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Circularity

Biz Strategy Circularity Globalisation Supply Chain

Circularity and Business Models: 2 US reports, many learnings

October 20, 2020

The world, by and large, operates based on land-filling. The only way to improve the situation any time soon is: not to landfill. At all. Or at least as little as possible, and that asap. To that extent, 2 reports on textiles the circular economy have been published, both of which look at the issue from different, and complementary perspectives. What is it that we can learn from these 2 reports, side by side? One, the old adage could not be any truer: One Man’s Rubbish is another Man’s Treasure. And: True cost accounting would make a huge difference.

Circularity Governance Trade Shows

What I learned at the WEF 2025 … about authentic leadership

January 27, 2025

At WEF 2025, I learned a key truth: hurdles aren’t obstacles to overcome—they are the journey. I also had the privilege of supporting a friend’s bold vision at #ClimateHubDavos, where I saw her leadership: hands-on, calm under pressure, and driven by purpose. It’s a reminder of what truly makes a leader.

Circularity Future Tech Materials

Circular Economies: The past, the present – and the future?

April 11, 2013

The term ‘circular economy’ has recently been – again – converted into a buzz word. To some extent there are a couple of good reasons for that as both common sense as well as the Ellen McArthur foundation's most recent report prove.

Brand Portraits Circularity Supply Chain

From recycled materials to Smateria

November 3, 2011

Smateria is a Cambodian upcycling bag label founded by 2 Italian women. What originally was a haphazard venture with the will to improve the lives of Cambodian women has turned by now into a successful social business.

Circularity Consumer-ism Materials

Creating a Used Clothing Recycling System in Japan

August 25, 2011

The amount of textile products thrown away, incinerated using fuel, or sent to the landfill in Japan comes to about 1.97 million tons per year. Contrary to other materials, for textile products, however, there is no nationwide recycling law in place.

Circularity Globalisation Opinions

Is the industry going down the drain? The stats tell a story insiders don’t want to see

December 12, 2012

ntil the late 80s, fashion retailers and brands would typically have two main collections a year: spring/summer and autumn/winter. Then, in the 90s things changed dramatically. Increased competition saw retailers incentivising customers to visit their stores more frequently.

Circularity Globalisation Opinions

Better business models will be circular

May 4, 2013

Circular economy is the antonym of linear economy. Linear economy has been the dominant industrial model in our history and postulates production is followed by consumption that then ends up with the disposal of used products. As opposed to this, circular economy seeks to rebuild capital, whether this is financial, manufactured, human, social or natural and sees products having a longer or a never-ending life that are either re-used as new inputs to create new products or shared and co-owned by different consumers.

Circularity Future Tech Supply Chain Trade Shows

Trends: Report from the 2013 Textile Exchange Conference in Istanbul

November 20, 2013

On November 12 and 13, 2013 the yearly Textile Exchange conference took place in Istanbul, Turkey. I was invited to run a workshop on Scenario Work as one of the 'Strategy' break out session on the first day. The workshop was fully booked with 25 highly interested and active participants. In 90 challenging minutes they experienced a compressed version of a Scenario Planning workshop.

Planetary Boundaries - Stockholm Resilience Centre

Circularity Future Tech Globalisation

Outside the comfort zone: Planetary boundaries and Europe

October 13, 2020

Overconsumption or ‘simply’ consumption? Fair resource use, or resource depletion? Fair share, equal share or acquired share of resources? Those are questions that pop up when the Planetary Boundaries are being discussed. “Is Europe living within the limits of our planet?: An assessment of Europe's environmental footprints in relation to planetary boundaries”, published in April 2020 does exactly that: it evaluates and calculates the European performance for planetary boundaries by taking a consumption-based (footprint-based) perspective. This is turn is interesting as it relates environmental pressures to final demands for goods and services. And the results are ... shall we say: a stark call to action.

Circularity Definitions

Circularity – A puzzle piece: Not a Silver Bullet, not a Panacea

March 16, 2021

It is quite astonishing: all the different contexts that the term ‘circularity’ or ‘circular economy’ is being used. They key point mostly is of course the waste reduction promises inherent in the term, and the subsequent lower dependency on finite resources. But, in addition to reducing waste, carbon – or rather carbon footprint – is a key factor. Unfortunately, the reality is sobering: taking fashion as example, at best between 3% and 6% of the industry's carbon footprint could be remedied that way. And even worse: in order to realise the potential, three fundamental hurdles must be addressed. Some efforts are underway, of course, but a steep hill remains to climb.

Circularity Materials Supply Chain

One man’s woolly waste is another man’s woollen treasure

June 11, 2018

Wool is slowly recovering some of its former popularity. While for some it is an old acquaintance, for many others in our industry, and in this current time and age, it is a new, or maybe better novel, material for the portfolio. And what about Recycled Wool? This report answers many of the key questions.

Biz Strategy Circularity Consumer-ism Definitions Finance Materials

Straight Talk: ESG is Not ‘Sustainability’

November 3, 2020

Financial accounting is rather ill suited as well as ill equipped to deal properly with a system that has finite natural resources. Else, why would it not record the environmental losses that come with e.g. extracting bauxite? And what about ESG? Well it turns out, ESG is just more of the same (growth) just in a shade of ‘green’. It is for a reason that the Global Materials Footprint has kept growing in alignment with the much coveted GDP growth. Despite all green efforts. ESG – investing in ‘greener’ tech and businesses – is definitely NOT ‘Sustainability’ as we need it.

Biz Strategy Book Reviews Circularity Materials Supply Chain

Love the children of all species for all time

March 23, 2010

“When you do something wrong, don’t try improve upon it.” Instead you go back to design of a product, and fix the problem right where it went wrong in first place

Book Reviews Circularity

Local flavours of clothing recycling: India

November 22, 2012

This book emerges itself into how clothing is bought, worn, discarded and recycled within India. In other words, it tracks down how Indian citizens (primarily women) manage their wardrobes, and the strategies and criteria of how they do it.

Circularity Materials Trade Shows

Performance Wear: Leading the way of innovation and development in textiles

May 15, 2013

Like its larger sister ISPO – normally taking place at the end of January or the beginning of February, half way between the two Fashion Week cycles – Performance Days feature a high-end portfolio of performance and sports wear manufacturers, many of which actively develop and push the innovation agenda of their industry.

Book Reviews Circularity

The samurai’s self-sustaining society

January 1, 2012

A fascinating book, full of examples, about how traditional Japanese society innovatively survived in a land of scarce resources, over-population and huge cities.

Circularity Future Tech Materials

Cradle to Cradle – The design of essence, not only shape

February 16, 2012

Cradle to Cradle is a design methodology that puts a 'waste-less' world at its heart. What is the concept all about? What does it mean for the apparel industry? And who practises it among designers and companies?

Biz Strategy Circularity Governance

Sustainability Tone Deafness: The Sound of Silence

March 9, 2021

The leadership team level at company X is not making the moves that might be expected and needed from a sustainability perspective. What to do? How to overcome the blockage? How to make progress without even mentioning the S-word in the discourse? The answer: Compliance, Risk, and the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Or in more tangible terms - start the conversation by focusing on legal compliance, Risk and Due Diligence, Efficiencies ... and good old benchmarking with the competition. No S-word needed. Not a big step for humanity no doubt. But a door opener to many more interesting conversations.

Circularity Consumer-ism

The Sharing Economy: All for one and one for all

December 13, 2012

The Sharing Economy’s monetary value is currently worth £301bn globally. It is expected to grow by at least 15% over the next 5 years. Thanks to the wedding dresses and suits, the concept of sharing has never quite disappeared entirely from the fashion market. And now is the time where it emerges with more strength than ever.

Biz Strategy Circularity Globalisation

Global pandemic and resistant economies: The time is now

April 28, 2020

As I write this, it is late April. And our lessons from the last few weeks in Corona lock down and the impact of the pandemic on our communities and societies, all over the world, have thrown an even harsher light onto some of the realities we either assumed as a given, or worked hard to change for years already. And the lessons have been truly tough medicine.

Future Fit Industries of 'Stuff': Governance, Responsibility, and the Age of Doughnut Economics