Episode 16 – Sophie Thomas, of Thomas.Matthews ltd

What we talk about

[01:00] We start with Sophie’s background and how that led her into the fields of ethical design, behaviour change and material process, resulting in her setting up her design agency, Thomas.Matthews ltd, nearly 20 years ago. We find out how Sophie uses her experience in sustainable and ethical design to help people understand more about the circular economy.

How the circular economy is a key tool to tackle climate change

[07:15] Looking back to earlier this decade, we chat about the difference that the Ellen MacArthur Foundation made. In helping move the conversation on from Resource Efficiency and industrial ecology, it meant that businesses and governments began to understand the benefits of a circular economy – for profitable business, jobs, resource security and more. Recently the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has released a report Completing the Picture: How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change highlighting the need for a fundamental shift in the global approach to cutting emissions.  Moving to renewables can address 55 per cent of global GHG emissions, the circular economy can bridge the gap to tackle the remaining 45 per cent.

The Great Recovery Project

[09:15] We talk about the groundbreaking Great Recovery Project, which looked at the challenges and opportunities of the CE, through the lens of design.

The Great Recovery project was supported by Innovate UK (funded by the UK Government) and The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, which ‘believes in a world where everyone is able to participate in creating a better future.’ The project ran from 2012-2016 and developed lots of tools for designers, using a Tear-Down and Design Up approach. The outputs, tools and resources are available online: http://www.greatrecovery.org.uk

Designing for a system and multiple product ‘lives’

[16:00] Sophie explains the importance of thinking about the system you are designing for, not just the object or product itself. We talk about why it is important to design for more than one product life – not just designing for better recycling but thinking about the 3^rd and 4^th lives of the product. Who are you designing for, and how can you make it fit for repair, reuse, and maybe for a service or subscription model.

Acquiring new customers is expensive!

[19:20] We discuss the benefits of designing durable, upgradable products. Sophie reminds us that it’s 18 times cheaper to keep an existing customer, compared to acquiring a new one, and that business models that aim for technical, cultural and psychological obsolescence seem to be losing traction. We discuss the encouraging early signs of a shift towards selling services instead of (yet more) products, and how some of the major brands seem to be moving towards that.

Are we nearly there yet??

[21.20] We hear about the importance of cultural and emotional factors in how we live and what we choose to buy. Recognising our economic systems are focused on GDP and consuming, so trying to change that is complex, challenging and slow. Even the best business case may not be enough to overcome the inertia.  Recently, Sophie feels there is a slight awakening, with the climate emergency starting to galvanise businesses and people into positive actions.

We talk about Circular Economy 2.0 and ethics of the circular economy, agreeing that it’s the best tool we have for sustainability. Sophie is seeing small shifts from global businesses and thinks we need more brave ‘first movers’. Catherine mention’s Vodafone, a major UK mobile network provider, which has just announced it will offer the Fairphone 3.