Image: WRAP

Business leaders, academics and practitioners came together at the first annual Circular Economy 100 (CE100) Summit in London on Wednesday (19 June), to provide a ‘global wrap-up’ of the most current thinking on circular economy.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation – a charity that aims to ‘inspire a generation to rethink, redesign and build a positive future through the vision of a circular economy’ and leaders of the CE100 Summit – the ‘circular economy’ is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which society keeps resources in use for as long as possible, extracts the maximum value from them whilst in use, and recovers and regenerates products and materials at the end of each service life.

Indeed, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs calculates that UK businesses could benefit by up to £23 billion per year through low cost or no cost improvements in the efficient use of resources, whilst McKinsey estimates that the global value of resource efficiency could eventually reach $3.7 (£3.2) trillion per year.

The three-year CE100 programme was launched in February to bring together a ‘network of 100 leading companies globally to facilitate development and commitment to new circular economy projects’. The programme is based on the principle that ‘more value can be gained from collective problem solving than can be achieved by working alone’.

As part of the programme, companies aim to identify ways in which to promote a circular economy and result in ‘an aggregated economic benefit of $10 billion (£6.4 billion) by 2015'.

At this year’s summit, topics for discussion included ‘Macro Challenge and Opportunity’; ‘New Access Models’, with insights from Walter Stahel, Founder and Director of Product Life Institute and one of the earliest pioneers of the circular economy; ‘Rethinking Design’, with perspectives from Janine Benyus, Founder of the Biomimicry Institute, and Professor Peter Childs, lead in Engineering Design at Imperial College, London, who commented that by thinking through the circular economy framework, he had “discovered something more powerful than traditional life cycle tools".

Other notable discussion included the future of enabling packaging technologies, led by Eben Bayer, CEO of mycelium packaging company Ecovative, and the role of technology, collaboration, end-of-use management and key challenges in the circular economy, led by Michael Braungart, Founder and Scientific Director of EPEA.

Speaking of the summit, Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), said: “This week’s inaugural CE100 summit, organised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, provided a fascinating insight into the global development of the circular economy from first faltering steps right up to the present day, and beyond.

“The most compelling element of the day for me was the scale of possibilities with a circular economy and just how engaged the world has become. This strikes right at the heart of one of the core questions often levelled at circular economy thinkers – how do you turn these theoretical possibilities into real actions? [Wednesday’s] CE100 summit highlighted many cutting-edge examples of how this is taking place, often organically, around the globe... No sector will be unaffected by the circular economy.

“I for one am looking forward to working with the foundation in the future, now that the circular economy’s time has come.”

Schmidt-MacArthur Lecture

Following the close of the summit, the day’s attendees were joined by a further 200 people for the Schmidt-MacArthur Lecture led by Wendy Schmidt, President of the Schmidt Family Foundation, and Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt (pictured above with Ellen MacArthur, founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation). The talk, titled ‘An economy that works – changing the rules of the game?’ discussed the proposition of an economy that supports ‘very different modes of production, consumption and use’ for mankind to ’maintain and improve [its] standard of living’.

The talk was followed by a panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities for businesses making the transition to a circular economy, with insights from Ellen MacArthur (founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation), Professor Braungart and William McDonough (Co-authors of Cradle to Cradle), and Jeremy Oppenheim (Principal, McKinsey & Company). The discussion was chaired by Dominic Waughray of the World Economic Forum.

The lecture formed part of the Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship, which brings together post-graduate students and academics from universities across Europe, India and the US in order to focus on a year-long circular economy innovation programme.

This week sees members taking part in a week-long summer school at Imperial College London to bring together disciplines of design, engineering and business, to enable ‘hands-on exploration of the circular economy’.

Read more about the CE100 programme and the Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship.