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135 Tuomo Laine: unlocking circular business models

Artwork for Circular Economy Podcast episode 135 with Tuomo Laine

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 extraction of new materials, and it helps a broad spectrum of clients, from large retailers to individual sellers.

The platform aims to enhance the value of any kind of object – by extending product lifecycles, unlocking more usage and sales from each item, conserving resources, improving value chain gross margin and reducing the need for new manufacturing. This is all about creating more value through circularity, not finding ways to reduce quality or reduce the pay for workers.

Twice Commerce’s clients include Decathlon, Rab Outdoors, Intersport, Motonet and many others, covering clothing, outdoor equipment, tools and much more, and by enabling improvements to the bottom line, Twice Commerce helps clients align profitability with environmental stewardship.

Tuomo and his colleagues are getting to the crux of how to redesign the typical one-way commerce software to facilitate circular solutions and to address the elements that are adding cost, complexity or dysfunctionality.

This is all about unlocking productivity – not just labour productivity, but thinking about how to leverage more value from the inputs you’ve invested in every unit that comes off the production line.

International speaker, author and strategic advisor, Catherine Weetman helps people discover why circular, regenerative and fair solutions are better for people, planet – and prosperity.

Catherine’s award-winning book: A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business includes lots of practical examples and tips on getting started. 

Stay in touch for free insights and updates… 

Read on for more on our guest and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.

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Links we mention in the episode:

Catherine’s work:

Guest bio

Tuomo Laine is the CEO and co-founder of Twice Commerce, a commerce platform focused on enabling sustainable commerce and speeding up the adoption of the circular economy globally. Tuomo is known for his straightforward and action-oriented attitude and his dedication to using entrepreneurship for societal good. He is a member of the Unreasonable Group Fellowship, and occasionally invited lecturer at Aalto University regarding his experiences in venture building.

Twice’s mission is to uncouple economic growth from the extraction of new materials. It enables a broad spectrum of businesses, from large retailers to individual sellers, to prosper sustainably. The platform’s vision is to enhance the value of any thing – by extending product lifecycles, facilitating more usage and sales from each item, conserving resources, improving value chain gross margin and reducing the need for new manufacturing— without forgetting that your purchase is someone else’s salary. Searching for bottom line improvement both for businesses and the planet, thereby aligning profitability with environmental stewardship.

Playlist: getting started with the circular economy…

Want to know more about the what the circular economy really is, and how it can help your business?  Here’s a playlist to help you get to grips with the concept, how it creates value, and the common myths (spoiler alert – it’s much more than recycling!)

  • #1 What is the circular economy: A quick intro to explain what the circular economy is and why it’s important. We explore how it helps create better products and services, and at the same time helps to make a better world. I break it down into my 5 circular economy components, helping you think about each part of your business.
  • #2 The linear economy and your risk checklist: We dig a bit deeper into the way we do business now, the linear economy, and why that’s creating problems for business, society and our living planet. Also, we’ll look at the risks that emerge from those big-picture issues, and how they might affect your organisation.
  • #90 Does circular mean it’s sustainable? Catherine Weetman is worried that companies are using circular economy solutions to grow their business (and their footprints).
  • #101 Circular is better for people, planet and profit! How three simple strategies can help you get started with circular and regenerative solutions that are better for people, planet and profit.
  • #120 Priorities are changing: people find life is better when we care for and share things – circular economy strategies make that better for business, too.

And here’s Catherine’s guide: What is the circular economy? 

Want to dig deeper?

Why not buy Catherine’s award-winning book, A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business. This comprehensive guide uses a bottom-up, practical approach, and includes hundreds of real examples from around the world, to help you really ‘get’ the circular economy.  Even better, you’ll be inspired with ideas to make your own business more competitive, resilient and sustainable. 

Please let us know what you think of the podcast – and we’d love it if you could leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever you find your podcasts.  Or send us an email

Please let us know what you think of the podcast – and we’d love it if you could leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever you find your podcasts.  Or send us an email

Podcast music

Thanks to Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, otherwise known as the brilliant, inventive and generous folk duo, O’Hooley & Tidow for allowing me to use the instrumentals from the live version of Summat’s Brewin’ as music for the podcast. You can find the whole track (inspired by the Copper Family song “Oh Good Ale”) on their album, also called Summat’s Brewin’.  Or, follow them on Twitter.

Previous episodes....

Ep 57 Helen Burdett World Economic Forum

Episode 57 Helen Burdett – World Economic Forum

Helen Burdett leads the World Economic Forum’s work on circular economy innovation, including its flagship initiative, Scale360°, and its work on Circular Trailblazers. The Scale360° program advances innovation ecosystems for environmental and economic impact with scalable, locally-led innovation support delivered through private-public partnerships--all connected through a global digital community. Circular Trailblazers are the subject of a new report from the…
Ep 55 Anthony Burns ACS

Episode 55 Anthony Burns – ACS

We meet Anthony Burns, Chief Operating Officer of ACS in Scotland. ACS started out as a formal-wear hire business, and is now an internationally recognised and award-winning circular fashion enterprise with clothes rental offerings for woman, men, children and babies. It is now working with a wide range of fashion brands, acting as their Circular Service Provider. We find out…
Ep 54 Louise Bijleveld LONO

Episode 54 Louise Bijleveld – LONO

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Ep 53 Mick Payne – Techbuyer

Episode 53 Mick Payne – Techbuyer

Mick Payne is the Managing Director of Techbuyer’s UK operations. Techbuyer helps businesses maximise their IT budgets by supplying cost-effective new and quality refurbished servers, storage, memory and networking equipment, from over 150 brands including HPE, Dell, IBM and Cisco. Every year it configures over 3000 IT servers and data-erases over 10,000 hard drives each month.

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