Driving the circular economy through collaboration and disruptive change
21 July 2022 - This Circular Economy Week, the CISL Canopy Incubator and Accelerator hosted its first in-person programme, connecting cross-industry leaders and circular experts with innovators and change makers disrupting the status quo. CISL’s Programme Manager, Jie Zhou, shares some of her takeaways from two days of immersive workshops, panel debates, keynote speakers and networking.
Circular economy startups are demonstrating their ability to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges through scalable business models and innovation. However, entrepreneurs who have the disruptive solutions may lack the capital, resources or enabling networks to replicate and scale up solutions.
As part of ReLondon’s Circular Economy Week 2022, we brought together more than 25 contributors with 22 aspiring impact-driven entrepreneurs and innovators in Cambridge.
The two day programme kicked off with a hands-on session to encourage creativity and new thinking. Dr Holly Henderson facilitated a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop, with the 22 delegates working together to develop new ways of thinking about the circular economy, using the LEGO® pieces to bring their ideas to life.
Efficiency alone won't get us there
Ken Webster, Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University and previous Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, was next in line to deliver a thought-provoking seminar around systems thinking and the need for business owners to see the bigger picture.
He explained: “We should look at the economy as an organic system, like a leaf or human blood flow. There are the main arteries and veins that are optimised for efficient blood flow and there are the networks of smaller capillaries which are just as important as those bigger channels. However, when we view the economy we often only look at one channel: efficiency (veins). Efficiency isn’t purpose, it’s a relationship. When you focus solely on efficiency you overlook other key factors such as resilience (capillaries). A body made up of only veins is not resilient and will just efficiently hemorrhage blood when damaged. What’s key is knowing if it’s a healthy system, ecology or organism as a whole.”
“We should look at the economy as an organic system, like a leaf or human blood flow. There are the main arteries and veins that are optimised for efficient blood flow and there are the networks of smaller capillaries which are just as important as those bigger channels.”
Ken Webster, Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University
For Ken, simply and efficiently reducing negative impact by say 25% is not enough: a reduced negative impact is still a negative impact overall. "Less bad is not good… if we can’t imagine a positive cycle that rebuilds and improves social capital, then we’re falling short.”
A shift is happening. More businesses are choosing partners based on their purpose, multinational organisations are investing in circular design and R&D, and there has been a huge boost in investing for impact in the past few years. With this in mind, Circular Economy Executive Director of global design company IDEO, Chris Grantham, teamed up with Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Exeter Business School, Adam Lusby to deliver a two-part workshop on circular business strategy and value proposition through a regenerative lens.
“The success of a business should be measured in impact not ROI. ROI no longer works. It’s the wrong measurement for success. Everyone in the system needs to work together to create the greatest value for the greatest good.” - Jamie Goldring, CIRCULARITY.
There were some business breakthroughs too: “It’s been a revolution today. We’ve always talked about ourselves as a tech company, when we’re really a data company. The data is about taking away friction from that experience. Enabling every touch point to move more fluidly.” - Anna Roberts, iov42
Collaboration as an enabler for the circular economy
Of course, there are many entrepreneurs and start-ups out there who are already triggering systems change across industries and entire value chains. Our four circular trailblazers: Kresse Wesling, Deborah Barker, Matt Keniston and Professor David Greenfield, shared their small business journeys and how they are achieving impact beyond their size.
Deborah Barker, Co-Founder of South East England Fibreshed, which supports the creation of a regenerative ‘soil to soil’ fashion industry, said: “The sharing of ideas is a central ethos. It’s not a threat. Any scaling comes from replicability and we all share that knowledge. We offer an open network for the people that give something back. It’s not just for the taking.”
For Kresse, whose business involves rescuing London's decommissioned fire-hose, transforming them into sustainable and ethical lifestyle accessories and donating 50% of profits back to charities: “There has to be a circular flow of capital too - to help society.”
The sharing continued during that evening’s networking event, with guest speakers including Chief Procurement Officer at Rolls-Royce, Warrick Matthews and Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School. This also gave space to take in more of the Storey’s Field Centre, a building that beautifully balances aesthetics with function, designed with environmental sustainability at its core, and locally sourced materials - the perfect setting for our accelerator.
Taking a holistic approach
Tackling circular economy challenges requires a reflective and iterative approach to problem solving. We began our second day sharing insights from SERIOUS PLAY®, which allowed the group to challenge, support and learn from each other. One cohort member summarised: “Our LEGO® model is a representation of what’s going on in this room. There are deep pockets of expertise, but no one has a view of everything. Everyone’s doing this for the first time. So we each have to contribute or view, but in a collaborative way.”
“Everything that happens, happens somewhere. Places have a history. Relationships with people and groups. Circular economy debates can be reductionist when they ignore this. It’s about bringing together the living, the place, the physical environment.”
Emma Fromberg, Programme Manager, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
A panel discussion with Amy Peace, Innovation Lead for Circular Economy at Innovate UK, Lamia Sbiti, Business Transformation Manager at ReLondon, and CISL’s own Emma Fromberg and Tahmid Chowdhury led to conversations around the benefits of thinking in ecosystems and seeing innovations in context, rather than having a sole focus on circularity.
As Emma explained: “Everything that happens, happens somewhere. Places have a history. Relationships with people and groups. Circular economy debates can be reductionist when they ignore this. It’s about bringing together the living, the place, the physical environment.”
Lamia elaborated: “When we talk about the circular economy in business terms we’re working within a system and that system has ecological boundaries. I’d encourage people to think about innovations and even simple, seemingly obvious environmental improvements in the content of the wider ecosystem. Look at how circular economy concerns can also meet multiple aims. For example social aims, creating a sense of place or creating jobs.”
"Look at how circular economy concerns can also meet multiple aims. For example social aims, creating a sense of place or creating jobs."
Lamia Sbiti, Business Transformation Manager at ReLondon
At CISL, our goal is to shape the future for people, nature and climate - to ensure a fair and just transition to a sustainable economy. Despite all the significant efforts to reduce carbon, we must embrace a truly regenerative economy for society.
Proving the potential of your circular business
The rest of the day focused on how to build a solid business case and secure green financing. Christopher Goodfellow, CEO of Inwell Agency, armed our cohort with his expert advice for crafting the perfect pitch: “As an entrepreneur, you need to find a way to distill your proposition to its simplest possible expression. That’s why pitching is so useful for improving communication in the early stage of a business. If you can’t communicate well to customers or investors, this raises flags around the proposition, which you can then revisit.”
Impact investors Michael Anstey (Cambridge Innovation Capital), Arjune Shukla (Circularity Capital) and Toby Moore (Imprimatur Capital Fund Management) furthered the conversation, with their specialist knowledge of the investment process. Arjune emphasized that many investors are interested in the future potential of a business: “All of us are looking at relatively early stage companies so we buy into the vision. When you look at a plan, you start getting excited about the team, the potential. So it’s never just traction, but hopefully the traction is an early indicator of that future vision and growth.”
The entire cohort were given the opportunity to prove their potential there and then, with pitch practice and direct feedback from the panel - and their peers.
If there was one quote to round off the two days perfectly, it’s this from Ken Webster: “There’s no off the shelf solution to the circular economy. We are all ignoring the issue of debt and monopolisation and we haven’t fundamentally changed the system. Less bad is not good. In fact it’s not really good. Is that what the circular economy means to you?”
"Less bad is not good. In fact it’s not really good. Is that what the circular economy means to you?”
Ken Webster, Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University
What’s next?
No one is an island: we’ve got to work together. CISL Canopy Incubator and Accelerator provides a safe space, tailored support and collaborative community for disruptors and innovators with circular solutions to thrive and grow.
We were extremely excited to bring together these aspiring change makers at our first in-person Accelerator in Cambridge and have many more events like this planned.