university of leeds the circular economy
TRANSCRIPT
Ashley Robb,Director, Green Gain Ltd
The Circular Economy in Action
Introducing the Circular Economy
Circular Economy tick list• Substituting traditional raw materials with renewable
resources;• Design for repair / remanufacture / recovery;• Systems thinking - business models which reduce resource
use and optimise circularity.
Innovative
…. and inspiring
The circular economy mattressThe Furniture Recycling Group:• Collects end-of-life mattresses
from hotels and households;• Manual disassembly… new
mattress built from springs;• All other components reused
or recycled.
High growth rate company… rapidly expanding around UK
Are Mushrooms the New Plastics?
Ecovative business growth rate: 0 to 70 (employees) in six years
Packaging material made from fungi mycelium grown in crop wastes:
• Renewable, non-toxic and compostable;• Same function as expanded polystyrene, but better.
WARPit: re-use market place
• WARPit offers a subscription service purchased by each organisation;• Staff can give away or loan/rent out their surplus or underused assets to
other staff in a secure controlled online environment; and• WARPit also sets up the technical and legal framework to allow
organisations to link up and share their surplus resources.
ECONATION LIGHT ENERGYSmart natural lighting
• EcoNation - supplier of ecological daylight solutions for selected industrial market applications;
• LightCatcher - advanced mirror and technology-based system, bringing in more daylight into buildings than traditional light shafts or domes;
• EcoNation - offers to finance large industrial lighting projects by itself. EcoNation then places LightCatcher light domes on the customer's roof, absorbs the entire investment, monitors the energy savings; and
• Customer - saves 20% - 70% on the energy bill without investing one single euro.
Ricoh: printer remanufacturing
Interface – Net Works• Net-Works enables fishing
communities in developing countries to sell waste nets back into a global supply chain;
• Interface receives a fully recycled source of nylon for carpet tile production, and the local community receives long-term incentives to protect their natural environment; and
• To date, collected 61 tonnes of discarded fishing nets, helping 4,500 villagers in 14 collection sites in Philippines.
ConclusionsInspired to develop new circular economy enterprise?
• Take the time to properly research an idea;• Collaboration is key;• So is strong leadership;• Funding available – but don’t get fenced in;• Be prepared to change direction; and• Being an ‘early adopter’ does not come without risk!
