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Peter McCafferty works on Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support Service (CEBS). These services were launched back in 2017, and since then, Peter has worked with over 200 SMEs and large organisations, so he’s got a wealth of experience and insights to share with us, especially on the fuel and friction around the circular economy.
Zero Waste Scotland is a not-for-profit environmental organisation funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund. Its purpose is to lead Scotland to use products and resources responsibly, focusing on where it can have the greatest impact on climate change.
It aims to both inform government policy, and to motivate individuals and businesses to embrace the environmental, economic, and social benefits of a circular economy.
Peter has over 13 years of experience of working in sustainability and resource management, and his role involves working with individual businesses to identify, shape and develop circular and sustainable business ideas through a mix of 1-1 coaching and engagement, as well as facilitating bespoke support via Zero Waste Scotland’s dedicated CE Framework.
Our discussion includes:
- What’s the big ‘why’ behind ZWS, and in a practical sense, how does it provide support for businesses in Scotland that want to adopt circular solutions?
- What kind of things are providing the ‘fuel’ for the circular economy, and why digital solutions are coming to the fore as key enablers of circularity.
- We discuss some of the barriers to circular approaches, including regulatory challenges, scaling issues, and underestimated waste reduction potential.
- These days, we’re all living in a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – and we discuss the importance of systems thinking, especially in getting to grips with the challenges of implementation and addressing complex global issues.
- We share our thoughts on the ongoing struggle with language and interpretation of circular economy, and Peter talks about the increasing focus on carbon footprinting and net zero policies, and how seems to be getting in the way of conversations for circularity.
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Read on for more on our guest and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.
Links we mention in the episode:
Links for our guest:
- Zero Waste Scotland website https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/
- Zero Waste Scotland’s social media channels – Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
Guest bio
Peter McCafferty, Manager, Business Support, Zero Waste Scotland
Peter works on Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support Service (CEBS) and has over 13 years of experience of working in sustainability and resource management. Since the launch of Zero Waste Scotland’s CEBS Service in 2017 he has worked on projects with over 200 SMEs and large organisations.
Peter’s role involves working with individual businesses to identify, shape and develop circular and sustainable business ideas through a mix of 1-1 coaching and engagement, as well as facilitating bespoke support via Zero Waste Scotland’s dedicated CE Framework.
Zero Waste Scotland exists to lead Scotland to use products and resources responsibly, focusing on where we can have the greatest impact on climate change.
Using evidence and insight, our goal is to inform policy, and motivate individuals and businesses to embrace the environmental, economic, and social benefits of a circular economy.
We are a not-for-profit environmental organisation funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund.
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Podcast music
Thanks to Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, otherwise known as the brilliant, inventive and generous folk duo, O’Hooley & Tidow for allowing me to use the instrumentals from the live version of Summat’s Brewin’ as music for the podcast. You can find the whole track (inspired by the Copper Family song “Oh Good Ale”) on their album, also called Summat’s Brewin’. Or, follow them on Twitter.
