The Circular Economy Podcast
Latest episode
In this episode, Catherine talks to Dan Dicker,the Founder and CEO of Circular&Co, the new brand name for ashortwalk Ltd and rCUP®.
Dan began his career as a product designer at Dyson, but had a strong desire to live and work a short walk from the sea. So, back in 2003, Dan founded a pioneering Circular Design practice ‘ashortwalk’. Now Circular&Co invent solutions that keep our materials and finite resources in use for as long as possible, whilst preventing them from ever reaching landfill or our oceans.
As well as their range of award-winning products available across 38 countries, they advise, develop, and deliver circular solutions for global brands worldwide, reinventing today’s waste into tomorrow’s Circular products.
We discuss Dan’s design approach, and how Dan believes that businesses going circular have everything to gain financially, as well as environmentally.
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See the full episode list below – each episode has accompanying show notes with links and transcripts.
Catherine Weetman interviews the people making the circular economy happen: rethinking how we design, make and use everything.
We talk to entrepreneurs & business owners, social enterprises, and leading thinkers.
We find out how they got involved, and invite them to share their ‘lessons learned’ and top tips for you. How are they using circular approaches to create value, increase resilience and reduce risk, to make a competitive, sustainable organisation?
Want to know more about the what the circular economy is, and how it can help your business? Listen to Episode 1, or read our article: What is the circular economy? In Episode 2, we dig into the ‘linear economy’ – what are the risks and global mega-trends driving the need to rethink how we design, make and use everything? What does this mean for your business?
Episode 1 What is the circular economy?
This first episode is a quick intro to explain what the circular economy is and why it’s important. We’ll explore how it helps create better products and services, and at the same time helps to make a better world.
Maybe you already have some green, or community-focussed elements in your business, and you want to go further: to find ways of being more sustainable and profitable! The circular economy can help you do that, and strengthen your business in lots of ways.
We’ll talk about the aims of circular approaches, then we’ll break it down into my 5 components, helping you think about each part of your business.
Next, we’ll look at the benefits for business, with some examples, so you can think about how it can help your own business.
Episode 2 Linear economy and risks
In Episode 2, we dig a bit deeper into the way we do business now, the linear economy, and why that’s creating problems for business, society and our living planet. Also, we’ll look at the risks that emerge from those big-picture issues, and how they might affect your organisation. Circular approaches can avoid or mitigate many of these risks, and we’ll be interviewing people in business, social enterprises and other organisations that are using the circular economy to re-think the way we make products and design services. I hope their stories will inspire you to use circular approaches to strengthen your own business.
Stay in touch for new episodes and useful insights.
Tweet us @Rethink_Global – we’d love to hear what you think of the show.
And of course it would be great if you could leave us a 5* review on iTunes, or wherever you find your podcasts!
Previous episodes
Episode 36 – Dan Dicker of Circular&Co
Episode 35 – Sophie Segal: the power of play
Episode 34 – Noreen Kam and Michael Brown of LUP Global
Episode 33 – Greg Lavery of Rype Office
Episode 32- Christian van Maaren of Excess Materials Exchange
Episode 31 – Tom Fecarotta of Rheaply
Episode 30 – What have we learned?
Episode 29 – Mabel Suglo of Dignified Wear
Episode 28 (revised) Chris Diplock – The Thingery
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’. You can follow them on Twitter too.