89 Simon Hombersley – transcript
Read on to see the transcript of this podcast episode (generated by AI)… Don’t forget, you can subscribe to the podcast series on iTunes, Google… Read More »89 Simon Hombersley – transcript
Catherine Weetman
Catherine Weetman MSc FCILT FRSA - Director, Rethink Global Catherine gives talks, workshops and advice on the circular economy and sustainability. Her award-winning book, A Circular Economy Handbook for Business and Supply Chains, published by Kogan Page, includes wide-ranging examples and practical tips. Catherine has over 25 years' experience in contract logistics, manufacturing, retail and supply chain consultancy, and her career spans food, fashion and logistics, including Tesco, Kellogg's and DHL Supply Chain. She is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, and a Mentor and Regional Organiser for the Circular Economy Club
89 Simon Hombersley – plastics from plant protein
Simon Hombersley, CEO of Xampla, shares the story of how this Cambridge University spin-out has created the world’s first plant protein material for commercial use, pioneering the replacement of the most polluting plastics with natural alternatives. Xampla’s ambition is to become the leader in natural polymers, and it’s been developing its natural polymer resin over the past 15 years. The polymer, which Xampla describes as a breakthrough material, performs just like synthetic polymers, but decomposes naturally and fully without harming the environment at the end of life.
Xampla is the first UK University spin-out to be awarded B Corp status and is working with multi-national companies, including Britvic, Gousto and Croda on new technologies.
88 Alexandra Rico-Lloyd – the Bike Club
Alexandra Rico-Lloyd is one of the UK’s circular economy entrepreneurs, and is passionate about inspiring the next generation to get active and outdoors.
Alexandra says there are over 12.5 million unused kids bikes, just in the UK. That spurred her on to create Bike Club back in 2016, to provide a better way to cycle; better for the environment, better for parents and their children.
Bike Club has revolutionised the traditional model of ownership, aiming to change family cycling forever. It’s had over $40million of funding and reached 40,000 cyclists so far, and Bike Club says that makes it the largest micro mobility network in the UK – larger than Uber and Santander Cycles (what we used to call Boris Bikes).
Alexandra, who was recently listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, shares the story of how the Bike Club grew from a self-funded ‘minimum viable proposition’, with a few bikes packed into an attic spare room. She explains how it’s delivering deeper levels of value for customers, and how its collaboration with one of the UK’s leading retailers has opened up its next development phase.
87 – Veena Sahajwalla – high-value opportunities from MICROFactories
Professor Veena Sahajwalla, founder of UNSW SMaRT Centre, is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor who is revolutionising recycling science. In 2018, Veena launched the world’s first e-waste MICROfactorieTM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and Green Ceramics MICROfactoriesTM, another breakthrough for recycling technology. Veena unpacks the concepts of micro-factories and micro-recycling, and we hear why it’s important to get clear on the constituent materials in waste flows – for example, not just textiles, but what the textile is made from.
Veena explains the importance of thinking beyond the manufacture of the recycled material, so you are designing solutions that are properly suitable for high-value end-products. Veena also describes how the projects are collaborating with industry partners, helping open up opportunities for important local jobs, skills and resilient income streams.
86 Jennifer Hinton – Rethinking how profit is used
We explore a different way of thinking, about how business fits into our society and economy. Jennifer Hinton is a systems researcher and activist in the field of sustainable economy. Her work focuses on how societies relate to profit and how that relationship affects global sustainability challenges.
Jennifer started developing this theory in the book How on Earth, which outlines a conceptual model of a not-for-profit market economy – the Not-for-Profit World model.
As an activist, Jennifer collaborates with civil society organizations, businesses, and policy makers to transform the economy so that it can work for everyone within the ecological limits of the planet. Jennifer holds a double PhD in Economics and Sustainability Science, and is a researcher at Lund University and a senior research fellow at the Schumacher Institute.
Circular Insights #38 – Sprinting towards the light
Turn eco-anxiety into positive action | Flip disagreements into discoveries | Transform business risks into a €500bn circular economy opportunity | Circular Economy Podcasts | Circular Innovations | Thank you letters
Bonus – BONUS India Hamilton – SCOOP – part two
BONUS Ep85 part 2 – India Hamilton shares more about circular economy food coop SCOOP, Permaculture, membership models, and why she loves compliance officers. We also discuss the importance of supporting your local food economy, and how monopolies and exploitative capitalism are underming this.
85 India Hamilton – SCOOP – transforming local food systems
India Hamilton, cofounder of circular economy food cooperative SCOOP explains the challenges of providing healthy, affordable and local food on a small island. We hear about the founding principles behind SCOOP and it’s ‘why’. India explains how SCOOP goes beyond the provision of local, healthy and sustainable food and is embedding circular solutions across the business. We find out how it survived during lockdown, and discuss India’s counter-intuitive conclusions about the real meaning of convenience
84 Jo Chidley – Reposit – reusable packaging for consumer goods
Catherine Weetman talks to Jo Chidley, a circular economy expert, chemist, herbal botanist, and co-founder of TWO successful circular economy businesses, Beauty Kitchen (which is on a mission to create the most effective, natural and sustainable beauty products in the world) and the business we’re focusing on today, Reposit (the new brand name for ReRe). Reposit is a buy anywhere, return anywhere, reuse anywhere alternative to single-use packaging, helping retailers, brands and consumers to switch to Reuse & Refills across a wide range of products from milk to moisturisers and pasta to protein.
83 – Kim Baker – funding equitable, market-driven circular solutions
Kim Baker is Senior Director of Innovation at Elemental, which funds circular economy and climate tech solutions through a non-profit model. Elemental is on a mission to redesign the systems at the root of the climate problems , and it’s built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions, and to uplift people and communities around the world. Since 2009, Elemental has invested in over 130 growth-stage companies.
Kim Baker has over 15 years of experience in launching and growing engineered systems into industrial and municipal markets. Currently, she works at the intersection of the built environment and carbon-related investments together with the design of technology demonstration projects.
We find out what sets Elemental apart as a funder and hear about just a few of the many different types of businesses in the Elemental portfolio, including Trove, Thrilling, Goodr and Reath. Kim explains how Elemental finds and select the companies it invests in, and I also ask Kim about her background, and her ‘why’.