Colin Church, Chief Executive of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the global network for the materials cycle – also known as IOM3, guides us through topics including critical materials, the complexities of modern supply chains, transparency and Life Cycle Analysis, the challenges of how we ensure fair shares of finite resources and much more.
Steve Haskew of Circular Computing, is back to tell us about how Circular Computing was awarded the world’s first BSI Kitemark™ for Remanufactured Laptops from the British Standards Institute. Steve explains what a Kitemark is, and why it’s important. Steve also tells us how the Kitemark has opened up conversations with new customers and partners, and why it’s important to realise that a zero carbon future can only happen if we go all-in for a circular economy.
Isolde de Ridder is a circular jeweller and goldsmith. She founded her business – Isolde de Ridder Sieraden, in 2017, to create high-end jewellery with the greatest care for both people and planet. Isolde gives discarded metals and other materials a second life, contributing to a better world for future generations.
Isolde began her education to become a goldsmith in 2006, to combine her passion for gemstones, creativity and working with her hands. She’s inspired by Nature, gemstones, ancient civilizations and also more recent art movements.
We talk about why reusing discarded precious metals is more complicated than it sounds, and how Isolde is encouraging people to bring old jewellery back to life, using her storytelling and design skills to help people repurpose jewellery and other materials into things they will treasure, and that remind them of their loved ones.
Isolde tells us about her early interests, and how they led her to start this business, how she became disillusioned with the ethics of Fair Mined and Fairtrade Gold, and how that sparked the ideas for becoming a circular economy jeweller.
Isolde describes some of the kinds of jewellery she designs, and how she uses old objects to embed precious memories into the finished product.
HELENA NORBERG-HODGE is a pioneer of the new economy movement and recipient of Right Livelihood Award (aka the “Alternative Nobel Prize”), the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”
Helena Norberg-Hodge is also an author, and her most recent book is Local is Our Future. This book connects the dots between our social, economic, ecological and spiritual crises, revealing how a systemic shift from global to local can address all of these seemingly disparate problems at the same time. Helena is also the author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness. Helena explains why local, small-scale, ‘traditional’ farming is better for farmers, for animal and human health, and for our planet, and how it helps strengthen local communities. We talk about why local food is one of the simple solutions to our interconnected, systemic problems, and why connection with soil, with nature, with the process of growing food, is essential for our health and wellbeing.
Charles Ross is a specialist in Performance Sportswear Design & sustainable matters, focusing on issues like Forever Chemicals (highlighted by the movie Dark Waters), the Plastics-in-the-Ocean, ReGenerative Agriculture. We discuss a range of sustainability issues related to Outdoor Clothing designs and materials, including the issue of over-consumption
Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, tells us how the Loop reusable packaging platform is bringing the convenience of prefill to high streets everywhere. TerraCycle and Loop are tackling the root causes of waste, including single use and disposable items.
We hear why they chose prefill, and why reuse needs to ‘feel disposable’. Tom explains how they are helping big brands and retailers to make the business case, feel confident about moving forward, and scale up from pilots to in-store roll-outs.
Gavin Fernie-Jones founded One Tree at a Time, an amazing circular social enterprise for outdoor gear and ski-wear, sharing value with the community and nature. Living in the Alps, Gavin has seen for himself the impact global warming has had in the mountains he calls home. He’s always loved the outdoors, having grown up living in an outdoor centre, but it was while running his bootfitting business The Boot Lab that he realised the impact his business was having on the environment.
Gavin started making small changes to the way that business operated, and seeing the results of this inspired him to start a social enterprise called One Tree at a Time.
One Tree at a Time is embedding circular approaches to change behaviours, build community and protect the mountain environment. The One Tree team has tapped into some surprising sources of ‘waste’ to create value for local people and help build and strengthen local connections. On top of that, One Tree at a Time supports businesses and individuals to change behaviour and protect their mountain environment.
Odyssey Innovation collects and recycles marine plastic into kayaks and other products. In 2020, we heard about the UK south-west coast operations – now it is expanding, with the Net Generation Scheme – helping the fishing industry, local government and lots of other stakeholders to create a scalable circular solution to reduce marine plastics. This is something that could expand around the world!
Solving customer problems is at the heart of a successful product or service – but what if you’ve misunderstood your customer’s pain points?
Today’s episode is one of my regular round ups of the last 9 conversations, exploring the theme of customer Pain Points. We’ll look at this from the perspective of businesses, and citizens – you and me. Some of those pain points are being overlooked by companies – that could be because they have a one-size-fits-all approach that might create value for one customer group, but doesn’t deliver, or may actually destroy value for another group.
New pain points are cropping up too – knowing that our choices aren’t contributing to a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world is bothering more and more of us.
RubyMoon, based in Brighton in the UK, is already using recycled fibres from Ocean Plastics to make its active wear products, and now wants to go further through research projects that overcome the technical challenges of recovering and recycling the kind of textiles commonly used in swimwear.
Jo explains that this project focuses on two key fabric elements, Nylon 6 – a strong, durable polyamide, and Elastane, that makes the fabric stretchy so it fits well and supports activites like swimming and other sports.
The challenge is how to find mechanical and chemical methods of breaking down polyamide elastane, that are both cost-effective and environmentally sound.
There’s a second ambitious project too, developing a nano trace to embed into the material so that it can be identified and recovered, to make sure it goes back into the closed loop system.