This is the third of four blogs in the Climate change and the circular economy series. Read part 1 and part 2 first.[hr]By Jelmer Hoogzaad (Shifting Paradigms) and Matthieu Bardout (Circle Economy)The Paris Agreement entered into force in November 2016, after receiving sufficient endorsement from national governments. Negotiators from 195 countries have since been defining rules and procedures, thereby shaping the way countries report on their emissions and mitigation ambitions, and agreeing on the modalities of international cooperation on greenhouse gas emissions mitigation.The latest UNEP gap report confirms that mitigation commitments submitted by the signatories do not add up to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions that will secure a future without climate change exceeding 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. The circular economy can help do the extra heavy lifting to close this gap, but only if circular solutions are encouraged, recognised and facilitated by the Paris Agreement's implementation frameworks.Here’s how:1. Moving from offsetting to cooperation The Paris Agreement asks for voluntary climate action from all countries - industrialised and developing alike. That is unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which included emission targets for a selection of industrialised countries, who were allowed to use offsetting to invest in emission reductions in other countries and count these towards their own compliance. The Paris Agreement also relies on processes rather than strict mitigation goals.This makes the use of offset mechanisms complicated: although governments still welcome foreign investors to support domestic mitigation action, they also want to use 'low-hanging fruit' or low-cost mitigation options for their own mitigation ambitions. While offsetting under the Kyoto Protocol created an international competition for low-cost mitigation opportunities, the nature of the Paris Agreement calls for international cooperation, with all countries working together on low-carbon development and being able to exchange mitigation outcomes under Article 6 if investments made by one country lead to mitigation in another.Such cooperation makes sense since around 20% to 30%* of a nation’s carbon footprint typically lies in the embedded emissions of imported products. This means that a large share of global mitigation opportunities stretch beyond borders and across value chains. International cooperation is needed to tap into these opportunities. Since this is about the carbon footprint of the products and materials traded, circular economy principles point at mitigation options which have hardly been incentivised so far. Examples include: when the design of a product from one country helps reduce emissions in the use or end-of life phases in another country; when the substitution of carbon-intensive materials in one country reduces emissions related to their production in another country; or when a product can be completely replaced with a service.The Paris Agreement should make it easier for governments to take domestic and international action on extraterritorial emissions, seeking international cooperation to reduce emissions across value chains, and tapping into the collaborative principles of the circular economy.2. Collecting new data under the transparency frameworkThe Paris Agreement proposes a transparency framework for the disclosure and third-party review of national emissions and the implementation of climate action. This framework invites countries to report on their mitigation ambitions, using approaches from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are based on sectoral and territorial accounting. Most activities under the Paris Agreement, such as policy support, climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building, rely on this data not only to track progress, but also to identify mitigation options.Unfortunately, territorial accounting does not show the potential for domestic actions and international cooperation to reduce emissions across borders through material substitution, circular design or replacing a product with a service. Likewise, presenting emission data per sector fails to reveal the potential for cross-sectoral mitigation action, while that is where the potential lies to use waste or underused assets from one sector as resource in another.These innovative and circular mitigation options tend to alter resource flows across borders and sectors. Consumption-based accounting - presenting emission data based on the service that an economic activity delivers to society - is better able to also disclose these mitigation perspectives.3. Elevating ambitionsIt is well understood that climate policies and national ambitions submitted to the UNFCCC to date fall short of reaching the 2°C or 1.5°C targets. More ambitious policies and new mitigation options are urgently needed. The Paris Agreement therefore includes a procedure for regular updates of national mitigation ambitions, inviting signatories to periodically increase the ambition of their emission reduction commitments or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This ratcheting mechanism provides an opportunity to introduce and encourage the use of circular economy strategies to bring emissions down even further. Since current NDCs make little use of these strategies, they enable governments to increase ambition. This does require a deeper understanding of the mitigation potential of a circular economy, and its possible rebound effects, such that governments can make optimum use of circular strategies and both reduce the greenhouse gas and resource footprint of their economies.4. Promoting structural change in low emission development strategiesNext to submitting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the Paris Agreement invites national governments to submit the Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) which will reduce their emissions by 2020. To date, these strategies hardly consider circular economy concepts.This provides an opportunity to make circular economy development a structural part of a country’s low-carbon development ambition, which is also where it belongs. A lot of the development challenges which countries face are related to the linear nature of their economy, whether it is the adverse landscape impact of resource extraction, deforestation, the use of fossil fuels and related greenhouse gas emissions or the massive waste disposal challenge that they face. A focus on greenhouse gas emissions alone only addresses part of the problem. By providing the holistic or systemic levers to truly transform our economies, circular economy offers a range of solutions which often address greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable resource use jointly. 5. Introducing new approaches to capacity buildingInternational cooperation builds on three pillars: finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building. Moving away from a linear economic model requires systemic change and insights into the resource and energy metabolism of an economy. Systemic or metabolic approaches are common analytical tools to identify and assess circular economy options and should be applied more often to identify low-carbon development options. With the exception of India, Lao PDR** and a handful of OECD countries, they have hardly been used. Because of their potential to elevate the mitigation ambition of the Paris Agreement, metabolic approaches should become a cornerstone of capacity building on climate action.*This estimate varies between different sources. According to S. Paulik (2014) “emissions embodied in international trade change the footprint of many countries by 30% or more”. According to G.P.Peters (2008) “22% of global CO2 emissions are embodied in international trade”.**UNDP, "Circular economy strategies for Lao PDR - A metabolic approach to redefine resource efficient and low-carbon development" (forthcoming), a project with Shifting Paradigms, FABRICations and Circle Economy[hr]
A transition to the circular economy will require significant investment to research, develop, pilot and scale promising solutions. The final blog in our series will delve into specific steps to mobilise climate finance to support this transition.
This is the second of four blogs in the Climate change and the circular economy series. Read part 1 here.
[hr]By Jelmer Hoogzaad (Shifting Paradigms) and Matthieu Bardout (Circle Economy)Around 21 percent of the resources we extract* are fossil fuels that are used to extract, transport and process materials; as well as to deliver, use and dispose of products. As a result, 67 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are related to material management**. Limiting global warming to well below 2°C or even 1.5°C by 2100 thus requires climate action to go far beyond incremental improvements to our economies. It requires profound changes in the way we produce, use, and consume products, materials and energy.The circular economy provides an attractive mitigation opportunity as it steps away from the negative and often punitive narrative of reducing emissions, and defines a more positive and inspiring vision of a circular future. It does not shy away from the systemic changes needed to get there and addresses both excessive resource use and greenhouse gas emissions in tandem.These key aspects of the circular economy can help in developing new mitigation options that combine effective climate action with the improved use of assets and resources, and give climate policies and strategies the ambition they currently lack. Here’s how:
The circular economy responds to a direct call from the climate community to address the fundamental issues behind our greenhouse gas emissions by promoting the collaborative, cross-sectoral approach we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make more efficient use of available assets and resources. Moving away from the traditional 'take-make-waste' economic model that has prevailed since the industrial revolution requires systemic change. The Green Climate Fund, for example - the main vehicle for climate investments into developing countries - urges for paradigm shifts and calls on projects with transformational impact rather than the more incremental, single-installation investments that have been commonplace under current climate policy and project developments. Current efforts, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, tend to focus on improving or developing individual assets. While they are important and should be pursued, the UNEP gap report confirms that there are clear limits to decarbonising current production systems. These measures only buy us more time, when we should be focusing on designing a low-carbon future.At industrial scale, this calls for industrial symbiosis, for example, in addition to merely improving the efficiency of individual factories. At national, regional, and urban scales, this means tapping into the many cross-sectoral opportunities that the complex metabolism of our economies and the ecosystems on which they rely have to offer.
Around 20% to 30% of a nation’s carbon footprint can lie in the emissions embedded in the products crossing its borders. Yet under the UNFCCC, national climate policies and voluntary commitments, governments account for greenhouse gas emissions demarcated by geographic borders. With this approach, national governments are not encouraged to take action on the mitigation potential that lies outside their national borders.This is why a collaborative, cross-sectoral, and cross-border approach is needed to develop the full mitigation potential of national action. This is what the circular economy does, all the while advocating for effective material use: it encourages economic agents to coordinate efforts across global value chains and to reduce emissions in all parts of the chain.Designing an economy that is smarter about materials use- an economy that looks beyond factory gates and country boundaries- extends our mitigation impact as far up as the mines, quarries, wells, fields, and forests where our products are born.
Addressing both greenhouse gas emissions and excessive resource use yields significantly deeper reductions in global emissions. Scientific models also indicate that the combination of resource efficiency and climate action delivers higher environmental and economic benefits. Combining low carbon development with improved use of material resources also makes economic sense: the long-term economic benefits of resource efficiency and low-carbon development exceed the short-term costs of shifting to a 2°C emissions pathway. For some sectors, effective decoupling of resource use from economic growth alone is enough to reach the 2°C benchmark.
The focus of mitigation efforts has traditionally been on the physical sources of greenhouse gas emissions: from energy efficiency of our boilers and engines, to capturing methane from landfills, coal mines and manure storages, mitigation efforts have often targeted the symptoms more so than the cause. However, many mitigation options do not require interventions at the emissions source at all, but rather an understanding of the societal need that underlying economic activities address in the first place. Only by understanding the needs that our products and materials satisfy can we explore new ways to address them. Substituting carbon-intensive materials with low-carbon alternatives, improving the use of existing assets, and providing products-as-a-service can then emerge as new mitigation options.
Policy makers with a climate mandate often try to choose between introducing a carbon tax or relying on emission trading schemes that cap industrial emissions. Both options aim to correct markets for the negative externalities of greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging energy efficiency and renewable energy. Both options, however, also disregard the potential of resource efficiency. Extraction taxation, on the other hand, aims to discourage resource extraction and encourage the use of a resource with less environmental externalities: labour. It proposes that we tax what we want less of, and lower taxes on what we want more of. As such, it takes the concept of carbon taxation a step further and encourages a circular economy where resources are effectively used and renewable energy sources are prioritised.A tax reform where the added tax burden on resource-intensive products is immediately compensated with reduced taxes on labour also allows for public opinion to work in favour of the initiating government body.* Own analysis based on UNEP IRP (2016) Global material flows and resource productivity.** UNDP, "Circular economy strategies for Lao PDR - A metabolic approach to redefine resource efficient and low-carbon development" (unpublished draft), a project with Shifting Paradigms, FABRICations and Circle Economy.[hr]
Translating the circular economy into actionable, ambitious climate policies and strategies requires collaboration by governments across borders. This is also an opportunity for climate finance and the architecture of the Paris Agreement. We’ll dig deeper into these topics in our upcoming blogs in this series.
Beyond Green, Circle Economy’s signature textiles event, held in collaboration with the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, is an annual symposium on the future of fashion that uses the collective power of students and industry to tackle critical issues throughout the fashion system. The next edition of Beyond Green will be held on the 20th of October 2017 and will build on the momentum of the initiatives and targets the circular textiles and fashion arena has launched and set over the past quarter. It will move beyond the 'why?' and set to work on answering the much needed question of 'how?’On the agenda? Our 5 step plan to circularity! To give you a preview of what’s to come, we will be releasing a series of blogs to individually introduce each of the 5 steps over the next few weeks. Sign up for updates on Beyond Green or keep an eye out on our website and social media accounts for upcoming blogs in this series![hr]The first step brands need to take on the way to circularity is to create demand for (and demand!) recycled fibres, and actively encourage a sourcing culture and buying standard that support recycled content. The good news is: they already can, and so can you.With a rising global population and decreasing availability of natural resources, curbing the demand for virgin fibres is more imperative than ever. Growing crops like cotton and flax are water and land-intensive, when both resources are set to become scarcer (and no less important for food security) in the future. In fact, raw material prices are already on the rise, and it makes little sense to increase our consumption of synthetics when that requires more oil extraction — another dwindling and volatile commodity… As the industry begins to revamp its current systems, brands can start weaning themselves off of virgin fibres and introducing recycled content into their modus operandi. Critics may argue that the supply is not there yet, but the supply/demand relationship is positively correlated: the more brands demand recycled material, the more widely available and affordable these fabrics will become. So what options do brands already have?Keeping it in the familyFibre-to-fibre recyclingSourcing fibres and fabrics made with recycled textile inputs reduces pressure on our natural environment by reprocessing the textiles that are already in the system. There already are innovations that allow brands to source recycled textiles without having to sacrifice quality or aesthetics. Mechanical recyclers, such as Brightloops, Recover, and Wolkat, continue to make great strides in creating yarns whose quality is comparable to virgin, and are moving toward a competitive price with a fraction of the environmental impact. Meanwhile, blossoming chemical recycling solutions, like the ones Worn Again, Ioniqa and EvRnu are developing will help to fast track the textile industry into the future.One’s waste is another’s treasureWaste-to-fibre recyclingA myriad of new materials are being pushed to the market, challenging the industry to rethink what fabric is and what it can be. Many innovations focus on capturing and converting natural (bi)products that are currently wasted into new pulps, yarns, and fabrics: cow manure to fabric, citrus fruit to garments,mushrooms to leather... the list goes on. Such new materials have the capacity to broaden and therefore diversify our materials library, decreasing our dependency on mega fibres such as cotton and polyester. Sound good? Here’s what you can do to get started:
Curious for more? Stay tuned for our next blog and make sure to sign up for updates on Beyond Green!
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Are you a brand sourcing recycled content? We’d love to hear from you!
Matthieu Bardout (Circle Economy), Jelmer Hoogzaad (Shifting Paradigms)In December 2015, 195 nations signed the Paris Agreement on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, committing to keep global temperatures "well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C". The Paris Agreement is a major accomplishment in itself. Meeting its targets will, however, be no easy feat, particularly in light of the recently expressed intention of the United States to withdraw. New and innovative climate change mitigation solutions are needed for public and private actors alike to step up their efforts and creativity in identifying mitigation options. The circular economy concept is promising to improve the way we meet the functional needs of society while using fewer materials and reducing negative impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions. This blog post, the first of four in this series, provides an overview of why the circular economy is a promising pathway to meet the Paris Climate Agreement.
Our dependence on fossil fuels is at the heart of the climate change challenge. Around 65 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are carbon dioxide (CO2) from the combustion of fossil fuels. The remainder are carbon dioxide from forestry and land use (11 percent), and methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agriculture (16 percent) and industry (6 percent).In this context, it is not surprising that a majority of climate mitigation policies focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy, as exemplified by the European Union's so-called 20-20-20 policy aiming for a 20 percent reduction in emissions relative to 1990 levels by 2020, based on a 20 percent share in renewables and a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency. Other policies and initiatives target emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), or focus on reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions. These are also mitigation activities which tend to benefit from offsetting mechanisms where mitigation outcomes are quantified and traded.
The core of the Paris Climate Agreement are mitigation commitments from national governments but also numerous private and subnational actors have committed to doing their share. Despite this joint effort, current commitments fall far short of the 2°C target, let alone of the 1.5°C target. UNDP's latest 'Emissions Gap' report estimates a remaining gap of approximately 14 billion tonne of CO2 equivalents in 2030 between a scenario where all commitments are being achieve and keeping emissions at a level which limits global warming to 2°C by 2100.This gap was already well understood upon signature of the Paris Climate Agreement and a 'ratcheting mechanism' was included to encourage signatories to increase their ambitions every five years. Circular economy strategies can support countries with identifying and developing mitigation options which go beyond current pledges, both in scope and ambition.
The circular economy is a far-reaching concept at the forefront of sustainability thinking. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading think-tank on the topic, defines it as an "industrial system that is regenerative and restorative by design, rethinks products and services to design out waste and negative impacts, and builds economic, social and natural capital". Circle Economy's '7 elements of the circular economy' stress the combined material and systemic nature of the circular economy, identifying three material pillars:
And four systemic enablers:
Recognising its tremendous potential to create sustainable value, public and private stakeholders are adopting the circular economy: the Netherlands recently announced its ambitions to become the first circular country by 2050; the European Union released its circular economy package in 2015; many other countries such as France, China, Japan, Sweden and Finland are developing circular policy frameworks; and a growing number of front-running companies - small and large - are implementing the circular economy.
Ever since the industrial revolution, global economic growth has been fuelled by natural resource extraction. Today, we extract over 80 billion tonnes of materials per year, of which a mere 7% is reused or recycled by the global economy*. Material management through our economies is estimated to account for as much as two thirds of global emissions** and as much as 4.1 billion tonne of CO2 equivalents are associated with materials after the use stage (i.e. with waste management). Additionally, an estimated 3,928 cubic kilometres of freshwater are withdrawn annually, of which 56% is released into the environment as largely untreated wastewater, which results in considerable emissions and degradation of water resources.In this context, the circular economy promises to significantly contribute to climate change mitigation efforts through a combination of improved material management, dematerialisation and systemic change. Looking at materials, a wide array of opportunities to scale the use of low-carbon materials are overlooked and underfinanced. Wood, for example, has tremendous potential as a substitute for concrete in large-scale structures. The use of waste as a resource also holds considerable potential, as indicated by the Dutch government's recent allocation of 150 million euros for the construction of industrial-scale biodigesters to capture and valorize methane emissions from cow manure, which is expected to dent the country's agricultural emissions. The circular economy also calls for a critical re-examination of the way we meet our societies functional needs. In the digital age, numerous opportunities exist to dematerialise our economies, make more efficient use of assets or shift toward 'product-as-a-service' models. Terms like the 'sharing economy' and 'functional economy' are now mainstream and a growing number of companies and consumers are finding innovative ways to create value without owning new physical assets, or by offering more efficient services. In this context, the development of business models such as chemical leasing or ride-sharing are increasingly being considered as powerful means to decarbonize our economies. The circular economy thus offers the promise of transformational mitigation, complementing incremental improvements with e.g. energy efficiency that fail to tackle systemic flaws.
An estimated 67% of our greenhouse gas emissions are related to the management of materials, showing that progressing to a circular economy with a lower material footprint, is also a pathway for low-carbon development**.A growing body of evidence is emerging that demonstrates the circular economy's mitigation potential. In a White Paper published jointly with Ecofys in 2015, Circle Economy for example estimated that the circular economy has the potential to close approximately half of the emissions gap between current policies and the 1.5°C target. Engagement with climate policy experts at a policy dinner organised in Bonn in May 2017 by the Stanley Foundation, also yielded great excitement as to the circular economy's potential. Participants, for example, acknowledged the need for an increased focus on low-carbon materials, as well as the circular economy's potential to drive low-carbon behavioural change.It must, however, be acknowledged that the application of the circular economy concept is still in its infancy; robust and granular evidence is lacking to clearly delineate and quantify the circular economy's climate mitigation potential. Research is urgently needed to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms at play and enable the circular economy to realise its full potential.* Circle Economy team analysis based on Exiobase (2011); Tukker et al., EXIOPOL - Development and illustrative analyses of a detailed global MR EE SUT/IOT (2013) Economic Systems Research, 25 (1), pp. 50-70.; Wood et al., Global sustainability accounting-developing EXIOBASE for multi-regional footprint analysis (2015) Sustainability (Switzerland), 7 (1), pp. 138-163.** UNDP, "Circular economy strategies for Lao PDR - A metabolic approach to redefine resource efficient and low-carbon development" (unpublished draft), a project with Shifting Paradigms, FABRICations and Circle Economy
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The next blog posts will provide more information on the implications of the circular economy on climate policy, negotiations and finance.
[cta link="http://circle-economy.com/climatechangeseries"]Stay tuned[/cta][hr]
We are very proud to welcome Wolkat, a one-of-a-kind player in the circular textiles arena, to our Circle Membership! Wolkat is a family-owned, textile-to-textile recycling company, and they are passionate about creating a world where post-consumer textile waste is no longer seen as waste, but as the valuable, raw material it can be.Wolkat sorts and turns textiles into new textiles products for the fashion, car, and furniture industries — all under one roof. Their vertically-integrated process makes them a unique textile to textile recycling company in that they act across the entire supply chain, so that sorting, recycling, spinning, and weaving all happen inside their own factories.
To give them a proper welcome into the Circle Economy community, we asked them five questions on their experience in textile recycling and the role of brands in the future of circular textiles:What would your message to brands be? Under the right conditions, there is most definitely a commercial solution for all textile waste. This starts much earlier than when clothes, for example, have already been worn and turned into “waste”. From design to marketing to sales to the collection of used clothing- there are so many aspects where brands can have a lot of positive influence, starting with the image they give of textiles to their consumers. But finding solutions is a two-way street, so there needs to be an open conversation between brands and textile recyclers to adopt the most practical, feasible approach.Beyond using sustainability as a marketing tool, now’s the time for brands to start putting money where their mouth is.What’s next for Wolkat? Launching more products and getting involved in the market in order to really understand the needs and wishes of the various stakeholders in the textile market (e.g. brands, government, producers etc). We’re also constantly optimising our end-products and looking into which techniques and approaches will get everyone the best results.Any new and exciting projects in the near future? Yes! We have a lot of new projects coming up and our range of end-products is expanding every day. We are also generating a lot of data from the pilots and projects we work on, which is enabling us to build and offer a solid basis for (future) partners and collaborations. What makes Wolkat unique? Being the only company in the world that has the knowledge and actually does everything from sorting to producing end-products in-house. This way, we can offer both transparency and sustainable, quality results.What has been your biggest learning so far? That the possibilities are endless when it comes to textile recycling and making the textile industry more sustainable! But so are the challenges that need to be overcome. So you need to think outside the box and be extremely passionate, willing to take a leap of faith, and a little bit crazy in order to achieve hands-on results. Finding the right partner on the brand side of the story who shares these qualities is also key for further development.
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Our member community is an active group of businesses and institutions that have a shared ambition to make the circular economy a reality. As a member you will gain access to a powerful global network of change-makers, thought leaders, peers, and stakeholders that share in our ambition to make the circular economy a reality.
Are you a changemaker? Learn more about our global network of innovators by clicking the link below.
[cta link=”http://www.circle-economy.com/membership/”]I’m a changemaker![/cta][hr]
As of 22 June, Fiona van ‘t Hullenaar joined Circle Economy’s Cooperative Board. She brings with her over 20 years of corporate experience, an extensive network, and leadership experience and will work alongside our current board members, Robert-Jan van Ogtrop, Herman Wijffels, Dr. Louise Vet, and Martijn Lopes Cardozo.The expansion of Circle Economy’s Cooperative Board represents the maturing of Circle Economy as an organisation. Having now been in existence for 5 years, the Circle Economy team recognised the need for new expertise, experience, and outlook on the Board as a way to achieve the organisation’s ambitious goals. The member companies of the Circle Economy cooperative agree and recently voted to confirm Fiona’s appointment during the most recent annual meeting, held on 22 June.
“We are very happy to welcome Fiona to the Cooperative Board. She is a dedicated professional and a true ambassador advocating the circular agenda. Her latest project at a.s.r. shows her capacity to make circular ambitions a reality.”
- Robert-Jan van Ogtrop, Executive Chairman of Circle Economy’s Board
For the last six and a half years Fiona has been the Director of Business Support at a.s.r. Insurance during which, she was responsible for Sustainability, Facility Management, Operations and the Sustainable Renovation of the company’s 86.000m2 head office. Fiona was awarded the Bouwpluim 2015, the Nederlandse Bouwprijs 2017, and was nominated for the Duurzame 50 2017 for her work in the field of sustainable building. She also holds several advisory positions, including one on the International Advisory Board of Utrecht University on the subject of sustainability. Fiona’s extensive experience in corporate environments gives way to her strong focus on corporate responsibility and circularity. She has an MSc degree in geology and geophysics from Utrecht University and furthered her education at the London Business School. Recently Fiona received her certification as an Executive Coach, which she is now using to help business executives tap into their intrinsic motivations and develop themselves to their full potential.
"I strongly believe that there is simply no excuse to wait for holistic, integral solutions. There is simply no excuse anymore for focusing on the “Cannot” or “But what if”. The way forward is for each and every person to focus on the possibilities and opportunities that the circular economy provides, and apply that to their own circle of impact and influence. As a Circle Economy board member I am eager to contribute my enormous enthusiasm to the organisation and to inspire other companies to see the possibilities and concretely build on their efforts to achieve a more sustainable future."
- Fiona van ‘t Hullenaar, Member of Circle Economy’s Board
Alongside Robert-Jan van Ogtrop (chair), Herman Wijffels, Louise Vet, and Martijn Lopes Cardozo, Fiona van ‘t Hullenaar will focus her work on expanding Circle Economy’s network and supporting the organisation as it further develops new programs and digitises its tools.
When we initiated the Netherlands Circular Hotspot (NLCH) campaign back in 2016, along with Compazz,Delta Development, and SER, our goal was not only to position the Netherlands as an international frontrunner in all things circular, but to clear the way for other countries to take up the torch and collectively light the way for a global, circular economy. By no means did we lay an exclusive claim to the Circular Hotspot title, and so we are eager to welcome our neighbors in Luxembourg into the (closed) loop as they showcase their own progress throughout the coming days!
“The Netherlands is an ideal country for experiments or pilots, which is why the transition to a circular economy is such a natural fit.” Guido Braam, Initiator of NLCH
Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Dutch have a long-standing history of proving just how true the saying goes. As a nation that largely sits below sea level (and gradually sinking, too!), the Netherlands have had to turn to flood control strategies that go beyond the traditional levee and found opportunities in the most challenging of places.But if innovation is indeed the key to reshaping the world, necessity cannot be alone in breeding creativity — something the Dutch understand well. Optimistic, entrepreneurial, and quick to adapt, they were and continue to be in a unique position to lead the global transition to a circular economy, especially in light of the knowledge they have accumulated over the past few years on circular solutions.And so they did.
NLCH rallied thought-, sector-, and industry leaders to outline a visionary future for our global economy through an energizing compilation of testimonials, opinion pieces, and interviews. To better illustrate this vision, the campaign also set up the Circular Expo, a futuristic exhibition that imagined what a future circular economy could look like, giving the concept the tangible quality it lacked and bringing it into the realm of the practical. By demonstrating real-life applications of circular strategies at the Innovation Expo, and by putting the spotlight on iconic circular projects in the Netherlands — from Mud Jeans’ leasing jeans model to Black Bear Carbon’s used-tires-to-carbon-black process and Philips’ lighting-as-a-service proposition — the Netherlands effectively proved circularity to be a viable (and feasible) economic model.
“You’ve got this extraordinary expertise building up here in the Netherlands. Your next big leap is export, because you’ve got a gift to bring to a lot of other places.” (Andy Ridley, CEO at Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, former CEO at Circle Economy)
But first and foremost was NLCH an exercise in transferring knowledge, as trade and journalist missions rolled in to learn about the Netherlands’ approach to closing the loop and connect with the pioneers advancing the field. The campaign democratized the circular economy concept to the rest of the world. It laid the grounds for and asked other countries to adopt and adapt the concept — and our plea did not fall on deaf ears.
If we are to move towards the mass adoption of the circular economy, we need more countries to step into the ring and communicate their commitment to and their progress in terms of circularity as early and as often as possible. Luxinnovation, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, and the Luxembourg government drew inspiration from the framework we provided to set up their own campaign and make Luxembourg the next circular hotspot, and we are excited to learn about the strides they’ve made over the last year at their showcase event throughout the coming days.As more countries start to follow suit (looking at you, Scotland!), we hope to continue to turn the tide and make circularity the norm rather than the exception. Circular islands in overwhelmingly linear seas are no doubt a great start, but we are eager to see the islands multiply and grow until no linear waters can ever surround them again.
Learn more about the event here.Are you attending and want to connect with us? Let Vera know!
The past quarter brought with it many exciting developments in the circular fashion and textiles arena. March saw both the launch of Fashion for Good and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Fibres Initiative; April brought promise in the form of the EU waste policy reform; and May heralded the annual Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Spring has sprung in the circular textiles world, and the seed of change has been firmly planted. So what’s next?
The Copenhagen Fashion Summit, now a yearly occurrence, has made much needed headway with its Global Fashion Agenda — a bold and ambitious initiative aimed at mobilising the fashion industry to change its dirty ways. Its goal? Increase the volume of textiles collected, reused, and recycled by 2020 by setting forth four immediate action points for brands:
These action points give a simple direction to an immensely complicated topic and therefore can successfully rally the support and help the fashion industry needs to build critical mass on this topic. But, after signing on the dotted line, the ambitious brands that take on the GFA challenge still need support in delivering on their promises — something the current system cannot yet provide. While GFA is providing a toolbox for signatories to get started, the long term still calls for tailored guidance.
The Global Fashion Agenda doesn’t merely encourage change — it demands it, and the action points it has set forward are no doubt a great start to the conversation. To date, 30 global brands have already signed, including Adidas, Kering, and H&M. But as Livia Firth rightly articulated, “If we had to go to yet another conference where we hear pledges, promises, targets to achieve, discussions on what it will look like, we will all become old before it actually happens.” To turn intent into action and make closed-loop a reality, the current agenda should also include these two critical action points:Invest and collaborate in infrastructure. A robust infrastructure of reverse logistics, standardized input materials, and co-created best practices will support the success of viable textile-to-textile recycling technologies now and in the future. This infrastructure is the foundation for sustainable consumption and production patterns, and without such a system, increased collection and use of recycled fibres is not possible.Communicate with the consumer. In a circular economy, consumers become suppliers to the system and act as a gateway for resource collection. They are not the end of the funnel but an essential link in closing the loop — and we are only as strong as our weakest link. Increased transparency and willingness to be vulnerable in the transition towards circularity will be what sets the frontrunners apart from the laggers. Consumers need to be taken along this journey- and any triumph big or small is reason enough to shout about and set a precedent for the industry.It's imperative that brands put their money where their mouth is and help build the infrastructure needed to climb our ever growing clothing mountain — and shout about it as they're doing it, so that the cultural tide can also begin to turn.This is no easy feat, but with (sustainability) heavy weights like Asos, Inditex and M&S on board, the clout is there to make this the agenda to end all agendas. We will eagerly track the progress and support the signatories with the necessary data, tools, technologies, as they take steps towards attaining these goals. [hr]
The 2017 edition of Beyond Green cuts through the noise, the pledges and the ambitions — in short, the long-standing blah blah surrounding sustainability in the fashion industry, and moves straight to practice.
[cta link="http://circle-economy.com/beyondgreen2017"]Join us there[/cta]
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