COPENHAGEN ACCELERATION WORKSHOP – A SUMMARY APRIL 2015

GLOBAL PARTNERS OF THE ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

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WELCOME

Collaboration is at the heart of a successful transition to the circular economy, and it has been a pleasure to hold our Spring CE100 Acceleration Workshop in Denmark, where multi-stakeholder engagement is notably symbolised by the Danish Business Authority and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency’s collaboration across the two ministries. It was an honour to welcome Environment Minister Kirsten Brosbøl who was kind enough to provide some opening remarks to kick off our three-day session, highlighting the importance of dialogue and knowledge sharing.

With these very objectives in mind, we have extended the expertise in the CE100 through a new affiliate membership programme, by formalising our relationship with a number of key organisations which bring deep and relevant expertise and experience to our network, meetings and ongoing project charters.

The work carried out by CE100 members acts as a lighthouse, as we see the concept of circular economy gaining momentum globally - which leads us to explore the development of an international CE100 satellite network. Replicating the success of the CE100 platform whilst taking into account local and regional economic contexts, it will enable the acceleration of a deep-rooted circular economy across a variety of geographies.

As I’m sure you will have noticed, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is developing rapidly in order to deliver the ambitious objectives it has set itself, and to help you transform your businesses in order to capture the benefits of the promising circular model… and we’re already looking forward to the next Acceleration Workshop in Milan in October.

“Throughout this workshop you have

one common goal: to find ways to accelerate

the circular economy in your business, in

your region and in your network and this gives

me hope and optimism. The CE100 members can

be the game changers the world has been

waiting for.”

MRS KIRSTEN BROSBØL MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK

ANDREW MORLET CEO, ELLENMACARTHUR FOUNDATION

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DAY 1 COPENHAGEN

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QUICK PITCH – BIOMIMICRY CHALLENGE

BETH RATTNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE

“Biomimicry is the process of looking to nature for design inspiration.”Founded in 2006 by Janine Benyus and Bryony Schwan, The Biomimicry Institute is a non-profit organisation seeking to share nature’s design lessons with the people who design and make our world.

Education is at the root of the Biomimicry Institute’s activities. They work closely with educators, from primary through to university level and non-formal environments (museums, zoos and aquariums) to naturalise biomimicry in the culture.

The award-winning website, AskNature, was launched in 2008 to help students and practitioners around the world to access design inspiration and advice from nature through their free, online catalogue of nature’s solutions to design challenges.

Beth Rattner spoke about the work of the Institute, shared examples of biomimicry opportunities and invited CE100 members to participate in the elective session later in the day to help shape a successful cross-sector Biomimicry Business Challenge.

BIOMIMICRY IN ACTION

• Termite mounds use no fossil fuels to maintain the temperature inside within a range of 1° Celsius. Our buildings use 20% of the world’s fossil fuels to do the same.

• Humans produce approximately 750,000 metric tons of textile dyes a year to colour our fabrics; meanwhile beetles are able to achieve brilliant colours with no dyes and pigments at all.

• Most cargo shipping containers are built to be full and take on ballast water while in port which results in invasive species being transported around the world. The winner of a recent design challenge was inspired by the swim bladders of fish to design an innovative ballast solution.

CIRCULARITY INDICATORS

ANA PEREIRA, GRANTA DESIGN LTD. & SVEN HERRMANN, ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

“Companies want to take circularity into account in the design and development of their products.” Companies are increasingly seeing the opportunity offered by the circular economic model, but until now there has been no way of measuring how effective a company is in making the transition from linear to circular. The Circularity Indicators Project aims to fill this gap and has developed indicators to measure circularity at both a product and company level.

The project involved an expert team including project managers, leading academics, innovators and experts from Granta Design. Pilot companies, investors, regulators and universities have provided additional support to test and refine the system to ensure its robustness and relevance.

The developed indicators consist of a primary indicator, the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI), which measures how restorative the material flows of a product are. The product level MCI can then be aggregated to give the company level circularity. There are complementary indicators allowing additional impact and risks to be taken into account.

The Circularity Indicators will allow companies to take circularity into account in the design and development of new products as well as to compare products by circularity. In addition, they will allow companies to mitigate the risks of material supply and price volatility as well as compare circularity with other metrics.

The complete Circularity Indicators methodology is available to download on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website, together with an overview report, a collection of non-technical case studies and an Excel-based model to illustrate the functioning of the methodology at the product level. A web tool, developed by Granta Design, will be made commercially available at a later date and was the subject of an elective session during the workshop.

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DANISH INNOVATION

Maersk Line

MADS STENSEN, GLOBAL ADVISOR – SUSTAINABILITY

“Business cases need to be developed to identify the value and provide the incentives.”Maersk Line is the largest container shipping company in the world, operating approximately 600 vessels and has a market share of 15% in the industry. Mads Stensen shared the experience of Maersk Line in the development of a Cradle-to-Cradle Passport to map the components and materials within Triple-E vessels. These 400 metre long vessels are able to carry approximately 18,000 containers and are built out of 60,000 tons of steel. The Cradle-to-Cradle Passport is seen as a valuable tool to enable high-value recycling of these vessels.

MANAGING INFORMATION TO ENABLE SHIPS AS MATERIAL BANKS

• There have been multiple challenges to overcome in the development of the passport: the data collection process is extremely complex and there is a lack of awareness and incentives for suppliers to provide data for the Passport.

• Broader collaboration, with partners across sectors including governments and recyclers, is necessary to create the industry standards for data collection; it is not something that one company can do alone.

• Business cases need to be developed to identify the value and provide the incentives for stakeholders in the supply chain to provide the data necessary to build the passport.

• The primary focus is currently on developing the passport for ships, but in order to maximise the potential impact the whole loop needs to be closed by including steel manufacturers and ship recyclers.

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Carlsberg

SIMON HOFFMEYER BOAS, DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AND CSR

“Understanding and cooperating with your customers is key to developing successful reverse logistics solutions.” Carlsberg is a Danish brewing company headquartered in Copenhagen and is the fourth largest brewer in the world with a portfolio of over 140 beer brands. Simon Hoffmeyer Boas shared with the audience how Carlsberg is addressing the impact of its packaging and reducing reliance on primary raw material input.

Eliminating waste from the value chain• A major challenge with implementing metrics and assessments

for circularity is transparency in the supply chain. Suppliers are reluctant to share information about the materials in their products.

• Understanding and cooperating with your customers is key to developing successful reverse logistics solutions. This can be facilitated by creating infrastructure designed to suit local contexts and consumers across the globe.

• There is a critical need to optimise materials for either the biological or technical cycles. To this end Carlsberg initiated a three-year partnership project to create the world’s first fully biodegradable, bio-based (wood fibre) beer bottle.

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BUILT ENVIRONMENT PANEL

JOSS BLERIOT, ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION; PROF. JOHN FERNANDEZ, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; MICHAEL PAWLYN, EXPLORATION ARCHITECTURE; OWEN ZACHARIASSE, DELTA DEVELOPMENT

“How to create urban spaces that actively contribute to a restorative economy?”Systems are at the heart of circular economy thinking and solutions and when we are talking of the built environment what we are really talking about is systems. In this panel discussion on material flows and urban metabolism in the built environment Joss Bleriot was joined by Michael Pawlyn to give an insight into what can be learned from living systems, Owen Zachariasse also provided perspective from the developer’s point of view, whilst Professor John Fernandez gave a high-level perspective on urban metabolisms.

Moving to urban environments that contribute to the restorative economy• Urban metabolism is about understanding the resource

requirements of cities and how those resources are consumed. We are at an inflection point of a complete change in the energy profile of our society. This is because the majority of the future population is going to reside in developing regions, which, when it comes to urban metabolism, have different priorities to those of developed regions.

• The built environment can be thought of as three systems and scales: the building as an ecosystem, the building and the product produced inside as an ecosystem and the city as an ecosystem. We will be missing big opportunities if we continue to think of these elements separately and not as part of a larger system.

• Modular consumption, materials tagging and disassembly are not currently pervasive, but there is a lot of promise for embedding technology into materials. Additionally, there is potential for the use of bio-composites, which are biodegradable at the end of a building’s life.

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DANISH INNOVATION CONTD.

LAUNCH Nordic

SOFAS MIDTGAARD

“The 2015 Innovation Challenge focuses on furniture materials streams.”LAUNCH Nordic is a public-private partnership that started in the United States between U.S. State Department, USAID, Nike and NASA and was taken across to the Nordic region almost two years ago. LAUNCH Nordic unites industry pioneers, public organisations and innovators to shape a better world of materials and accelerate sustainable innovations. Sofas Midtgaard described LAUNCH Nordic’s process and announced the 2015 innovation challenge.

IDENTIFYING AND SCALING SYSTEM INNOVATIONS IN MATERIALS

• LAUNCH Nordic designed a structured process, working with industry academia and governments to set an annual innovation challenge. Innovators from around the world are able to enter the challenge and up to 10 are selected to receive mentoring, networking and investment opportunities to support them in bringing their ideas to scale.

• One of 2014’s successful innovators, Vigga Svensson, created a baby clothes leasing service in which items circulate to up to seven families before being recycled. LAUNCH Nordic is working with Vigga to scale the business internationally.

• The 2015 innovation challenge focuses on furniture materials streams and aims to find and overcome the critical roadblocks to creating a more sustainable future for furniture.

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TOWARDS A (MORE AMBITIOUS) CIRCULAR ECONOMY PACKAGE

Designed as an interactive session to allow for members’ feedback and suggestions, this elective started with an overview of the latest developments: with the European Parliament almost ready to release its own circular economy set of policy recommendations and the Commission under pressure to deliver on its promise of a more ambitious package, what to expect… and when? The session highlighted the involvement of several CE100 members in high-level discussions in Brussels, but also the usefulness of / need for efficient information sharing within the network. The group notably was made aware of an important publication by the Commission’s DG Research and Innovation entitled “From niche to norm: a systemic approach to eco-innovation to achieve a low carbon circular economy”. Authors of this publication include CE100 members Unilever, Suez Environnement and University College London. The report can be found here: http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/from-niche-to-norm-pbKI0115206/

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CIRCULARITY INDICATORS

Making the transition from linear to circular models and minimising product risk are increasingly important for businesses. Metrics and tools to explore such issues would play a part in this transition to measure progress.

This elective overviewed the Circularity Indicators (CIs) Life+ funded project, including the methodology and web tool that has been developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Granta Design. A case study showed how the CIs can be used during new product design development. This session also demonstrated the web tool, part of MI:Product Intelligence package. The tool generates a Product Circularity Report, which analyses environmental, regulatory and supply chain risks alongside the new Material Circularity Indicator.

The methodology has been reviewed by some CE100 companies. Now, Granta is providing a limited-period trial to MI:Product Intelligence, including a new Circularity report, to CE100 members willing to provide feedback on the web app and reports. More information: http://www.grantadesign.com/ce100/

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THE LEARNING AND RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES 2015

This session firstly outlined the emerging landscape of learning opportunities that support both education and training needs across the Foundation’s network.

This included discussion on the following key programmes:

• Online MBA run by Bradford University (current)

• MSc run by Cranfield University (in development)

• Exec Education co-developed between Bradford University and the Foundation (current)

• edX MOOC run by TU Delft (in development)

• Disruptive Innovation Festival run by the Foundation (current)

• One day scalable Immersive Training run by the Foundation (in development)

• E-learning modules run by the Foundation co-developed with Leo Learning (in development)

The participants included university partners, PhD students alongside industry and regional government representatives. This group collectively provided insight on what opportunities currently exist whilst also providing reflections and feedback. If you are interested in finding out more about the emerging portfolio of learning opportunities please contact the Education Lead Jules Hayward (jules@ellenmancarthurfoundation.org) who can connect you with the most relevant programme.

The session also covered research programmes such as the new Circular Economy Laboratory being developed by University College London. CircEL is being established in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and aims to develop the scientific and socio-economic understanding and technological basis for design and implementation of systems, processes and policy that will support the transition to a Circular Economy. For further information or to arrange a meeting, please contact: Dr Aiduan Borrion (a.borrion@ucl.ac.uk).

ASSET TRACKING

This elective aimed at presenting the asset tracking workstream of MainStream, and at beginning to problem solve with the people in the room. In essence it was the first step in a series of workshops we will be doing this year.

Participants were asked to choose between large capital-intensive devices or small consumer appliances and explore a series of questions pertaining to information needs, technology selections, and data governance and management.

Interesting insights emanated from these discussions, particularly around the need for common terminologies, the importance of convergence and the need for data to be prepared in advance, in order for these systems to work. These insights confirmed the need for unprecedented collaboration in this space to create the appropriate enabling conditions for asset tracking to allow for maximum value recovery at end of use.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY FRAMEWORK STANDARD

BSI, the UK’s national standard setting body, has formed a committee on resource management and the circular economy, of which the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and some CE100 companies are part. This committee will develop an overarching circular economy framework standard for businesses. In this elective session, CE100 members had the opportunity to discuss and provide feedback to the planned work of the committee. In general, there was a lot of interest in having a circular economy framework standard and CE100 members found it particularly important to not only create a British standard, but one applied at both European or international level. Questions were also raised about the relation of this and potential further circular-economy related standards with policy, in particular the upcoming EU Commission’s Circular Economy Package.

CE100 members may provide further feedback or express an interest in participating in the standard development process either via the Foundation (ce100@ellenmacarthurfoundation.org) or directly to the committee.

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CASE STUDIES AND BEST PRACTICES

The members of the CE100 have repeatedly expressed a need for detailed case studies that demonstrate concrete evidence of the value of the circular economy for businesses. The purpose of this elective session was to engage with the members to gather input into the type of case studies that should be developed, the information they should contain and which approaches to sourcing that information should be explored.

Participants identified that it would be valuable to develop cases on a mix of both small and large companies, as well as cross-sectoral examples, to show that a circular economy makes sense for businesses of all sizes and across all sectors and industries.

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In terms of the information requirements, a clear need was expressed for convincing evidence of the financial impact of the circular project on the business. In addition, the cases should give insights into the development path of the project, highlighting some of the challenges faced.

These sessions provided valuable feedback and all inputs will be used in the ongoing development of the case studies.

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BIOMIMICRY BUSINESS CHALLENGE

The Biomimicry Institute hosted two elective sessions at the Copenhagen meeting, gathering the membership to focus on a shared industrial problem that we could tackle together through a CE100-Biomimicry Design Challenge. The sessions were packed, both with people and their company’s needs, and yielded the following top focus areas for the upcoming challenge:

• Packaging (both broadly and single materials for transport)

• Coatings, dyes/pigments, and the decontamination thereof from water

• Remediation of soil, water, and air

• Systems approach to communication (how does nature signal, for instance)

Approximately 15-20 attendees indicated their interest in a follow-up webinar to agree upon a single topic and to play a role in launching and judging the challenge. This webinar will be held within the coming weeks, please let Dale Walker (dale.walker@ellenmacarthurfoundation.org), Beth Rattner (beth.rattner@biomimicry.org) or Scott Fossel (scott.fossel@gmail.com) know if you are interested in attending. The challenge itself will launch once funding is secured, hopefully by the Milan meeting.

ACTIONABLE CIRCULAR ECONOMY TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS

The Foundation’s “Circular economy toolkit for policymakers” project was presented at this elective, focusing on its central framework of identifying CE sector opportunities, identifying barriers preventing them, and prioritising policy interventions to overcome the barriers. Results from the Danish pilot study were presented, showing the 12 prioritised CE opportunities across five sectors, along with preliminary estimates of the economic effects in terms of additional net value creation, as well as savings in costs and resources. Policymakers and CE100 company members attended the sessions. Discussions centred on practical company experience of unintended consequences of regulation (e.g. the regulatory patchwork on handling and trading of end-of-life EEE products). Also mentioned were a number of studies of interest to the toolkit project (e.g. one in Sweden aiming to break down sector silos in CE policymaking and another in the Netherlands on CE opportunities at sub-sector level).

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FINANCE

Formed in December 2014, the finance charter group (called finanCE) met for the first time in Copenhagen. The breakout sessions attracted 13 participants, this being the first opportunity for the group to gather input from CE100 members that are not finance companies. The group is largely driven by PGGM, a Dutch pension provider, and is unusual in that it comprises financial firms that are not (yet) members of the CE100.

The overarching aim of finanCE is to explore the role of money in the transition to a circular economy, and in particular to:

• Understand the impact of the circular economy on the financing of companies, the economy and on the role of investors and banks

• Discover ways for a broad range of financiers to adapt their product offerings

• Support the transition, both of other financial organisations and of businesses.

The group’s ambition is to reach a point in three years’ time at which every major financial institution is aware of the circular economy, knows what advantages it brings to its business and is contributing to the transition.

So far the group has:

• Set clear deliverables:

○ Conceptual analysis of the changes in financing needs when moving to a circular business model:

▪ Impact at company level (microeconomics)

▪ Impact at societal level (macroeconomics)

▪ Who will be winners and are there losers?

○ Case studies showing the circular model financially outperforms the linear model

○ Overview of initiatives to measure level of circularity

○ Framework assessment tool to compare companies on circularity

○ Impact on product offerings and asset management structure

○ Stakeholder engagement strategy to change mindsets

○ Active engagement on the necessity and opportunities of the transition to a circular economy (papers, conferences etc.)

• Performed preliminary analysis on changes needed in the finance sector

• Performed preliminary analysis on macroeconomic implications

• Set out methodology for an assessment tool

• Agreed on a framework for evidence of company outperformance (financial and resource measures)

The specific actions to complete by the next Acceleration Workshop in Milan are:

• Create and fill a finance folder in the CE100-library

• Reach out to external parties, e.g. the EU (with the aim of making the financing of circular economy a special topic in forthcoming Luxembourg and Dutch EU presidencies)

• Analyse and document 10 case studies that focus on the financial implications of a circular business model

• Extend the existing macro-economic analysis on the circular economy

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BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Meeting for the third time, the Built Environment group began its sessions in Copenhagen with a discussion on the vision for a built environment in Europe, sharing insights from the latest work by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey, and discussing more broadly what the Built Environment in a circular economy might encompass. The group’s two charter projects were discussed concurrently, with the following outcomes.

Built Environment Case StudiesThe aim of this charter is to create a library of case studies for circular practices in the built environment sector. The charter group redefined its target audience and the purpose of this exercise, and identified aspects of a case study that will be most useful (e.g. the inclusion of a metric for comparison).

The Built Environment group reviewed the existing 8 case studies and identified the kinds of case studies we would need to further enhance the collection (e.g. more case studies on refurbishment, or on smaller buildings). In addition to the student from Cranfield that will be developing these case studies, the group was also able to gather student support from BRE, MIT, and UCL. The group created a ‘review board’ of 11 practitioners, who will guide the students’ work. A varied number of representatives from the charter group also committed to share additional cases.

Business Models for the Built Environment The aim of this charter is to develop and prove the business case for circular practices in the built environment. In the long run, it plans to address a variety of topics — information management, design indicators and methods — to increase the awareness and appreciation of the business case/benefits. In Copenhagen, the group began with a review of a report developed by students from Imperial College London on business models. The group gained a better understanding of the value specific to the circular economy in the built environment, and will now be focusing on a valuation tool to address the commercial benefits of a circular economy. The group will also be working to get a better understanding of the risks involved in a transition.

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REMAN/EEE

The rationale for merging EEE and Reman for the first breakout session was to encourage more cross-company and cross-sector collaboration, given remanufacturing is an inner loop function which is particularly relevant to EEE members. Furthermore, there is also considerable overlap between both focus areas regarding the importance of information enablement and the reverse cycle. It became apparent from this discussion that there is ample opportunity to align individual charters and exploit synergies that exist where appropriate. Please find below an update for each of these charters following the Copenhagen workshop:

Transforming Product Collection (C2x)The aim of this charter is to understand and create an effective system for collection from customers. In the long term, the use of such collection systems should be embedded in customer behaviour, and to achieve this, customer attitudes and convenience towards products that they do not use any more need to be better understood. The group appreciated that shared logistics models are needed to provide a solution and organised additional research in evaluating and comparing different customer collection models. In addition, a customer trial to test a new technology-supported doorstep collection system of small, used EEE products is currently in the planning phase and aimed to be carried out later this year in collaboration with several London boroughs.

REMAN POLICY TEAM - Evolving From Factbooks To InsightThe original aim of this charter was to understand the key policy enablers and blockers which should be addressed in order to create a level playing field for REMAN so that it can compete on an equal footing with NEWMAN.

The group, chaired by John Platko from Antea, has to date become ‘market informed’ by creating a baseline of reman activities, industry players and policy levers for key reman markets. For continuity, this fact base will be hosted and updated periodically by the Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse.

Moving forward, the aim of this group will evolve to provide a policy vision that places emphasis on optimised material flows and on how policymakers can best achieve such optimisation. University College London has offered its support to help draw insights from the reman fact base and illustrate best practice to inform policymakers.

Reman: Reverse Logistics Maturity ModelThe aim of this group is to understand the underlying conditions which impact and influence the design of a reverse logistics model, as well as the actionable next steps to achieve best practices. The charter is chaired by Jonathan Spearing from DHL with research being undertaken by Serhan Alshammari, a PhD student from Cranfield University.

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Progress to date:

• Study approach agreed on

• RL research and modeling by Cranfield University

• RL archetypes and factors validated

• First selection of best practices

Expected deliverables for Milan:

• Maturity aspects for RL models for validation

• Survey and interview results (depending on timeline)

• Performance measurement proposal (based on literature research)

EEE Product ProfileThe main goal of this group is to understand how information can drive value across inner and outer loops of the technical economy.

Since Barcelona, the group has:

• Explored the concept and produced a briefing document outlining the key aspects of a Product Profile

• Developed a financial model for evaluating the business case of a Product Profile for a consumer device

• Connected with Cranfield University who shared their key insights from a major piece of research they have done in this space

• Segmented into sub-groups as appropriate to explore collaboration opportunities…these conversations have been taken off-line so that the relevant parties can progress

In terms of next steps, David Peck from TU Delft very kindly volunteered to reach out to their research network to evaluate the research that has already been done in this field and what knowledge gaps remain in order to build up the stakeholder matrix against the product profile. The goal will be to come back to Milan with the template to be tested and validated across the other Reman & EEE charter groups.

In terms of requirements to build up the stakeholder matrix, we will need to understand:

• who needs what information to drive inner loop activities

• what is the associated value for those stakeholders having access to that information

In addition, a glossary will be defined to ensure consistent interpretation of terminology when using the stakeholder matrix.

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FMCG

The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) breakout group met for the fourth time in Copenhagen, and continued the agenda which has been developing over the last 18 months. A total of 15 attended the Copenhagen sessions, representing major FMCG manufacturers and a cross-sectoral spread of other parties with widespread involvement in the FMCG value chain. The group continues with two major strands of work, and in Copenhagen started a third:

1. The FMCircularG 2025 project is generating a future vision for the circular economy as it may develop in the FMCG sector. This had been developed in 2014 in the form of four future scenarios, and several of the group had now tested these in communications with their business colleagues. The new charter for FMCG 2025 sets the agenda for the next phase of development - simplified stories based on the key messages and an understanding of the emotional connections they make; use of Infographics and potentially other formats; and identification of target audiences.

2. Given the importance of packaging in the FMCG sector, the group has a continuing strong interest in Project MainStream, focused on the Global Plastic Packaging Roadmap project.

3. The group decided in Copenhagen to establish a new charter project, which could lead to live pilots by 2016, and decided to focus on the area of returnable secondary packaging. Most consumer products today are delivered to retailers in cardboard cases - the challenge is whether these could be replaced by a modular system of returnable crates, as already used in the beverages sector. The project will develop the business case for this change, with the first phase being to establish the fact base and brief.

Both charter groups will convene during May with initial calls and then work virtually on the projects until the Milan workshop in October. The MainStream work continues outside the breakout, but remains a point of regular discussion in the group.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

The design principles group is a slightly unusual one as it is working towards producing a document/publication and the Foundation is driving with the input and support of the group.

Prior to the workshop, two different sets of principles had been worked on separately, by both the Foundation and the Agency of Design. While both sets had their strengths, there were still unanswered questions about who this document would be for and its intended use (e.g. engineer vs. interested layman or inform vs. inspire)

As a result, rather than sharing a set of principles to be dismantled by the group, it went through a number of activities aimed at drawing out both important design themes and also requirements or information lacking from current design processes. The group found this a useful way of doing things.

In session 3, the group looked at the 12 Design Principles that the Foundation had drawn up, and separated into groups to review and provide comments. The overwhelming feedback was that the content of the principles was, for the most part, neither good nor bad, but the level of detail was not sufficient to be useful to working designers or engineers, and at times just enough to be confusing. Some useful comments also came from TU Delft, which pointed out that some phrases — which are well known elsewhere and have an established meaning (such as ‘positive design’) — could lead to confusion for a practitioner reading these principles. So the ultimate question was ‘who are these for?’ - not vague/abstract enough to be similar to Dieter Rams’ ‘Ten Principles for Good Design’ and not detailed enough to be a handy guide.

There were a few suggestions around this, and the group was enthusiastic about a set of design principles that could:

a. work at different levels of interest — so that each principle/statement was inspiring on its own but the reader could access further information behind it, e.g. case studies for greater detail

b. be modular — so that a business could use the principles as a common language, but different ‘toolkits’ were available for engineers, marketing, sales etc…

Plan for the charter:

• Amend the Foundation’s list of principles based on feedback in the breakout to get an agreed list of ‘inspiring’ principles

• Get some input on this from CE100 companies and others

• Work on an exemplar ‘toolkit’ catered towards engineers

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RE-TEX (PREVIOUSLY FACT)

Re-Tex has worked over the course of four Acceleration Workshops to establish a project team with a clear collective-interest charter project, the overall aim is to bring raw materials from the textile industry into circular flows. The long-term objective is to trigger circular projects in the textile industry by creating a positive business case, and increasing the volume of textiles in circular cycles.

Three clearly defined work packages have been defined, building on analysis and studies undertaken over the past six months, since the Barcelona workshop. The aim and scope of these were developed and defined at Copenhagen along with the allocation of resources in order to move these work packages forwards.

1. Mapping of circular economy initiatives

a. Aim: Map existing initiatives, innovations & capabilities in order to connect and learn

b. Scope: Global; polyester, nylon, cotton, wool, new fibres

c. Categories:

i. Design (e.g. material choice / substitution / innovation, product design, production system optimisation)

ii. Business models (e.g. take back incentives, rental / leasing / pay-per-performance schemes)

iii. Reverse capabilities (e.g. collection types & volumes, separation & sorting techniques, tagging and tracing, treatment technologies)

iv. Other (e.g. customer behaviour and attitudes)

2. Create a catalogue of secondary materials

a. Aim:

i. Identify common denominators in terms of materials requirements

ii. Develop a database of secondary raw materials which will allow businesses to have greater transparency on available secondary materials and pool demands

b. Scope: Materials “beyond lab level”

c. Potential categories for each material in the database (by geography): volumes, price levels, players and contacts, availability / reliability of feedstock, quality requirements, risk assessment, LCA data, certifications

3. Regional Pilot

a. Aim: Create circular textile material flows on a regional level to illustrate proof of concept (starting with a refined part of the value cycle initially)

b. Scope: Small, regional, cross-sectorial; potential focus areas: collection, customer engagement, sorting

c. Guiding principles:

i. Keep it simple

ii. Work hypothesis-driven, informed by joint knowledge of this charter group

iii. Don’t reinvent the wheel and focus on real innovation (build on lessons learnt from other pilot projects and initiatives)

The group will work towards presenting the following at the next acceleration workshop:

1. First results of the mapping circular innovation initiatives exercise

2. Clearer definition on the minimum requirements of secondary materials for immediate use in the industry. Version 1.0 of database

3. Announcement of scope and location of the pilot project

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DAY 2 COPENHAGEN

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MEMBER SHOWCASE

TU Delft

DAVID PECK & CONNY BAKKER

“How do you teach 30,000 students about the circular economy at once?”As a Pioneer University TU Delft has committed to developing a number of circular economy initiatives as well as taking part in the Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship programme. Professors David Peck and Conny Bakker took to the stage to share their progress on the following three initiatives:

Circular economy in higher education• TU Delft is in the process of recruiting the world’s first full-time

professor in circular product design. The new professor will join a growing team focused on circular product design within TU Delft.

• The development of a massive open online course (MOOC) focused on an introduction to the circular economy, with the aim of building capacity around the world. The course will be launched in October on the edX platform.

• The Knowledge Innovation Community around raw materials is an EU funded project, involving over 100 partners, aimed at securing the material supply in the mobility, machinery and equipment, energy supply, and information communications technology sectors. The programme will look at six knowledge and innovation themes, including the design of products for a circular economy.

Stuffstr

JOHN ATCHESON, CO-FOUNDER & CEO

“We want everything that’s produced to be used to its fullest extent.” Stuffstr is a public benefit corporation (B Corp) working to reduce waste by increasing the reuse of unused items. Co-founder and CEO, John Atcheson, shared how the Stuffstr app can fundamentally change the way we purchase by making resale a viable option for millions of users.

Empowering people to maximise the lifetime value of everything they buy• There are multiple impediments to reuse including: lack of

knowledge and transparency of the market value of products, the hassle factor involved and a lack of visibility and efficiency in the resale marketplace.

• $1.3 trillion worth of durable goods are sold in the U.S.A. each year while resale marketplaces amount to approximately $164 billion. At the same time $24 billion goes into the self-storage industry.

• Stuffstr benefits both consumers, who have greater control over what they own and are able to track the resale of their products, and retailers who benefit from continuous engagement with their customers.

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MEMBER SHOWCASE CONTD.

Unilever

GAVIN WARNER, DIRECTOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

“Circular economy gives us an opportunity to rethink the approach to design.”Unilever, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast-moving consumer goods, set itself a vision to double the size of its business, while having a positive impact on society and the environment, by decoupling growth from resources. This requires a great deal of work to drive change internally. Gavin Warner shared his insights into Unilever’s approach to change management.

Reframing the story• Unilever is trying to get the innovators within the business,

the product developers, designers and marketeers, to rethink completely the approach they take to designing products and packaging in the first place.

• Unilever takes a methodical approach to change management, working through four stages:

1. Inspiring leadership and the organisation

2. Identifying lighthouse projects

3. Incorporating systems thinking into the business

4. Engaging with the wider community

• The experience of Unilever has been that while the leaders in the organisation and the new recruits, who tend to be purpose-led, understand and are engaged by the concept, the challenge is communicating the value to the day-to-day decision makers in management.

• A critical element to driving change is reframing the story in order to engage effectively with your target audience. Once the story is reframed it is then important to demonstrate how it can grow and differentiate the brand or the business.

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THE COMING URBAN METABOLISM

PROFESSOR JOHN FERNANDEZ, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

“Cities create wealth, it’s what they do best”John Fernandez is an associate professor and member of the Building Technology Program in the Department of Architecture at MIT. His research has focused on the materials and physical elements and components of the systems of buildings. Fernandez is co-author of the book, “Sustainable Urban Metabolism” published in 2013. Urban metabolism is the study of material and energy flows in the urban environment and provides important insights into the behaviours of urban production and consumption. John took to the stage to give the audience an overview of the study of urban metabolism and links to population growth, urban economic development and resource consumption.

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• While the 20th century has seen unprecedented growth in cities in the developed world, the 21st century will see unprecedented growth in cities in the developing world.

• The event of urbanisation is relatively new in human history and is something we are still grappling with. There is therefore an incredible opportunity for us to undergo a complete shift in the way that we extract and use resources.

• Whilst cities differ from one another in an infinite number of ways, they also display similarities. One notable example is that, within their borders, human settlements have never worked in harmony with their local environment.

• We need to consider our buildings as material investments that have both economic and cultural value. In her book, “Economies of Cities”, Jane Jacobs describes cities as the mines of the future.

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IBM WATSON

MIKAEL HAGLUND, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, IBM SWEDEN

“We are entering the cognitive era in which systems understand natural language and are taught rather than programmed.” IBM Watson is a cognitive computing system that is able to process natural language and mirror the same learning process and common cognitive framework that we, as humans, use to inform our decisions: Observe, Interpret, Evaluate, and Decide.

Watson rose to prominence in 2011 when it came in first place on U.S. quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’. The system was initially created specifically to answer questions on the show, but has since been developed to tackle a multitude of commercial applications.

Mikael Haglund explained the theory behind the cognitive computing systems that run Watson, as well as elaborating on some of the commercial applications it is being used for and the potential it holds for contributing to the acceleration towards a circular economy.

• We are currently in the programmable systems era (and have been since the Second World War), but we are entering the cognitive era in which systems understand natural language and are taught rather than programmed.

• The intention for Watson is to create new partnerships between people and computers that can enhance, scale and accelerate human expertise.

• Examples of Watson’s use include:

○ Analysing millions of scientific articles, patient DNA data, tumour DNA data, and different treatment options to help doctors reach a diagnosis quicker

○ Investigating multiple aspects of cuisine and cooking to suggest innovative new recipes to chefs

○ Assisting lawyers to formulate their arguments based on vast precedent histories

• A potential circular economy offering of Watson could be to provide circular analytics as a service to support the optimisation and automation of asset reuse channels for maximum value.

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REGIONS AND CITIES PANEL

STEPHANIE HUBOLD, ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION; WAYNE HUBBARD, LONDON WASTE AND RECYCLING BOARD; DR. ANDERS HOFFMAN, DANISH BUSINESS AUTHORITY

“Circular economy is quite possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity for London.”The Foundation’s regions programme has grown year on year and has now evolved to become the CE100 Governments & Cities programme. In this panel session Stephanie Hubold was joined by Dr. Anders Hoffman and Wayne Hubbard to discuss circular economy innovations at the national and city level and the role that governments can play to facilitate the transition to a circular economy.

Dr. Anders Hoffman is Deputy Director General of the Danish Business Authority, which is a longstanding member of the CE100 programme and the proud winner of the Forum of Young Global Leaders’ circular economy regions award.

Wayne Hubbard is the Chief Operating Officer of the London Waste and Recycling Board and is responsible for the development of a circular economy route map for London.

• Denmark’s approach has been to come at the circular economy from a business perspective. Having initially looked at resource productivity, circular economy is now viewed as an opportunity to develop a more competitive industry in the region. A concerted effort is being made to ensure that regulations allow for circularity rather than hinder it.

• The catalyst for the circular economy in London was the development of an infrastructure plan in which it was identified that shifting to a circular economy would give the city a competitive edge as it plans for increased population growth and the associated infrastructure development needs. The circular economy is now a cross-cutting theme in the development of London’s growth.

• Uncertainty is one of the biggest barriers hindering the implementation of circular economy with questions being raised as to whether it is a system that can actually work. Significant effort is going into showcasing the possibilities of a circular economy and overcoming the perceived barriers to its implementation.

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REGIONS DAY

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REGIONS

WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM CATALONIA, DENMARK, HAARLEMMERMEER, LONDON, NEW YORK, NORD PAS DE CALAIS, SCOTLAND AND WALLONIA

There was tremendous energy in the room during this regions event, perfectly complemented by the dramatic views over the city of Copenhagen from the venue. The CE100 Regions Programme has expanded to become the CE100 Governments & Cities and all participants – including new members Catalonia, Nord Pas de Calais and the municipality of Haarlemmermeer – brought with them a wealth of experience and contributed valuable insights to the day’s discussions. There was a packed schedule for the day covering a range of topics.

Updates from all of the regions and cities provided an opportunity to share the progress on circular economy initiatives and give an idea of what is planned for the future. Certain of these initiatives were explored in a session later in the day that looked in-depth at three case studies: Scotland’s Carbon Metric, an Ecovouchers programme in Catalonia, and the Danish Business Authority’s Fund for Green Business Development.

The Foundation team provided preliminary insights from three research projects that are currently ongoing:

• “Growth Within – A new circular framework for growth and employment in Europe”

• “MainStream – The new plastics economy” – In addition to an update on progress from the Foundation, the City of Copenhagen shared perspectives as contributors to the project

• “Circular economy toolkit for policymakers” – Participants took part in an interactive game and contributed valuable input to the research, with the winning team identifying over 20 policy examples from across the globe

Professor John Fernandez spoke to the members about his research in the field of Urban Metabolism – the study of the resource requirements of cities – and what can be learned from comparing the resource consumption patterns of different cities. There was further opportunity to hear about the work of Prof. Fernandez as he presented to the wider CE100 group during the plenary session on the final day of the workshop.

This was followed by a discussion on the opportunities of regional innovation initiatives – involving public, private and academic players – and a presentation from Delta Development on the Circular Economy Hotbed as a source of inspiration.

Turning to look at the future development of the Government & Cities programme, that includes the CE100 SMEs, the priorities include:

• Supporting members to set the right enabling conditions by leveraging the insights provided by the ‘CE toolkit for policy makers’ project

• Initiating action at a local level – fostering public private / triple helix partnerships

• Strengthening engagement with SMEs by offering more hands-on guidance in the form of a new SME webinar series, and providing further networking opportunities for this group

• Exploring new formats to allow even more room for interaction, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among the governments & cities group (e.g., mutual site visits of members)

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THE CITY OF COPENHAGEN

Home to our regional CE100 members, the Danish Business Authority and Environmental Protection Agency, we were delighted to be able to hold our latest Acceleration Workshop in Copenhagen. The venue at the IDA Mødecenter, overlooking the south harbour, offered spectacular views of the city across the water.

Copenhagen is a city with a long and proud legacy of systemic and innovative thinking – backed up by its consistent presence in the top most innovative global city lists – and made the perfect setting for our fourth Acceleration Workshop.

LOOKING AHEAD

We are now in the final stages of planning our third Annual Summit for the CE100 group, which is being held in London at the Royal Institution on June 24, with an evening reception on June 23. We look forward to seeing you there or at the next Acceleration Workshop in Milan, 7-8 October 2015.

NEW MEMBERS

Corporations• Lexmark

• Novelis

• Orange

• Schneider Electric

Emerging Innovators• Replenish

Government & Cities• Danish Environmental Protection Agency

• Government of Catalonia

• Municipality of Haarlemmermeer

• Cd2e Northern France

Pioneer Universities• Rochester Institute of Technology

Affiliates• Biomimicry 3.8

• Biomimicry Institute

• BRE (Building Research Establishment)

• Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse

• Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

• McDonough Innovation

• Rocky Mountain Institute

• HSSMI (High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute)

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