agriculture degrades soil. Nurturing soil should be at the top of all our priority lists, and Louis De Jaeger —author of the new book ‘SOS: Save Our Soils, How regenerative farming can save your health and the planet’ — helps us understand why it’s so important, and what we can do about it. Louis says his life mission is to regenerate 550 million hectares of land, to cool down the planet, save biodiversity, end hunger, and...
Aug 16, 2025•56 min
We dig into the complexities of textile recycling with Patrik Frisk , who is working to create a circular economy for textile-to-textile polyester regeneration. Patrik is the CEO of Reju , a recent startup enabling polyester to be recycled at speed and scale. Patrik has over thirty years’ experience of working in the apparel and footwear industries for globally recognised brands, joining Reju after 5 years as CEO at Under Armour. Patrik has extensive experience in textiles, including senior lead...
Aug 02, 2025•58 min
It’s episode 162 – we’re discussing design skills and why it’s crucial that design for circularity goes beyond the design of the product itself, to cover the materials, the customer experience, the supply chain, the collection of data for KPIs, and much more. Helping us think about this are Rachel Bronstein , a Senior Programme Manager at the Design Council , and Barry Waddilove , who is supporting the Design Council’s “Design for Planet” initiative as a Sustainable Design Expert. The Design Cou...
Jul 19, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Dan Vukelich, President of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors , has spent 25 years campaigning and working to encourage reuse and remanufacturing of ‘single use’ medical devices, first in the USA and now in Europe and other countries. To give you a feel for the scale of this, in 2024, over 55 million single-use devices were reprocessed and reused across 17 countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. By doing that, hospitals saved the equivalent of over USD 450 million. The i...
Jul 05, 2025•52 min
One of recurring themes in the new edition of A Circular Economy Handbook (to be published in November 2025) is the importance of systems thinking and systems design. I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s book, This is Strategy, and he says successful strategies depend on two things: being conscious of the change we seek to make and the systems that can amplify or impede our progress. In other words, we must make sure we understand the different systems affecting the things we want to change. There can...
Jun 24, 2025•35 min
Kyle Wiens is the co-founder of iFixit , the international repair community known for open-source repair manuals and product teardown. Kyle is also one of my circular economy heroes! Since it started back in 2003, iFixit has empowered hundreds of millions of people to repair their broken stuff. Kyle led the international coalition that legalized Right to Repair, has testified before the US Congress and the International Trade Commission, and he is helping to develop global environmental standard...
Jun 07, 2025•31 min
Compostify makes truly home-compostable plant pots and other bioplastic solutions designed to nourish the earth. Its products naturally break down without leaving harmful residues, and Compostify says this packaging enriches the planet, rather than polluting it. Steve Wilson is the Co-founder and CEO of Compostify, with a background in scaling technology businesses. Steve is applying his expertise in innovation, partnerships, and market expansion to make compostable packaging a mainstream realit...
May 24, 2025•36 min
Liz Bui takes us behind the scenes at Yulex , a material science company that’s replacing extremely useful, but problematic petroleum-based products with natural rubber alternatives. Liz Bui is Chief Executive Officer at YULEX, based in the USA. She began her career in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry where she spent 20 years in senior roles. On top of managing all operational and business matters at YULEX, Liz is an intellectual property and transactional lawyer, a PhD scientist an...
May 10, 2025•57 min
We zoom out to the economy part of the circular economy to talk about the Post Growth concept with Marcus Feldthus . Together with Oscar Haumann, Marcus founded the Post Growth Guide back in 2023, as a learning space for people who want to understand the social and planetary boundaries so as to make real sustainability strategies, avoiding greenwashing, going beyond compliance, and leading the way forward for their business and wider industry. The platform has a growing membership community and ...
Apr 26, 2025•53 min
Martin Tomitsch and Steve Baty have written a brilliant book called Designing Tomorrow: strategic design tactics to change your practice, organization and planetary impact , published earlier this year. Martin Tomitsch is a Professor and Head of the Transdisciplinary School at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). As a design academic and educator, Martin advocates for the transformative power of design to envision speculative futures and drive positive change. He has written lots of academ...
Apr 12, 2025•57 min
Loic Le Fouest is a leading expert in Customer Experience (CX) with a strong track record of driving customer-centric transformation across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. As the head of the CX practice at Clarasys in the UK, Loic helps organisations design customer experiences that drive loyalty, innovation, and sustainable business growth. Clarasys describes itself as The Experience Consultancy — employee-owned, purpose-driven, and dedicated to helping organisations create bet...
Mar 30, 2025•49 min
We hear insights from Anette Timmer of DESSO by Tarkett, a leading carpet brand that was an early adopter of circular economy principles. Anette Timmer began her journey with DESSO almost 18 years ago, and has played a central role in the business’ transition to a circular economy model. Anette helps to bridge the gap between the vision and execution of circular transformation, using marketing and communications to educate audiences about circularity; develop stakeholder trust and transparency; ...
Mar 16, 2025•50 min
Markus Terho tells us about the Lifestyle Test, a web-based app for anyone who’s concerned about global warming and wants to be a part of the solution by adopting a positive and sustainable lifestyle. It’s already available in 10 countries across the EU and has 350,000 users. Markus describes himself as a corporate responsibility veteran, with over three decades in the industry. He is the CEO of Sparkter, a boutique sustainability consultancy to help simplify and make sense of sustainability. Be...
Mar 02, 2025•56 min
Clarissa Morawski, CEO of Reloop Platform works with governments, industry stakeholders and NGOs to develop policies for a packaging circular economy. Clarissa brings nearly 30 years of technical, analytical and communications experience in waste reduction operations and policies. She started her own consulting business in 1998 and co-founded the Reloop Platform in 2015. As CEO, Clarissa works with stakeholders and partners to develop smart, practical and effective policy frameworks and operatio...
Feb 16, 2025•46 min
I’ve been reflecting on what’s come up over the last series, in episodes 141 to 149. How do we create the conditions for our ideas to spread? Do we fully understand the systems that circular products or services will be embedded in or affected by, how those work, and what keeps them going? It’s likely there will be multiple systems, and some of these will be cultural, invisible and hard to disrupt. How much can you change? Could you create a new system that integrates with what’s already there? ...
Feb 02, 2025•45 min
Giulia Ziino is a co-founder of CircularPlace, a digital platform that helps organizations generate value by reusing and repurposing underutilized products and equipment. These services are needed more than ever, by a wide range of organizations. The pandemic, working from home and now hybrid working upturned the entire concept of workspaces, and organizations need to resize, relocate or restructure on a regular basis. That usually means changing office layouts. Manufacturing businesses may need...
Jan 19, 2025•44 min
Tim Forslund works on the circular economy at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. As a key part of his work at Sitra, Tim has analysed how circular economy strategies can help tackle biodiversity loss, including through the circular bioeconomy. We’ll be talking about Sitra’s latest handbook for businesses, CIRCULAR SOLUTIONS FOR NATURE, which helps companies aiming to integrate circular business models into their operations so they can address biodiversity loss. Sitra’s handbook includes a primer...
Jan 05, 2025•47 min
Dr Alexandra Leeper, the CEO of the Iceland Ocean Cluster is passionate about the sustainable use of ocean resources. She’s working as a scientist intrapreneur in the blue and circular economies, drawing on diverse experiences from working all over the world in universities, consultancies, and at sea. Alexandra has a background in marine resources and completed an industrial doctorate in aquaculture and circular economy in 2021. Her work focuses on sustainable value creation, positive impact in ...
Dec 15, 2024•49 min
Entrepreneur Dr. Monika Hauck is tapping into the emotional charge we feel after getting something repaired, and using that to revolutionize how we choose and care for our clothing and accessories. Dr. Monika Hauck is the founder of Repair Rebels, a digital B2C & B2B fashion repair platform that’s a pioneer solution in the German market, with a goal is to make textile and shoe repairs digital, convenient and fashionable! Repair Rebels started in 2021, and has already won numerous prestigious...
Dec 01, 2024•49 min
Evolena de Wilde d’Estmael is co-founder & CEO of Faircado, a Berlin-based startup that provides the first AI-powered second-hand shopping assistant in Europe. Faircado’s technology helps people find the best second-hand alternatives to what they are searching for online. Driven by the mission to reduce global waste and support the shift to a circular economy, Faircado’s goal is to help make second-hand goods the first choice for consumers. Evolena was born in Belgium and is proud to be an i...
Nov 17, 2024•45 min
Chris Allen, Sustainability Leader and Head of Circular Business Development at Decathlon UK. You’ve probably heard of Decathlon, which is the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, with over 1,700 stores in more than 70 countries. It’s a family-owned company, founded in 1976, and inspired by the belief that the best sports products should be accessible to everyone. Chris Allen has 15 Years experience in Decathlon spanning various retail management roles, including several years in Category Ma...
Nov 03, 2024•55 min
Michael Colarossi of Avery Dennison explains how Digital Product Passports can be a key enabler in the transition to a circular economy. Michael is head of Enterprise Sustainability at Avery Dennison, which specializes in global materials science and digital identification solutions. As part of the the leadership team, Michael is responsible for environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy across the company’s worldwide operations. His work focuses on climate action, decarbonization, glob...
Oct 19, 2024•50 min
Anna De Matos is the founder of several community-focused sharing initiatives, and a force of nature. Originally from Brazil, Anna De Matos went to university in the UK and moved to Iceland in 2017. Inspired by a visit to Toronto's tool library, Anna started a tool library and repair café, and managed to bootstrap and crowdfund her way to establishing these – all whilst dealing with the serious challenges of autoimmune disease. Anna has degrees in Conservation and Restoration and is now channell...
Oct 05, 2024•43 min
Joel Tasche founded CleanHub, a Berlin-based company that provides a scalable solution to plastic pollution. CleanHub connects coastal communities to proper waste collection in places where that doesn’t exist, at the same time creating safe and dignified jobs. Brands can support the mission by funding the collection of waste that otherwise wouldn’t be collected. CleanHub accepts ALL types of plastic – not just the stuff that’s easy to turn into value. CleanHub’s AI technology tracks the entire p...
Sep 21, 2024•51 min
Are we focused on adding more fuel to get the circular economy going – when, really, the problem is too much friction?Those terms stuck with me a few years ago, from a book helping people to get new ideas going, and succeeding, by looking more closely at the 'frictions' that create resistance. The book, The Human Element is written by organisational psychologist Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal, a specialist in entrepreneurship, design, and innovation.They say that most people working to creat...
Sep 07, 2024•46 min
Peter McCafferty works on Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support Service (CEBS). These services were launched back in 2017, and since then, Peter has worked with over 200 SMEs and large organisations, so he’s got a wealth of experience and insights to share with us, especially on the fuel and friction around the circular economy. Zero Waste Scotland is a not-for-profit environmental organisation funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund. Its pu...
Aug 24, 2024•50 min
Award-winning documentary film maker Rubén Abruña helps us dig into one of the oldest problems in civil society… All around the world, there are serious problems caused by the various ways we deal with our toilet waste – all the poop and pee we humans create every day. We waste drinking water - Flushing toilets use massive amounts of water – for example, in a country like Switzerland, each person will flush over 40 litres a day down the toilet. Often, the sewage from water toilets is mixed with ...
Aug 10, 2024•1 hr
Prof. Dr. Martin Stuchtey - a geologist, economist and entrepreneur - is challenging and helping to rethink industrial, farming and economic systems. He founded The Landbanking Group, a Nature Fintech aiming to bring natural capital onto our balance sheets in service of the Paris and Montreal agreements. Dr. Martin Stuchtey is a former Senior and Managing Partner at McKinsey & Co., where he co-founded and led the global sustainability activities. He then founded systems change company SYSTEM...
Jul 27, 2024•1 hr 4 min
There is a simple solution to conserve, and reuse, more of the nutrients from food waste. In today’s episode, I’m talking to Julia Brenner, a soil scientist and co-founder of Melta, a company dedicated to transforming waste management and soil health. Julia and her business partner founded Melta in 2020, to solve two interconnected challenges faced by rural municipalities: the lack of accessible and cost-effective food waste solutions, and the difficulty of transporting organic fertilizers to re...
Jul 13, 2024•54 min
Tuomo Laine is the CEO and co-founder of Twice Commerce, which provides software to help its clients unlock a range of circular business models. Tuomo is known for being straightforward and action-oriented, and for his dedication to using entrepreneurship for societal good. He is a member of the Unreasonable Group Fellowship, and is occasionally invited to lecture at Aalto University, to share his venture building experiences. Twice Commerce's mission is to uncouple economic growth from the extr...
Jun 29, 2024•37 min
