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

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you