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Artwork for Circular Economy Podcast episode 179

179 Dimitri Naczaj: using behavioural science to bridge the “say-do” gap

Dimitri Naczaj is a behavioural scientist and founder of Bellegarde Scientific Consulting, a research-based consultancy applying behavioural science to the challenges of the circular economy. His work focuses on understanding and changing human behaviour towards sustainable habits, such as sorting for recycling, repair and reuse, and participation to return programs.
Dimitri and his colleagues design evidence-based interventions that make circular systems work in practice, on a behavioural level. Since his Ph.D., Dimitri has worked extensively on electronic devices, including collection, repair and reuse.
As Dimitri explains, behavioural science helps us find ways to bridge the “say-do” gap, the gap between intentions and actions, so we can encourage circular and sustainable behaviours.
Dimitri outlines three ‘moments’ of circular economy behaviours: before using, while using, and after using, and explains how our choices are influenced by a variety of factors including environmental awareness, or personal values, and information transparency.
We discuss how behavioural science can support circular options such as repairing, sharing and returning products at the end of life, and if you’d like to learn more, Dimitri recommends three books to read.

Artwork for episode 145

145 Evolena de Wilde of Faircado: your AI-powered second-hand shopping assistant

Evolena de Wilde d’Estmael is co-founder & CEO of Faircado, a Berlin-based startup that provides the first AI-powered second-hand shopping assistant in Europe. Faircado’s technology helps people find the best second-hand alternatives to what they are searching for online. Driven by the mission to reduce global waste and support the shift to a circular economy, Faircado’s goal is to help make second-hand goods the first choice for consumers.
Evolena was born in Belgium and is proud to be an impact entrepreneur, committed to the circular economy and sustainability. She was named one of the top 100 women in social enterprise in 2022 and is an EU Climate Pact Ambassador. Evolena is also the co-founder of Solidartsy, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the art world’s gender pay gap.
Faircado is available as a browser extension, working in the background to search for second-hand alternatives to whatever you’re looking to buy, and Evolena explains why they decided to start with a browser extension rather than an app or a website.
Until recently, Faircado was available only in Germany, and yet already has 100 million products integrated from 60 different partners. Evolena talks about the numbers and the partnerships, including how this works commercially and how companies like eBay are reacting.
We hear about the underlying principles for designing the technology, and how Faircado has used research into habits and behaviours to make it easy for people to adopt.
Evolena shares some of her fascinating backstory too, which blends a deep sense of purpose with making interesting and maybe unexpected choices at various forks in the road.

Image: Circular Insights #41

Circular Insights #41 – Values and value

Staying true to our values | Signs of circular progress | Leasing minerals |Sustainable living survey | Planet Critical

There’s a ‘value’ thread running through this round up of what I’ve shared, and what’s inspired me. Firstly, our personal values and principles, which guide our attitudes and actions; then my podcast interview with circular economy superstar, Walter Stahel, digging into how businesses can create more value with circular strategies, and how countries could think differently about the value of the commons; finally, a podcast that investigates what’s keeping us stuck, where (and who) is destroying value, and how new ways of thinking can help us create deeper, richer value for humans, and more-than-humans.

Rethink loop

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