The Circular Economy Show Podcast

Zaid Hassan has spent 25 years in systems change, and he thinks the field fooled itself. Beautiful diagrams that feel like progress and change nothing. Skills that AI will take first. Joe Iles asks him what actually works, and why he still ends his new book with three words: it's not that hard.

Zaid is a strategist, facilitator and writer. He has advised organisations across the globe including the World Bank, Oxfam, WWF and more. He is the author of the Social Labs Revolution (2014) and more recently How To Evolve And How Not To (2026).

Find out more about his work here:
https://xinx.co/

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Most of our clothes contain stretch. That stretch usually comes from a fibre called elastane, which is one of the biggest barriers to recycling clothing at scale.

In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, Seb Egerton-Read sits down with Georgia Parker of Fashion for Good and Lewis Shuler of Paradise Textiles (Alpine Group) to discuss why the industry reached for elastane by default rather than by intent. 

They discuss how their project, 'Stretching Circularity' brings together brands, innovators, supply chain partners, and ecosystem experts to generate data on performance, recyclability, commercial feasibility, and mapping the barriers to scale. 

The goal is to speed up the development and adoption of lower-impact elastane solutions. Although no single fibre will replace elastane, and no single company can solve it alone. Today's bio-based and recycled alternatives are fragmented and early stage, which is why coordinated and compounded industry action is needed to match the scale of the problem.

Links: 

Stretching Circularity -  https://www.fashionforgood.com/case-study/stretching-circularity-project/ 

The new bottom line - https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/policy-levers-for-resale-and-repair/report

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A hundred trillion dollars of capital lined up behind climate. It was never going to be enough. In part two, Jeremy Oppenheim tells Joe what actually moves a market, from Pakistan's solar boom to a copper mine in Mongolia, and why the voluntary playbook the movement leaned on for a decade has run its course.

Conversations with a CE/O is a new series on The Circular Economy where the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s CEO Joe Murphy sits down with leaders whose decisions are shaping the economy and asks one question. We’ve been working on the circular economy for more than a decade, the next 10 years will look nothing like the last, so how does the work itself need to change?

Links:

SystemIQ at 10 - https://www.systemiq.earth/systemiq-at-10/

Blue Whale Enquiry - https://www.systemiq.earth/reports/bluewhale/

The work ahead - https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/the-work-ahead 

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Jeremy Oppenheim left a top job at the management consulting firm McKinsey&Co in 2016 to become a Founding Partner of and build SYSTEMIQ, at the high water mark of climate optimism. Then came Trump and Brexit. Ten years on, Joe asks him what the movement got right, and what it got badly wrong, from ignoring the politics of decline to vilifying the very incumbents it needed. And most importantly, what does this mean for how we think about what comes next? 

Conversations with a CE/O is a new series on The Circular Economy where the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s CEO Joe Murphy sits down with leaders whose decisions are shaping the economy and asks one question. We’ve been working on the circular economy for more than a decade, the next 10 years will look nothing like the last, so how does the work itself need to change?

Part 2 of this conversation will be available next week. Subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode.

Links:

SystemIQ at 10 - https://www.systemiq.earth/systemiq-at-10/

Blue Whale Enquiry - https://www.systemiq.earth/reports/bluewhale/

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In a circular economy, products may not be sold just once, but multiple times. This enables businesses to generate more revenue from one item. As a result, businesses are shifting their metrics beyond short-term profit to embrace the long-term strategic advantages of circular business models.

In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, host Fin is joined by Emily Hill, Director of Sustainable Transformation Practice at Kantar, to discuss measurement guidance that will allow marketing teams to support the shift to circular business models and behaviours at scale, while delivering on their key priorities.

Emily explains how marketers can redefine success across four key areas: Commercial, Brand, Creative, and Consumer Insight. From building a compelling business case for pilots, to using creative campaigns to shift consumer behaviour, we explore how measurement can be a powerful tool to unlock resources for circular initiatives.

This August on the Circular Economy Show, we’re revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells.

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In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, our guests Georgie Rose from Selfridges and Simon Davies from VISA tell us how they have been working together to find out how to make circular behaviours irresistible for consumers.

Collaborating with Mindworks Marketing to optimise messaging and branding for promoting circular shopping behaviours, Georgie and Simon discuss how their behavioural lab has been bridging the gap between customer intent and action.

Listen to this episode to hear:

This August on the Circular Economy Show, we’re revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells.

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For years, marketers have been helping to shape how consumers think and feel about products that are driving the linear economy. However in this episode of the Circular Economy Show, we explore how they can harness their skills to unlock the opportunities that the circular economy provides. 

We’re joined by experts Deb Caldow, former Global Marketing Director at Diageo, and Rachel O’Reilly, Global Research Lead at Accenture Song. Their experiences provide an insight into how we can turn ideas into impactful actions that deliver both economic growth and environmental benefits.

Join us to find out:

This August on the Circular Economy Show, we’re revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells.

Subscribe to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation for more insightful videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAC2otE5_agzHZPnk3mE5w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow us online on these channels:

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Website: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

How can businesses sell circular propositions in a world that's rapidly changing? This episode of the Circular Economy Show tackles the marketing challenges and opportunities head-on. Pippa sits down with Jonathan Hall, Managing Partner at Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, and Amanda Gandolpho, former Head of Brands at bike subscription service Swapfiets, to explore how to connect with today's consumers and drive demand for circular products and services.

In this episode you'll discover:

This August on the Circular Economy Show, we’re revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells.

Subscribe to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation for more insightful videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAC2otE5_agzHZPnk3mE5w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow us online on these channels:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/EllenMacArthurFoundation

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Website: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

This August on the Circular Economy Show, we’re revisiting four conversations that help to navigate the marketing challenges and opportunities of switching to a circular economy. So listen in if you want to learn how to take something from a good idea to something that actually sells.

For years, the circular economy conversation has generated significant research, policy development, and business action around finite materials. But the same attention has not been given to bio-based materials. How can products and components made from these materials circulate and create value in a circular economy?

In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, Fin is joined by Guilherme Suertegaray, co-author of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new report — Circular by nature: a policy agenda for bio-based materials in a circular economy — and Beto Bina, CEO and founder of Farfarm, to explore why circular economy and bio-based material policies have developed in silos, and what's needed to align them.

We cover the policy gap on both sides, real supply chain examples, and the social stakes for smallholder farmers and rural communities. We also explore bio-based resource production as a key driver of biodiversity action as well as the policy recommendations the report puts forward ahead of COP17 — where we’ll be demonstrating that the circular economy offers a practical route to tackling biodiversity loss and meeting national biodiversity targets.

For more on COP17, listen to our previous episode on this topic — Circular economy, biodiversity, and the road to COP17 — and look out for the next one in September.

If you enjoyed this episode, then please share it with your colleagues, or leave us a review or comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. 

Circular by nature: a policy agenda for bio-based materials in a circular economy

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