The Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI), Circle Economy and Fashion for Good have announced that they will form a partnership to evolve the current AMFI MA Fashion Enterprise Creation (MA FEC), launched in 2016, into the world's first master's degree focused on circular fashion entrepreneurship.
The MA FEC programme aims to inspire and equip fashion entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs with the skills to build purpose-driven fashion businesses with a societal, cultural or environmental mission at their core. This master shall build on the core belief that profound change is needed in fashion education in order to safeguard the long-term future of the fashion industry. Leslie Holden, Head of design and of the Master of Fashion Enterprise explains:“Fashion is one of the most polluting industries on earth and this is neither sustainable nor acceptable. At the same time, it’s also one of the most creative, lucrative and engaging industries. Therein lies fashion’s unique responsibility and opportunity. We need to rethink how we create, design, produce, sell and use clothing, so that the industry can be a force for good and act respectfully to the world.”The Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) is the largest fashion institute in the Netherlands and has an international reputation for sustainability. The AMFI 'Reality School' concept drives innovation within all their programmes to accommodate and respond rapidly to industry challenges and collaborate to bring change. It is for this reason, that AMFI has begun to integrate the circular economy strategy in the foundations of its Reality School. To emphasize this commitment, the Master in Fashion Enterprise Creation has been chosen by AMFI as the ideal platform to challenge the industry norms. Partnering and collaborating with industry specialists, Fashion for Good and Circle Economy, is at the heart of the success and together they can build for a better future.
"Education can no longer shy away from the vast and damaging impact that the fashion industry has and must equip the next generation of fashion professionals with the values, perspectives, knowledge (and audacity!) needed to mend this ship we have set sail on, or to build a smarter, vehicle for change. The AMFI Masters aims to do just that - and Circle Economy are honoured and excited to be part of this crucial development”
Gwen Cunningham, lead of the Circle Economy textiles team
Together, the partners aim to bring together a multi-disciplinary and international class of students, who all share in the pursuit of re-designing the fashion industry and becoming a global force for good. The programme will provide students with a strong foundation in business research, practical entrepreneurial skills, and training in all the essential components needed to develop innovative fashion concepts. This multidisciplinary focus will enable students to turn their dream - of playing a positive role in changing the fashion industry - into a reality.
About the Amsterdam Fashion InstituteThe Amsterdam Fashion Institute is the largest fashion institute in the Netherlands, teaching on all aspects of the fashion chain. Students can choose from 3 Bachelor programmes: Fashion & Design, Fashion & Management or Fashion & Branding. In addition, AMFI provides a two-year Master in Fashion Enterprise Creation. In this fast-moving industry, where fashion is in perpetual change, AMFI provides guidance and expertise in establishing more sustainable fashion brands using a ‘Reality School’ concept. Together, a group of highly skilled educators and industry professionals, guide these aspiring fashion professionals in developing skills and aptitudes that can be a force for good in the fashion world. For further information contact: Leslie Holden at l.t.holden@hva.nl
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On April 5, 2018, the city of Bilbao and the surrounding territory of Bizkaia presented the results of the Circle City Scan, a visual roadmap with an analysis and identification of impactful and tangible opportunities to spark the circular transition within the city and the territory. Spain’s first Circle City Scan was initiated through a consortium composed of Circle Economy, Innobasque, Bilbao Ekintza and BEAZ in collaboration with Aclima, Ihobe and Inèdit.
Six circular strategies
Through an extensive analysis of the economic and political landscape as well as resource flows of the territory, the metal, restaurant and wholesale sectors were identified to be the most influential in the realisation of a circular Bilbao-Bizkaia. Combined, they provide over 137.000 jobs (28%), add €8 Billion to the local economy and are responsible for 17% of total resource use. Building upon this, the Circle City Scan creates a Circular Vision for the territory; providing 6 strategies that fundamentally change the flow of materials and resources through the city. The vision highlights the interconnectivity between the sectors to demonstrate how circular strategies can build upon one-another to boost employment and strengthen the Bizkaian economy.
The restaurant, wholesale and metal sectors are best positioned to transition towards the circular economy
A circular economy is created through action. Recognising this, the visual roadmap provides a practical and scalable roadmap to implement 6 pilot projects that have the highest transformative potential. For example, what better way to re-vitalise Bilbao’s historic metal sector as a high-tech hub for the future, than through the 3D printing of metal components, in a process known as ‘Additive Manufacturing’. Due to the lighter environmental footprint and possibilities of remanufacturing, Additive Manufacturing can be a powerful tool in transitioning the Bizkaian metal sector towards a circular economy.
“Now is the time to bring these six projects to reality. [...] We believe there is a big opportunity to make a more efficient use of resources, create jobs and growth, and develop new innovative solutions and business models, so we are willing to see how the projects jump into the next step!” - Lola Elejalde, Foresight and Internationalization Manager, Innobasque.
The strategies proposed in the report present a clear way forward for the city and the territory. To ensure the implementation of pilot projects, the next step of the collaborative project is to bring together local stakeholders to create a circular ecosystem and further propel the transition towards a circular economy.
“With this visual roadmap, Bilbao-Bizkaia starts to position itself as a frontrunner in the transition towards circularity. They are now in a prime position to capitalise on the energy of the consortium partners, to drive the implementation of innovative circular business models that operate within the planetary boundaries of our planet.” - Annerieke Douma, Director Program and Business Development, Circle Economy.
From post-industrial economy to an innovative circular hotspot
Rapidly re-inventing itself as a high-tech, trade and service-oriented economy, Bilbao-Bizkaia recognises the circular economy as a vital component in creating a competitive, healthy and sustainable future for the territory. By applying innovative circular strategies, companies can create new value by keeping resources in circulation for as long as possible and utilising resources, once considered waste, as inputs in a new cycle. The circular economy promises to open up new economic opportunities; boosting GDP and employment and, ultimately, create a more future-proof and resilient city and territory.
“The Bilbao-Bizkaia Circular project has allowed us to approach a methodology that helps identify market niches with high potential for circularity and to identify specific opportunities.”- Ainara Basurko Urkiri, Director General BEAZ.
Nice to meet you as well Mud Jeans! We find the story behind the circular jeans company very inspiring and are thrilled to give space for a MUD Jeans guest blog:
In 2017 MUD Jeans made a bold shift. At least, that is what it feels like to us. A shift from a start-up to a serious circular jeans company. 2017 was a big year. We now sell our jeans in 250 stores, got a new B2B portal for our retailers and we have been featured in blogs, magazines and TV shows worldwide. The last 5 years have taught us that we can achieve our goals while being profitable as a circular company as long as we keep on believing in our mission and our products. It has been a fascinating ride and we would like to share a few lessons learned with you. But first things first, a small introduction on who we are, what we do and how we do it.Who, what & howWe believe in a world without waste. We believe in a world where everyone is responsible for cleaning up their own mess. With our circular philosophy, we want to design our products in a way that they can be reused, recycled and upcycled easily. That’s why we don’t use leather labels, but printed ones instead. Worn out jeans are shredded, cut into pieces and blended with virgin cotton. This is how a new MUD Jeans denim yarn is born. All MUD Jeans are produced using post-consumer recycled and organic cotton. Together with our mill Tejidos Royo we were able to develop a jeans fabric which consists of 40% post-consumer recycled denim.The idea of creating our own Circular Denim Economy led to the revolutionary concept Lease A Jeans. While we are all using up our planet’s resources, it was time to stop for a second and ask ourselves: do we really need to own one pair of jeans for life? Or could we wear our jeans and send them back after use? You then become a user of the raw materials and pay only for the performance. We are very excited to announce that after launching the Lease A Jeans concept in 2013 we are now 5000 leasers strong and this is still growing.We collect pre-loved MUD Jeans through our take-back program. If the quality is still adequate, we sell them through our vintage platform. If not, they are shredded and made into beautiful new jeans. Using RePack bags for our packages allows us to avoid plastic and paper in our logistic chain and our customers can use the reusable bags to send old jeans back to us. Besides MUD Jeans we also accept jeans from other brands. The only requirement is that the jeans are at least 96% cotton.
Lessons Learned At MUD Jeans, we care deeply about transparency, in all aspects of our business. Consequently, we are passionate to share a few lessons learned we have encountered over the last 5 years.We realized that small changes can have a big impact. When we opted for printed labels instead of leather ones, this was merely for recycling purposes. A mono-material product is easier to recycle. When we made this transition we never thought that we would attract a whole new target group. Our jeans now became attractive for the vegan community as we banned the use of animal products in our jeans.You should not dwell on the lack of money or funds. A good brainstorm session and a big portion of creativity can already bring you a long way. Also, we always think big, what seems out of our reach sometimes suddenly happens. A mindset needed in order to change the status quo.When we first introduced Lease A Jeans in 2013, the world declared us mad. This concept required a huge mentality shift, moving away from the idea of owning everything. It did bring us a lot of press coverage but in the beginning, the masses were not ready for it yet nor was our administration.Your mission, vision and storytelling can be on point but in the end, people want to look good in the product they buy from you. When Dion Vijgeboom, who has a 10-year background in the jeans business joined the team, our products were truly upgraded and this helped tremendously in our growth.Working at a circular company, topics such as the circular economy, corporate social responsibility and closing the loop are a part of our daily conversations and become common practice. From time to time we get so caught up in our own story that we forget that not everyone is familiar with these concepts. We have learned that sometimes we need to take a step back and tell our story all over again. What we do, why we do it and how we do it might be very clear for us, but explaining it from scratch, again and again, is substantial to our success.As a pioneer in the circular economy, we have become an interesting case for companies, universities and organisations. Bringing a positive and ingenious story motivates people, students and companies to be a part of it and lend a hand. We get numerous emails with internship and research inquiries. In order to meet this high demand, we launched a monthly Skype meeting with Bert van Son, our CEO. During this meeting students and interested parties can ask everything they want to know about MUD Jeans.Being a B-Corp, we use business as a force for good. This allows you to build a very loyal customer base and collaborate with other B-Corps. In the past, we had the opportunity to create jeans aprons for B-Corp Davines. Joining forces with like-minded companies and organisations such as Circle Economy can create synergies to accelerate change from within the industry.Our customers adore what we do and love to share their stories and adventures with us. It’s very special as a brand to receive postcards, drawings and letters from customers on a regular basis. We are proud to have such committed customers. Although some of them are really critical, they are not afraid to ask us questions, which keeps us on our toes.
FutureToday our jeans consist of 40% post-consumer recycled denim, but of course, we want more! Our ultimate goal and dream is to design jeans made of 100% recycled denim.To explain this, we have to indulge you into the spectacular world of recycling. Together with Recovertex, we recycle old denim through mechanical recycling. Using mechanical operations to recycle old jeans withholds certain limitations, as the fibres are shortened over time and lose strength. Virgin cotton has to be added to regain durability and performance. Due to this reason we have reached the maximum of post-consumer recycled denim (40%) that can be obtained through mechanically recycling.Hence we have to look at other technologies to increase the percentage of recycled denim in our jeans. State of the art techniques such as chemical recycling will allow us to further increase this percentage and ultimately reach our objective of developing a fabric of 100% recycled denim.Together with the Global Fashion Agenda, we have set our circular fashion goals for 2020. In 2 years we wish to design 50% of our rivets, buttons and zippers for recyclability, we want to increase the amount of jeans collected through our take-back program and increase the amount of resold used garments through our vintage platform. Finally, we have the ambition to include minimum 20% post-consumer textiles fibres in all our jeans and we aim to develop a jeans fabric consisting of 100% recycled post-consumer textiles.Being a member of the Responsible Denim Alliance we are working on making the jeans industry cleaner & smarter. Through nurturing collective change and aiming at higher industry standards, the Alliance focusses on two main topics. Firstly, improving the environmental impact of denim finishing, meaning the washings. Secondly, scaling up the post-consumer recycled denim production. Together with the other members of the Alliance we are working closely to improve the standards in the denim industry.As you can tell we are very excited for the future. We hope you will join us in our journey towards 100% recycled denim.
Circle Economy is very proud to announce that our community keeps on growingAfter launching the Built Environment Programme in September 2017, the member community of the Built Environment Programme has quickly grown. We are proud to announce that several frontrunners within the built environment sector have recently joined us. We welcome Aronsohn, Deerns, Utrecht University, Verwol, Kuijpers, Dura Vermeer and OVG Real Estate to our membership community. As an impact organisation and ecosystem builder, it is our aim to keep expanding the circle! What our new members have to say:
"At Utrecht University we stand for bright minds, a circular campus and a better future. Our participation in the Built Environment programme will be the right catalyst to help achieve these goals." - Utrecht University
"Even the smallest changes can have a positive impact on the built environment. As a frontrunner in innovative, energy efficient engineering and building physics we are excited to work together on practical and scalable circular solutions with partners in the construction chain." - Deerns
"At Kuijpers we aim for healthy environments in which to work, learn, live and experience. We focus on environments where complex techniques greatly affect end-user performance. Our renewable & future-proof installation solutions take into account the scarcity of earth's natural resources. These solutions work best if they are implemented in an early phase of the construction cycle. The Construction Circle can become a great example of how future-proof solutions should be carried out." - Kuijpers
"As one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of architectural wall systems and high-end acoustical products we do not only aim to apply circularity to our own products but also want to contribute to circularity initiatives throughout the construction chain." - Verwol
"We see a perfect match with Circle Economy and more specifically the Construction Circle. In both our business conduct and our advices we consider the circular economy as a major guiding principle that helps us to reduce our environmental footprint, as well as to preserve and strengthen our relation with our stakeholders." - Aronsohn
"Sustainability is one of the three pillars, which form the basis of everything OVG Real Estate strives to achieve and circularity plays a vital role in this. We believe in early adaptation, sharing experiences and learning as we go. With our membership and participation in Circle Economy's Built Environment program we aim to contribute to circularity in the construction sector and the knowledge exchange." - OVG Real Estate
"Dura Vermeer has the ambition to minimise its burden on the environment. In our projects we are taking into account the current legislation in this regard. At the same time we also aim to look beyond this and see what more can be achieved by working together with partners in the chain. By forming our own organisation on behalf of circularity and setting our goals in line with the guidelines of our world we want to be an example for the builders of the Netherlands." - Dura Vermeer
Are you already a Circle Community member and want to be involved in the Built Environment programme, do you know other organisations that would be interested to participate, or do you have an interesting (pilot) project for the programme? Get in touch with Ben Kubbinga (ben@circle-economy.com).
Global partners VF Corporation, Auping and Orta Anadolu and Circle Economy commit to developing a circular decision-making tool for the fashion industry.February 20, 2018. Today, three frontrunning companies commit to partner with Circle Economy, to develop a circular decision-making tool for the fashion and textiles industry, which will enable businesses to move from circular intent to circular action. Despite best intentions, the majority of textiles is currently still downcycled or incinerated at end of life. We are producing and consuming at an ever-increasing pace - global consumption has doubled in the last fourteen years - and at that same time, consumers are using their garments for half as long. While an increasing number of companies recognize the logic of closing the loop, there is a significant lack of evidence on the tradeoffs between circular and linear business models. Therefore, many companies, unwillingly, are in ‘sit & wait’ mode.That is why Circle Economy, with the support of the C&A Foundation, is developing The Circle Fashion Tool. A digital tool that empowers brands to move from the 'why' to the 'how'. The Circle Fashion Tool is a decision-making tool built to help brands evaluate the end of life options and circular opportunities for their own textile excess and weigh the practical implications and environmental and economic impact between scenarios.The Circle Fashion Tool aims to:
Today Circle Economy is proud to announce that three global development and testing partners have joined forces with Circle Economy to develop the Circle Fashion Tool in the coming year: Auping, VF Corp and Orta Anadolu! These global partners will work closely with Circle Economy to provide feedback on the concept and the functionalities of the Circle Fashion Tool, therefore enabling the development team to align with market demand and test the tool on real-life scenarios.In addition to their core participation in the development of the Circle Fashion Tool, Auping, VF Corporation and Orta Anadolu have joined Circle Economy's membership community. Circle Economy's Textiles Programme is focused on developing the system innovations necessary to close the loop within the industry. Together with its members, the programme produces the critical data, tools, technology and business models that are building the new foundation for a circular textiles industry. Over the years the team has established there is a lack of effective decision-making tools in the industry that are focused on circularity. These tools are indispensable if we are to transform intent to action on the scale that is needed. The Circle Fashion Tool plays an important role in attaining this endeavour. Circle Economy is opening the tool for further testing later in 2018. If you are a brand interested to be amongst the early adopters of this fashion tool, please contact Gwen Cunningham.
About the PartnersAupingAuping is a high-end Dutch-based mattress manufacturer with sustainability at the heart of their operations. Auping believes that a healthy and energetic life starts with a good night's sleep. They firmly believe that the quality of sleep can always be improved. That is why, day after day, Auping is working on tomorrow's ultimate sleeping comfort with passion and curiosity. They believe that a sustainable relationship with our surroundings, the environment and individuals is all part of the game. Sustainable, meaningful and conscious; we are ready to accept our responsibility. We also want to be able to sleep with peace of mind in the future. The company fundamentally invests in sustainability and harbours the unprecedented ambition of organizing all operating processes, products and services fully according to the Cradle to Cradle philosophy (C2C) by 2020.
"We have the ambition to become a circular company by 2020. Over the past year, we’ve been optimizing our products for reuse and recycling. We can say that most of the materials we work with can be recycled. In practice, we see that not everything is recycled due to different kinds of barriers. We believe that together with other companies we can share and gain insight on how to eliminate these barriers, and by that achieve our ambition to be truly circular in the coming years." Geert Doorlag, Test and validation engineer at Auping
About VF CorporationVF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) outfits consumers around the world with its diverse portfolio of iconic lifestyle brands, including Vans®, The North Face®, Timberland®, Wrangler® and Lee®. Founded in 1899, VF is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies with socially and environmentally responsible operations spanning numerous geographies, product categories and distribution channels. VF is committed to delivering innovative products to consumers and creating long-term value for its customers and shareholders.
“At VF, we believe that the linear system of production, as it works today, is not sustainable for a planet with a growing population and limited resources. For this reason, we are exploring new Circular Business Models to build better products, extend product life, transform transactions into deeper relationships, and turn waste into value. In this journey toward a new way of doing business, Circle Economy is a crucial partner for us as it brings together knowledgeable people and high potential tools and projects that will support our pursuit of more circular operations”, says Anna Maria Rugarli, Senior Director, Sustainability & Responsibility VF EMEA”.
About Orta AnadoluSince its inception, Orta Anadolu has been weaving a denim heritage passed from generation to generation. Founded in 1953, Orta transformed from a spinning & weaving company to a denim manufacturer in 1985. Today, Orta produces over 60 million meters of denim in its Turkey and Bahrain factories and is creating a platform for leading manufacturers to step up and reclaim a denim industry where more aesthetics leads to more ethics. While our footprint is what we take from the planet when we consume, our handprint is what we give the planet when we create change for the better. In an era of change, Orta's handprint will promote denim manufacturing at the intersection of where people, planet and purpose matter.
"At Orta Anadolu, we believe in the value of collaboration for a stimulating future. We are committed to envisioning a brighter and sustainable future for textiles. Therefore, we embrace sustainability and circularity as a core value. We are always excited to explore new horizons. In our search for sustainable solutions, our collaboration with Circle Economy will push us to innovate and challenge us to think outside the box. Collaborations and partnerships generate transformational outcomes and we believe that the Circle Fashion Tool will create a platform for the type of circular solutions that the industry is searching for."
For more information and interview requests:Melanie Wijnands+31(0)6 52650156 melanie@circle-economy.com
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