In today’s linear economy we adopted a take-make-waste approach to most of our consumer goods. Companies take the materials to make goods, consumers buy the goods and finally dispose them, turning the involved materials into waste that is mostly burned on landfills and not properly recycled.

The circular economy has a different approach, aiming to retain value from used goods, reduce the dependency on resource extraction and keep materials ‘in the loop’ (in use) as long as possible. Role model is planet Earth: since day one it has followed the rules of a circular model. Unfortunately, we haven’t. But your business can be part of the transition towards a circular economy!

Source: Rijksoverheid, 2017.

Depending on the kind of business you are running, there are various points of departure to start becoming more circulair. Some examples of what you could do:

• You are using raw materials from virgin sources: can you switch to recycled materials? What alternatives are there for your supply?
• Your company is involved in the production process of a product: you can think about transitions towards new revenue models, you keep ownership and for instance, lease your product. Instead of selling your product. Or adjusting the product design to make sure the product can be repaired.
• You are recycling your waste: can you secure high-value reuse of your waste through recycling? Higher value or the same is essential to the circular economy’s independence from natural resources.
• Your ambition is to become full circular: ambition is clear but how would the concrete roadmap be to achieve this ambition?

Source: PBL, Netherlands.

TheRockGroup has supported various young businesses based on the principles of the Circular Economy. For instance, we conducted studies for Goodhout, a Dutch start-up producing wood boards from coconut husks. We also operate on an international level, for example helping Funky Junk by exploring new venues for product development in the circular waste transformation sector in Cambodia.

But circular business models cannot only be implemented in new enterprises, TheRockGroup also worked with existing companies such as Schiphol Airport, a range of SME’s and multinational companies as Philips Vietnam, DSM, Heineken, Unilever Vietnam in further developing their circular economy strategy and activities. For a few years we have been teaching courses on Circular Economy at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and developed University and professional training programmes in Hong Kong and several South-East Asian countries. Through various projects we constantly push the circular transition – not only in the Netherlands but also in Belgium and in Asia.