Misleading soundbites | Impossibilities | 2023 projects | Circular economy stories | Podcast highlights
A decade of learning and sharing
Welcome to the latest round-up of what I’ve been working on, and what’s inspired me. In this issue:
- My interview in Greenbiz… maybe I need media training!
- False solutions and Impossibilities
- What I’ve been up to
- Circular economy stories – The Wonderful Circles of Oz
- The Circular Economy Podcast – some recent highlights
- Thank you letters
My interview in Greenbiz – how to read between the lines!
It was great to be featured by Greenbiz at the start of 2024, although I noticed that a couple of my ‘soundbites’ could be taken to mean exactly the opposite of what I went on to talk about…! Both phrases relate to the dangers of sticking with strategies for ‘business-as-usual – but better’, rather than adapting for the challenges of the 21st century. Shining a light on these may help you get clearer on circularity and its benefits.
Kori Goldberg of Greenbiz’s Circular Economy team wanted to know how I see the circular economy taking shape, which sectors are showing promising progress, and what advice I would offer to the next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators and business leaders who want to accelerate the circular economy.
The online article was a short summary of our conversation (yes, you’re right – I can talk forever about circular solutions!), and I felt it lost some context and clarity.
For example, responding to Kori’s question about recurring themes, I say “But established business leaders really struggle to make the business case…” Does that mean I think circular approaches only work for startups? Absolutely not! We can see little evidence that big corporates are making meaningful circular changes, and I believe they struggle to make the business case because they focus on incremental improvements and don’t recognise the hidden costs of ‘business as usual’.
Later in the same ‘recurring themes’ section, I say “Circular materials are generally a false solution. This idea that we can just switch to recycled or regenerative materials, that’s a big tick in the box.” That could be taken to mean that material swaps are a good solution, when instead, I wanted to highlight the dangers of a ‘box-ticking’ short-term mentality. We can all see examples of businesses swapping in some recycled or biomaterials, perhaps to replace plastics, followed by some eye-catching marketing to promote their circularity achievements. In other words, seeing circular materials as a big tick in the box is misguided.
I’ve explained more about what’s keeping businesses stuck in ‘last century’ thinking and how to avoid that trap in this blog, and you can read the summary of my interview with Greenbiz, here: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/scale-out-not-rethink-your-circular-strategy (published 19 Jan 2024).
False solutions and impossibilities
The circular economy is still a relatively new concept, and like many other ‘big ideas’, there’s a risk of it being misunderstood or watered down. We might be in a rush to implement it, or instead, pushing it onto the ‘back burner’ because it’s not a quick fix to what we see as more pressing problems.
The danger is that we miss out on the benefits, lose ground to competitors, or fail to adapt to big trends and looming risks.
Author Julia Galef says we see what we want to see, what she calls a ‘soldier mindset’. We are ‘driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe and shoot down those we don’t.’ Instead, she says we should train ourselves to use a scout mindset: to recognize when we were wrong, to seek out our blind spots, to test our assumptions and change course when we need to.
It feels important to keep challenging businesses about the risks of false solutions, ‘random acts of circularity’ and the tendency to focus on doing ‘a bit less bad’ instead of completely rethinking strategies to do better, with much less.
You can hear more of my thinking on this, in my blog from 2021, Does circular mean sustainable? How ‘false solutions’ undermine our progress and more recently, in episode 90 of the Circular Economy Podcast, when I talked about some of the false solutions we’re seeing, with initiatives that are circular but make little difference or – worse still – create more problems than they solve.
I’ve also given talks on ‘false solutions’ for the UNSSC circular economy course and, more recently, to students on the ‘Applied Circular Economy’ course at Harvard Extension School.
I think it’s important that we are open to new and challenging thinking – cultivating a ‘scout mindset’ – so I try to keep up to speed on criticism of circular and regenerative approaches, in case I need to rethink or learn something. Last year, I came across a LinkedIn post mentioning a recent Factor X publication from the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), The Impossibilities of the Circular Economy: Separating Aspirations from Reality. It was accompanied by a link to a series of cartoons, that ‘pulled no punches’, and I wanted to know more.
Often, critics of the circular economy point to the gaps between the concepts and the practicalities, for example, the laws of physics, the tendency for cherry-picking or oversimplification. Of course, that can feel frustrating. However, many of the eminent scholars who have contributed research, ideas and insights for the book are offering solutions, too. They highlight a need for systems and complexity thinking, for a deeper and more rounded leadership skills, and they remind us that merely ‘closing the loop’ on materials isn’t the answer.
After digesting the brilliant cartoons and scanning the contents of the book, I got in touch with Christoph Hinske, one of the editors. We had a long conversation, exploring the possibility of talking to one or two of the authors on the podcast. I’ve still got a bit more reading to do to make sure I’m up to speed, so watch this space!
In the meantime, the book is available as a Creative Commons PDF, or as an (expensive!) hardback here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Impossibilities-of-the-Circular-Economy-Separating-Aspirations-from/Lehmann-Hinske-Margerie-Nikolova/p/book/9781032154435 and the cartoons are also available, under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0, in PDF or PowerPoint here: https://www.businessillustrator.com/tag/circular-economy/
What I’ve been up to…
It’s now ten years since I stepped off the ‘corporate career ladder’ so I could focus on helping people discover and use circular approaches to create more sustainable, resilient and prosperous businesses. In that decade, I’ve learnt so much, especially from leading thinkers like Professor Walter R Stahel, Ken Webster, Craig Johnson and Paul Hawken – but it feels like there is so much more to get to grips with! I try to share what I learn, through my talks, writing, and the podcast. This year, the Circular Economy Podcast will be five years old, and to celebrate, there’ll be a special episode with a circular economy VIP.
And at last, I feel like I’m ‘back in the game’ with my next book, after a mini-breakthrough on how best to frame the root cause of our collective inaction on the many interlinked crises that we’re up against.
It’s been a difficult journey so far, with hundreds of hours of work since autumn 2021, punctuated by long periods of being ‘stuck’ or needing to prioritise other projects and responsibilities. I’ve promised myself (again!) not to accept any invitations for talks and workshops until I finish the manuscript – so now it’s ‘head down’ and no distractions!
One of those projects was supporting IEMA’s circular economy programme. After becoming a fellow of IEMA in 2022, I was invited to join the extremely knowledgeable and committed circular economy professionals on the IEMA Circular Economy Steering Group. All through 2023, we were hard at work creating short guides to help IEMA members understand both circular economy basics, and how (and why!) to embed circular strategies into the organisation. IEMA members are in 120 countries around the world, and we’ve tried to reflect this in the examples we’ve used. The guides are free for IEMA members, and available for non-members to purchase through the IEMA Circular Economy website page.
Last autumn I also completed an excellent short online course – Values 101 – with the Common Cause Foundation. I heard Ruth Taylor from the CCF, talking about how we are affected by the values we see portrayed in the media, by institutions, on social media and so on. Often, this fits in with a capitalist and ‘success’ narrative, when in fact most people actually live by more benevolent (‘intrinsic’) values based on care, kindness, love of nature and so on. Making those intrinsic values ‘front of mind’ helps strengthen them in our minds, so we are then more likely to make choices in line with those. Small changes to how we engage with people can make a big difference to helping them make choices in line with their values. I was really struck by this and after completing the course, I invited Ruth Taylor to share an overview of CCF’s work on the podcast, with the episode due out in March.
Circular economy stories
After my trip to North Wales to interview Ken Webster ‘on location’ for the podcast, Ken kindly sent me a copy of his recent book, The Wonderful Circles of Oz: A Circular Economy Story, co-written with Alex Duff.
It’s relatively short, at a little over 200 pages, and the first third is an engaging and enjoyable ‘riff’ on the original Wizard of Oz story. Ken and Alex offer an alternative allegory, outlining a not-too-distant-future based on and new form of economy that’s more just and more distributive. They set out to provide a framework and solutions with pathways to ‘an effective circular economy – the gateway to an abundant, autonomous and democratic future.’
In the fictional first section, ‘Rewriting the Allegory’, Ken and Alex show us a world where people work less and have deeper levels of fulfilment, community and connections. In the second part, they unpack the concepts and rationale from the story, explaining more about each of the key ideas and making the case for why these should be the way forward. The final section sets out the ‘golden path’ between the fiction, the frameworks and real-world applications.
The book offers a wealth of ideas and insights, and I’ve got a bit more reading to do before I can fully digest them. Full review coming soon!
The Circular Economy Podcast: a few recent highlights
There have been lots of episodes since the last edition of Insights: here are the outlines of the most recent ones. If you’re looking for inspiration around a specific circular economy strategy, or to see what’s happening in a particular market sector, then please check out the podcast index spreadsheet. You can sort and filter across several categories and keywords, to help you quickly find the episodes you want.
119 Ken Webster: the circular ECONOMY. Ken Webster is a leading thinker in the circular economy field – we explore concepts for a critical aspect that’s being ignored – the economy itself! Shownotes here.
119 Bonus Ken Webster: the circular ECONOMY! Part 2. Continuing the conversation with Ken Webster, a leading thinker in the circular economy field, where we explore concepts for a critical element – the economy itself! Shownotes here
120 Priorities are changing. People find life is better when we care for and share things, and Catherine Weetman says that circular economy strategies can make that better for business, too. Shownotes here.
121 Claire O’Sullivan and Kitty Wilson Brown: Contemporary Hempery. Claire O’Sullivan and Kitty Wilson Brown are on a mission to regenerate hemp textiles. Hemp has amazing potential – why aren’t we doing more with it? Shownotes here.
122 Iain McKechnie: steps to a services-led strategy. Iain McKechnie of Advanced Services Group helps clients develop services-led strategies, improving circularity and outcomes for businesses and their customers. Shownotes here.
Find the podcast series on iTunes, Google Podcasts, PlayerFM, Spotify, TuneIn, or search for “circular economy” in your favourite podcast app.
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PS We’d love it if you could post a review, and help other people find us!
Thank you letters
Thanks to Kori Goldberg and Jon Smeja of the Greenbiz Circular Economy team, firstly for inviting me to share my views on how the circular economy is taking shape, and secondly for inviting me to do a Keynote and separate ‘Ask Me Anything’ session at Circularity 24, in Chicago. Those of you who know me well will also know that I’m doing my best to avoid flying, and after much deliberation (including some ‘wide-awake at 3am’ cogitation), I decided I couldn’t justify the trip.
My thanks go to all the awesome podcast guests I’ve interviewed over the last year. Speaking with the entrepreneurs, business leaders and leading thinkers who are passionate about the circular economy happen is what gives me hope for the future. These conversations, plus the feedback from listeners, keeps me going with my quest, helping show how going circular can hit the sweet spot, where stakeholder value and sustainability come together.
Let me know what you think – just hit reply!
I believe businesses thrive by making a better world, for people and planet. I focus on supporting those who want to explore how circular and regenerative approaches create value and shrink your footprint. I aim to help you clarify what to do (and why), convince your stakeholders, and make a solid business case.