Gary Giles is another entrepreneur inspired by the circular economy. Gary set up his company, OGEL, to use a material that is quite difficult to recycle and very bulky, so transporting it to be recycled is expensive. We’ll hear how Gary was inspired by the modular design of Lego, and how he’s developed a way of constructing durable buildings that use only 3 shapes, are easy to assemble and need very few tools. Plus Gary tells us what a ‘full stop product’ is!
Feb 07, 2021•31 min
Peter is a circular economy coach, workshop facilitator and strategic advisor, and cofounder of the African Circular Economy Network. He helps businesses find circular opportunities, create a compelling business case, and broaden their networks. We hear about some of Peter’s work with SME’s and start-ups, helping them use the circular economy to succeed and prosper.
Jan 24, 2021•34 min
Catherine Weetman talks to Tamsin Chislett, cofounder of fashion subscription startup Onloan, which has grown strongly this year despite lockdown. Onloan is a bit different to other UK fashion rental options because it partners directly with top contemporary fashion brands, and it focuses on 'elevated daywear' rather than occasion wear. Onloan is also different because it does all its garment care and logistics in-house. Onloan offers its customers a way to enjoy all the newness and variety of f...
Jan 10, 2021•39 min
Richard is the Founder and Creative Director of the Biomimicry Innovation Lab, with a mission to inspire and share how the natural world can deliver unique solutions by radically reducing the need for resources. Richard kindly wrote a brilliant piece on Biomimicry for the 2nd edition of Catherine’s Circular Economy Handbook. We talk about different aspects of biomimicry and how it can inform the design of objects, systems and much more, including Structure and materials, Swarm behaviour, 3D Prin...
Dec 20, 2020•40 min
Brian Bauer explores how we can use circular approaches for plastic packaging, so we get the benefits of plastic, without the impacts of mismanaged plastic waste. Brian works with Algramo, a Chilean startup that refills product by the gram from vending machines. These refills provide better value for money as well as offering convenience and reducing waste. Algramo is working with Unilever, Colgate Palmolive and other brands, and is expanding to the US and Europe. With Algramo, Brian focuses on ...
Dec 06, 2020•35 min
“Have good stuff, not too much, mostly reclaimed, care for it, pass it on”. Catherine Weetman talks to Sandra Goldmark in the United States. Sandra is a designer, teacher, and entrepreneur whose work focuses on circular economy solutions to overconsumption and climate change. She is the author of Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet, published in October 2020. Sandra is also an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Theatre and Director of Sustainability and Climate A...
Nov 22, 2020•41 min
We round up themes from the last nine episodes, exploring how data is the key to solving problems of waste and underused assets, and why aligning values with your customers is important. Plus, Catherine is celebrating publication of the new edition of her award-winning A Circular Economy Handbook, and shares a code so you can save 20 percent on the print or e-book, worldwide.
Nov 08, 2020•34 min
Rob Thompson, of Odyssey Innovation in the UK, is an Multi-award winning Innovator, a Marine Conservationist, and a Social Entrepreneur. Rob started Odyssey Innovation to find a way to create value out of beach litter and marine plastics, and is now recycling those plastics into kayaks and other useful products. Rob also supports the Paddle for Plastic campaign.
Oct 24, 2020•31 min
Zaqiya Cajee is a young entrepreneur in the UK who has set up a not-for-profit scheme. SwopItUp helps young people to swap their fashionable clothes, so they can experiment with different trends, colours, shapes and so on, without being part of the throwaway culture – and save money! We’ll hear how SwopItUp is developing technology to engage users and to help overcome the challenges of distancing during lockdow, to reduce the risk of the virus spreading via the clothes, and to track and analyse ...
Oct 10, 2020•31 min
We talk to Lieke van Kerkhoven, Co-founder of FLOOW2 Healthcare. Lieke aims to drive the global change towards a circular economy, by bringing the innovative concept of sharing to the healthcare sector. FLOOW2 is a business that helps other organisations to share all sorts of resources. It helps ‘intensify’ resource loops, so we can get more use and productivity out of many different kinds of resources, everything from equipment to staff. Back in 2012, FLOOW2 Healthcare became the first sharing ...
Sep 26, 2020•44 min
In this episode, Catherine talks to Dan Dicker,the Founder and CEO of Circular&Co, the new brand name for ashortwalk Ltd and rCUP®. Dan began his career as a product designer at Dyson, but had a strong desire to live and work a short walk from the sea. So, back in 2003, Dan founded a pioneering Circular Design practice ‘ashortwalk’. Now Circular&Co invent solutions that keep our materials and finite resources in use for as long as possible, whilst preventing them from ever reaching landf...
Sep 13, 2020•40 min
We talk to Sophie Segal, founder of the Reading chapter of the CEC, in the south of England. Sophie uses games to engage people in sustainability and encourage us to think differently, to think about the system that we’re all part of. Sophie wears a few hats, including with Co-CREATE ImpACT - providing innovative social impact training, and Together Dragonflies – Using value creation and innovation to shape new customer experiences. She helps organisations with their purpose, to design value pro...
Aug 29, 2020•38 min
Catherine Weetman talks to Noreen Kam and Michael Brown about the circular asset management solution they’ve developed for LUP Global’s customers. We hear about the opportunities for companies to reduce their capex, improve the performance and lifetime cost of equipment, and to recover value from the equipment at the end of its service period. Michael explains how this approach is normal in the airline industry, where often the airline doesn’t own anything – the plane, the engines, even the seat...
Aug 16, 2020•37 min
We talk to Greg Lavery of Rype Office, which remanufactures high quality office furniture. We hear why Greg decided that office furniture is ideal for a circular business, how Rype’s customer base is evolving and why people are switching to remade furniture. A civil engineer by training, Greg has focused his career on improving the sustainability of the built environment. He began by working for Arup and Greg was awarded a PhD in sustainable building design in the 1990s. He built, from startup, ...
Aug 01, 2020•36 min
Christian van Maaren is co-founder of Excess Materials Exchange, based in the Netherlands. Excess Materials Exchange is saving the planet by running a dating site, which at first sounds improbable, and then sounds intriguing! Christian believes the circular economy is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to achieve the Paris climate goals, and we hear how Excess Materials Exchange helps customers measure the value of their exchange options, in financial, environmental and social impacts. Christi...
Jul 19, 2020•39 min
Rheaply’s mission is to make the world’s resources more discoverable and transferable through technology. Rheaply combines enterprise asset management with a virtual marketplace, which allows organizations to track inventory and depreciation. It helps people to visualize, quantify and utilize surplus assets, and to offload end-of-life, unwanted assets to organisations that need them. We hear about Rheaply’s core technology, its Asset Exchange Manager, and how this allows people to highlight thos...
Jul 04, 2020•32 min
We review the last 9 episodes, exploring key themes & summarising what we’ve learned. Plus, we hear from Geoff van Sonsbeeck, on womenswear brand Baukjen’s packaging approach. The wonders of online communication mean we’ve been to the United States, Jordan, Uganda, Canada and Ghana in the last nine episodes. We’ve talked to a start-up looking for funding, two social enterprises, two charities, a community cooperative, and several businesses that have been growing for 15-20 years. If we look ...
Jun 21, 2020•28 min
In this episode, we’re talking to Mabel Suglo, the founder of Dignified Wear, a social enterprise in Ghana. It aims to economically empower people with disabilities and rural women through decent jobs. It trains and then employs them to handcraft durable, versatile and fashionable shoes, handbags, locally woven fabrics, clothing and traditional jewellery.
Jun 06, 2020•33 min
Chris Diplock is the Founder and CEO of The Thingery, the parent organization of neighbourhood Thingery branches, and a leader in Vancouver’s collaborative economy. You could describe the Thingery as a ‘library in a box’ – the box being a shipping container! The containers are solar-powered and so can be sited in disused spaces near the communities that will use them. Technology allows people to access the container and then use the built-in systems to easily log what they are borrowing or retur...
Jun 01, 2020•41 min
Chris Hellawell is founder and director of Edinburgh Tool Library, which works like a lending library, sharing tools rather than books. Chris is passionate about the concept of sharing as a way to tackle the climate crisis, and also as a way to save money, and to build social connections in communities. By sharing, everyone is richer. The Edinburgh Tool Library started out as a set of shelves in a spare room. Now it’s a city-wide organisation with multiple sites, including a tool maintenance dep...
May 09, 2020•37 min
Katie Briggs set up The Textile Review, to close the loop on fabric from the events sector. She has found customers who value that pre-used fabric, and she helps both buyers and sellers reduce their costs and impact.
Apr 26, 2020•31 min
Geoff van Sonsbeeck is the Co-Founder and CEO behind the direct to consumer womenswear brands BAUKJEN and ISABELLA OLIVER, and has been at the forefront of the slow, sustainable fashion movement for over 15 years. We talk about how the two brands are building on their durable and timeless design ethos and evolving a range of circular practices. These include takeback schemes, resale, and rental. Baukjen is also switching to more sustainable fabrics – even moving away from organic cotton. We also...
Apr 12, 2020•37 min
Remanufacturing is one of the circular economy strategies that helps us keep products, components and materials ‘in the system. It means we can have high-quality, reliable products and equipment with pretty much the same performance as a new version – and costing significantly less – for the customer, society and our environment. In today’s episode, I’m talking to Steve Haskew of Circular Computing, which remanufactures high-quality top-brand laptops, including Dell, HP and Lenovo. They are cert...
Mar 29, 2020•40 min
EcoBrixs Mission is "To create green, environmentally friendly, sustainable solutions to lift people out of abject poverty in Uganda”, and it does that by giving trash – waste plastic – a value. That means anyone in the community can recycle. Eco Brixs started out in 2017. Frustrated with the lack of waste management systems in Masaka, Andy Bownds and his team started collecting plastic in his back garden, and after collecting 2 tonnes, decided to start a simple plastic collection facility calle...
Mar 15, 2020•33 min
We talk to entrepreneur and designer Bassam Huneidi, about his Argeileh Project. Bassam is a circular economy designer and strategist, and a graduate of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. We hear how Bassam plans to disrupt one of the biggest traditions in the Arab world with a zero waste alternative that is better for the environment, cheaper for suppliers and better for public health, while providing the same experience for the user. The Argeileh Project (or TAP for short) i...
Mar 01, 2020•37 min
Episode 21 with Tom Ogonek, Co-CEO of Close the Loop Inc. Tom joined Close the Loop in 2011 and oversees all aspects of global operations, building on a background in chemistry and manufacturing, and using his environmental industry perspective plus over 20 years of valuable operations experience to drive the business forward. Close the Loop operates circular economy services in Australia, the US and Europe. Close the Loop make it easy to take back, recover, and reuse your high value products – ...
Feb 16, 2020•34 min
In this episode, we focus on the ‘how’ of making your business circular, looking at the different ways people were getting to grips with the problem they wanted to solve. We also get an update on the new subscription model for ApparelXchange, and get some ‘bonus’ circular economy examples from David Greenfield (aka Dr Resources of the Circular Economy Club London). How do we find a linear problem that needs a circular economy solution? Bec Evans, author of How to Have a Happy Hustle: the complet...
Feb 02, 2020•33 min
We talk to Åsa Stenmarck, of IVL, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Åsa works on projects that aim to create more sustainable consumption (including reducing consumption overall, sharing, waste minimization, recycling and so on), and she is particularly interested in plastics and food. We talk about return systems for food containers, food waste, behaviour change, ‘weasel words’, and how people expect both governments and companies to make ‘good choices’ easy for us.
Jan 19, 2020•43 min
We talk to Eve Kekeh, the founder of Bundlee, the UK’s first baby clothing rental subscription. Eve started Bundlee to give parents a sustainable alternative to buying clothes that will be outgrown very quickly. With Bundlee, parents can rent their baby’s wardrobe and swap clothes for the next size up whenever they like. Outgrown clothes are professionally cleaned before being sent to the next family. We find out how Eve researched to problems associated with babywear, uncover some surprising ob...
Jan 06, 2020•36 min
Nancy Bocken co-founded the company HOMIE, which is developing circular services for pay-per-use home appliances, starting with washing machines. Nancy has an academic background, and she is professor and research coordinator in Sustainable Business Management and Practice at Lund University in Sweden. We talk about how Homie got started, and how the service works. Nancy tells about some of the challenges they faced, and the benefits of pay-per-use for customers, the business, and our environmen...
Dec 15, 2019•35 min
