4 Drivers for a Circular Economy
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switzerland
our beautiful country with our democracy
often regarded as a global role model
you can swim in our lakes and marvel at
the glorious mountain landscape
we seem to be doing well on our small
island of progress
well but if we consider what it takes to
maintain the seemingly intact spot
the backstage is less exemplary our co2
footprint
is alarmingly high and if everybody
would live like us
we would need approximately three
planets
let’s zoom out a little there we are
the earth at the sweet spot between the
sun
and the moon the perfect conditions to
enable fruits nature
life to be and to flourish and us to
establish
and grow as a civilization beautiful
isn’t it
the issue is we have built our whole
economic system so the way we organize
ourselves as human beings
on the principle that resources are
endless
and of course it doesn’t really work
like this
my name is amanda and this is logan in
the next 10 minutes we will tell you
how and why we launched an initiative
that is transforming the economy of
switzerland into a circular one
a circular economy what is that
let’s take a look at this arrow what
does it evoke in you
something positive right this works
gross
progress wealth but if we put it this
way
doesn’t feel the same anymore there is a
boundary
nature is made out of cycles there is
the water cycle
the one we all learned in school the
nutrient cycle
the biocycles everything works in a
closed system
guess what does not follow this
principle
s our economy so of course
as you can imagine we need to start
thinking ahead
and gradually diverge from this linear
path onto a more circular one
one that follows the natural cycle
and this is where circular economy comes
into play an economical model
that takes less resources from nature
that produces
things in a way that everything can be
introduced back into the system
so nothing gets wasted of course this
requires
a profound change not only in the way we
produce
but in the way we consume and live
but how to achieve an efficient
transition of such a monster economy
one that is fast as time is running and
carefully designed
we believe there are two elements to it
action
and collaboration the truth is
the problems we’re facing today have
become way too complex
and they’re beyond a single individual
organization
sector or government to solve they
require new approaches
new ways of working together they
require collaboration
collaboration may seem an easy concept
to follow
right but in practice so difficult to
truly apply
this is why six years ago i committed
myself to this course
and with three friends we created a
neutral space
where people from different sectors and
backgrounds
could come and bring their ideas and
projects
we wanted to create a community of
social entrepreneurs
and innovators and we joined a global
movement
of makers and doors called impact hub
now if you happen to work in the world
of social entrepreneurship
you might know about the challenges to
reconcile impact
with profitability and we were seated
with this exact same question
as we knew the importance to engage the
private sector
as a key actor in changing the way our
economy operates
and last year something game-changing
happened that would put the impact hub
on a new mission
we had the chance to meet the foundation
the mara foundation
who introduced her as their circular
vision for switzerland
and circular economy seemed to be
exactly what we’re looking for
a new way of looking at our economy one
that decouples growth
from resource extraction and mava soinos
a crucial player to lead this needle
transition
and we were so excited it was like
discovering a
great dish circular economy and figuring
out that all ingredients
were at our hands
so what we needed to do was to put our
head together
and create a recipe design a roadmap
that step by step would leverage all
important actors
and so we did so challenge accepted
in three years from now switzerland as
one of the
most polluting and consuming countries
in the world should have evolved
into a pioneer for circular businesses
and ideas
so we identified four drivers as crucial
to make this transition happen
first the entrepreneurs we believe that
fostering entrepreneurs and ideas in
that direction
will have a major role to play in the
transition as entrepreneurs are fast
and passionate exactly what this
transition needs
so we opened the call for applications
for circular ideas
projects and startups to apply to be
honest
i was pretty curious to know if there
were any of these in switzerland
and within a few weeks we got 130
application
ideas tackling the textile industry for
example with clothing sharing platforms
the plastic problem with smart
collection systems
or even our monetary system with for
example the
introduction of a local digital
blockchain based currency
we were so amazed about all these ideas
and we selected 26 out of them
the ones we thought was the biggest
impact potential so what do we do with
these startups
for those of you who don’t know what an
incubator is basically
we provide them with all the support
they need to grow
experts network visibility
but what is most important to us is to
foster them to collaborate
and so be the purpose driven and
collaborative leaders our world need
so let me share one startup example with
you
this is jojo a very funny guy if you
happen to meet him
that set himself as a goal to
revolutionize the toilet industry
yep identifying that what we like to
flush away
every day in the sense of out of sight
out of mind
is actually a treasure
so jojo built a compass toilet
not that innovative you might think
but he does not only focus on bringing
them to festivals
he brings them into houses into
buildings into
cities where actually the majority of
people live
so instead of this precious resource
going into these complicated treatment
plants
going into these complicated treatment
plants
he collects it and brings it back where
it belongs
into the fields where these exact
nutrients are lacking
and even produced artificially so with
his project
jojo is closing a resource loop and this
makes so much sense right
like jojo many more change makers are
seeking for support
and partnership to help them grow so we
thought
what if we could connect two startups
with established
businesses what if their technologies
could be applied by big players in order
to accelerate the transition
so we needed businesses and this is our
second pillar
for the transition the great thing about
circular economy
is that we can go to companies talk
about sustainability
using their same language risk reduction
cost reduction risk mitigation huge
innovation potential
so we launched a business lab where 30
swiss smes
are being supported to develop circular
business models
transform their product designs and
processes
and learn about the huge potential of
this framework
in order to achieve this we immerse them
into our spaces and networks
where they can find the right partners
for example a startup
and technologies that will help them
close their resource loop
so imagine we’re there there are more
circular products on the markets
businesses are transforming their
processes how to ensure
that the people the demand is following
third driver of the circular economy
transition
civil society students parents and each
and every one of us that consume
live travel work so how to involve
people i remember four years ago
when i announced to two of my best
friends that i wanted to become
vegetarian
you should have seen their reaction it
felt like
i had told them i was quitting social
life
no more dinners barbecues christmas
traditions and so on
in this reaction i faced it with a lot
of decisions i took for this same reason
going zero away stop flying at least in
europe etc
the good news is these two same friends
today
are joining the climate demonstrations
and rethinking themselves their
consumption habits
not because of me but because of
probably the force or the fifth person
that told them exactly the same thing
people can inspire each other and this
has a great power so we started
organizing events
five per month one in each each swiss
city involved
around circular economy topics to
inspire people
and what we were amazed about was the
extraordinary high response rate
with sometimes more than 100 people
showing up willing to become engaged
so we started using these events as a
platform to show great examples from
businesses
startups and to connect these actors
the more events the bigger the community
the bigger the skill set
the ideas the movement
still this is not enough
now we need government to set the right
frame and create real incentives for
businesses to shift their processes and
products
and for consumers to make the right
choices
so we started working with policy makers
and here we have the chance that a
partner is collecting all the learnings
from our work with entrepreneurs and
businesses
to then make policy recommendations
and finally what we do is we bring the
whole community together
so entrepreneurs businesses civil
society
and policy makers across two major major
events in switzerland
where they can inspire each other share
the lessons learned and also to
push the transition forward to sum up
the question whether this transition has
to happen in a bottom-up or in a
top-down way
is not a question to us anymore we need
to tackle it at all levels
at the same time as we are aiming for
systemic change
today we told you a story about the
swiss initiative
but in fact it’s a story about impact
through collaboration there is nothing
new
nothing revolutionary it’s an approach
that can be replicated and where every
one of you
has a key role to play
like a cyclone that is forming
you start to see it you don’t know
exactly its intensity or what direction
it will take
but you notice it very quickly
if the cyclone starts to engage more
things on its trajectory it becomes more
powerful
and grows the closer you get the more
you get attracted and automatically
start to engage
we want the circular movement to cross
boundaries and sectors
we want that it transform into a force
that can change everything
for a better future so keep an eye on
your weather forecast
we are on our way thank you
[Music]
you