We collaborate

CE in Business with Merryn Chilcott, Sustainability & Technical Manager

We ask Circular Economy implementers to share their experience of working with the University, either as a participant on one of our executive education offerings, or as a project collaborator and ask them to describe both the challenges and successes they have encountered on the way, as well as plans for the future.

BAM

BAM designs and manufactures beautifully soft bamboo activewear, providing a natural alternative to synthetic fabrics. It is committed to finding solutions to the sustainable fashion challenge, creating both innovative and environmentally friendly pieces.

In 2019 BAM set itself an ambitious goal to be impact positive by 2030. It is an all-encompassing goal, for the whole product range and for the entire supply chain impact, starting from the raw material source continuing through to the moment the clothes are recycled by customers.

Two years were spent measuring and understanding impacts across six identified pillars: climate, waste, chemical, water, land use and people.

What impact did the Masterclass have on you from a personal/professional perspective?

The masterclass gave me a comprehensive understanding of the concept of the circular economy, as well as how our business could fit into it and what kind of challenges we might face or changes we would need to make as we worked towards becoming a more circular business. It was also very encouraging to learn that, as a business with sustainable values at its heart, lots of the things we had always done were already contributing to this.

Personally, coming from a product development background, I found the masterclass really enjoyable from a design perspective. It gave me the knowledge & tools to approach design and product development in a completely new way. This has not only had a direct influence on the product ranges we've recently launched, but also on our longer-term overall product strategy.

What are the main successes and challenges you have faced while implementing the changes to become more circular?

We've had some great success with new product launches and saw very strong sales after launching our first ever denim range in 2020. The denim was designed with circular principles in mind and followed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Jeans Redesign guidelines which establish minimum requirements for durability, material health, recyclability, and traceability.

Another success was with a new partnership with a charity aiming to eliminate clothing poverty, where we provided a pre-paid bag to our customer so they could donate unwanted clothing. We are also committed to supporting the charity to find better end of life solutions for clothing that is not suitable for donation. The service had to be paused after 1 month due to the sheer volume of donations they received, we're aiming to re-launch the service later this year.

We were also a finalist in the Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards, Best Circular Initiative Category in 2021 which was a fantastic achievement for us and has given us even more drive to push ourselves to solve some of the big challenges the industry is facing when it comes to circularity.

One of the biggest challenges we have found is the lack of textile recycling facilities, technology, and infrastructure. We see ourselves as an active part of the solution to this through our work with second-hand clothing processors like Sharewear, funding and contributing to research, and our growing range of products designed with circular principles in mind.

Have you collaborated with the University on any other projects/programmes?

We were lucky enough to be asked to participate in the Exeter MBA Design Sprint Challenge two years in a row where we provided live challenges we were facing as a business and had a fantastic group of students coming up with creative circular design solutions for them over two days. Few businesses get access to so many bright minds all working on one problem so intensively - it was a fantastic and inspiring experience for us, and we hope the students got just as much out of it as we did. Following one of the design sprints, we've ended up exploring a potential new business model with one of the students as a consultancy project, so we look forward to seeing where we get to with that.

Following your experience on the Masterclass/MBA Projects/Corporate Challenge, what are the next steps for you/your business in its CE journey?

We believe that circularity is key to us achieving our Impact Positive ambition. Our long-term product strategy contains some ambitious goals around circularity, for example we are aiming to be using 100% regenerative or recycled fibres by 2030. We also believe that we should be moving towards a time where we can confidently say we do not produce a garment if we don't know what will happen to it as the end of its use. We hope to be launching our first product that we feel we have achieved true circularity with by the end of the year in collaboration with a recycling processor - this is a big step forward for us and we are really excited to share the story.

In Conversation with Katja Hansen, Senior C2C and CE expert, environmental engineer

We ask Circular Economy Innovators and Specialists to share their thoughts and inspirations, and dig a little deeper into their own personal journey of creating and capturing value in a circular economy.

Was there a lightbulb moment that inspired you to work within the field of the Circular Economy?

It was when Ellen MacArthur and her core startup team came to Hamburg for a one week training in the Cradle to Cradle Design framework while they were setting up the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. I was one of the lead trainers as I’d been developing and applying C2C for years. In that training we all realized that C2C would be powering the Circular Economy and we had many practical cases and learnings to support it.Those cases ended up being the first practical examples cited by EMF for the CE and I’m excited to see most of those cases still running today. The lightbulb is still shining!

What has surprised you most about implementing the circular economy within your organisation/other businesses?

How companies know a lot about their products, materials and supply chains but very little about what’s in them.…And how much innovation and creativity is freed when you ask them to design something beneficial instead of less bad. The other thing that surprised us is that circularity is 10 percent technology and 90 percent psychology. People's perception of what circularity is and their role in it are what counts The technology and investment come after that.

What do you wish other people knew about the Circular Economy?

That the Circular Economy is REGENERATIVE & RESTORATIVE BY DESIGN. Regenerating and restoring is different from reducing, reusing and recycling. You start at the beginning by designing products that contribute to regenerating or restoring. The guidance for that is the three Cradle to Cradle design principles: Design everything to be a resource for something else, use renewable energy, and celebrate biological, social and conceptual diversity. Those are the foundations for a restorative, climate-resilient economy.

Tell me about someone who has influenced you on your CE journey.

Over so many decades, I’ve learned from the best and it’s quite a list... but if I had to pick one person it’d be Douglas Mulhall who has an uncanny ability to question status quo and make concepts understandable and applicable.

What would you tell someone who is thinking about becoming more circular?

That there are more than 114 definitions already of the Circular Economy so it’s really important to be clear what you want to achieve. Remember, only a system that’s beneficial and healthy for people and the environment as well as economically sound, can be a regenerative & restorative system!

What do you think will happen over the next five years in terms of circularity in your specific industry?

We’re going to see a split between those who go for true circularity because they see the business and social value, and those who continue greenwashing because they don’t. Investors are starting to vote with their money, and for that they demand guidance so I’m working on the tools. Combined with a regenerative mindset, those tools will accelerate a true paradigm change in the next 5 years.. The pandemic demonstrated if we want to think globally, act locally to implement changes this is possible.

CE in Business with Anett Kiss, Responsible Procurement Manager at InterContinental Hotels Group

What impact did the Masterclass have on you from a personal/professional perspective?

Attending the Masterclass was a fantastic opportunity to step back from my day-to-day duties and learn more about how other companies address circularity. The course reminded me to always think about the ‘bigger picture’ which is easy to lose sight of when working for the same company for many years. The course helped me to see challenges from a different perspective and approach them with a changed mindset.

What are the main successes and challenges you have faced while implementing the changes to become more circular?

One of the main challenges for IHG is the scalability of a circular solution and with 5,000+ hotels globally, brand consistency for our guest is vital. To overcome this, we closely work with suppliers through piloting solutions and often committing to a new product or service with one of our brands first. We then gradually introduce the concept to more hotels in collaboration with the supplier. This allows to progressively build trust with suppliers and create symbiotic partnerships.

Have you collaborated with the University on any other projects/programmes?

Yes, for the second year now we have been participating in the Exeter MBA Consultancy Projects programme through which students apply their innovative business thinking to a real-life business challenge IHG is facing. In both years, the busines challenges were relevant to circular economy.

Following your experience on the Masterclass/MBA Projects/Corporate Challenge, what are the next steps for you/your business in its CE journey?

Looking ahead, we would like to strengthen our partnerships with key suppliers and jointly design innovative circular solutions that will be beneficial to many more. Being a consumer business comes with the responsibility of challenging the norm, challenging our business partners and enabling solutions.