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The Circular Economy: The Event, The Insights, Inspiration and Steps for the Future

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On the 26th of March many companies, inspiring speakers and enthusiasts of the Circular Economy (CE) joined together in Rotterdam. It is not a surprise that the CE has so much interest nowadays. Next to the fact that we need to change the way we operate for the sake of the environment, the Circular Economy also has great value potential. An extended research by Accenture points out that the value to be captured is 4.500 billion dollar. However, the transition is radical and questions on ‘how’ and ‘what’ tend to be vague. Therefore Accenture has identified 5 business models that drive the circular economy, 10 enabling technologies and 5 key capabilities with a study on 120 pioneers in the field. These insights can be used as a guideline, a tool even, to make the shift from a linear to a circular economy.

Accenture discussed the opportunities to implement circular economy practices in Dutch businesses.

Governments are an important accelerator in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Koen de Snoo, director Sustainability of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, ensured as that they are very much involved in the need for a CE  and will put CE in the core of the agenda for 2016 when the Dutch government fulfills Presidency of the EU. But still companies are the ones that really have to make shift in the way they have always done business. During the various sessions two concepts kept coming back: having a Shared Vision and Collaboration. This strengthens the idea that system’s thinking is crucial in a circular economy and individualism will not ‘close the loops’.

Jan Kempers, Manager of Heineken Sustainable Supply, provided us with valuable insights in how they collaborate and create value on multiple areas: Water, Energy, Raw materials, Mobility and Habitat.

However, what is most interesting and inspiring about their story is that the more people get involved in the projects (either voluntarily or not) and experience the possibilities of a circular economy, the more enthusiastic they get about it and seek for ways to participate even more. This is not only true in the Heineken case but in all aspects of the transition. Getting involved, doing good and seeing actual results is much more fun than passively doing nothing or just continuing with the way things are, or ‘just selling plastic bags’ as Gé Moonen, CEO of Moonen Packaging, stated.

Another profound attendee of the event was the Fair Meter: an initiative started by Alliander and Stedin to develop a smart energy meter that strives to be made from materials that are renewable and recyclable with the least possible impact, from both environmental as well from social perspective.  Actual components of the meter together with a big “impact map” highlighting some of the many steps in the meter’s supply chain which leads us back to 3000 suppliers for a single meter! The Fairmeter initiative is an eye-opener!  The approach will for sure be a blue print for many supply chain projects to follow!

During the event Accenture did some small interviews to find out more about companies and their view on the Circular Economy. It shows that 60% of the companies have the circular economy as part of their corporate policy, some even mentioned it is as their core business. What is perhaps more interesting is the way companies think about different aspects of the Circular Economy. They were asked to put 5 items: Supply Chain Operations, Technical Processes, (Corporate) Circular Economy Strategy, Business Model Innovation and Value Creation Opportunities in order of importance for the transition to a CE. It shows that Technical Processes is number one on the agenda, but that business model innovations are number 5. This is contrary to the fact that business models do need to change radically in order to close the new CE business cases, which is still the main ‘go’ or ‘no-go’ in deciding how to operate. No closed case? Then companies will not go for CE practices.

A lot needs to be learned, changes don’t happen in a day, but we may not be afraid to experiment: learning along the way from each other and ourselves. Do you want to learn more about the 10 key technologies and 5 capability shifts? Browse through the presentation below I gave at the event.


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