In Europe the Circular Economy Becomes Law
The measures (directives 849/2018/EU, 850/2018/EU, 851/2018/EU and 852/2018/EU) published on the Official Journal of the European Union on June the 14th 2018 are effective as of July 4th 2018. Mean...
Make Fashion Circular
You’ve probably guessed by now that this isn’t really a fair interpretation. But, the underlying principle still holds water. As children grow, their needs and sizes change frequently. I...
Choosing Sides in the Civilisation-Planet Standoff
Financial and policy elites don’t want to hear any of this. Economic growth is the central article of faith in our modern world. Whatever the problem, growth is the solution; every politician ...
A New Renewable Matter
In fact, “economy” derives from oikosnomos (οἶκοςνÏ�μος), meaning the management of a hou...
The World is only 9% Circular
Over decades, even centuries, since the boom of the Industrial Revolution, it has delivered tremendous living standards, wealth and comfortable lives to some people, in some parts of the world, at c...
Circular Europe
How will the Circular Economy Package (CEP) impact Europe? This is the fundamental question everyone in the business is debating right now. In Brussels the glass seems to be half full for ...
The Dark Side of Digitalisation
According to a report issued by Global e-Sustainability Initiative, digital solutions can bring to a 16% reduction of climate-altering gases before 2020, a result that would go way beyond ...
Use-by Date Product
Markets seek value, just like consumers. The problem is that different types of value are brought into opposition. For markets it is about economic value, whereas for consumers of a good it is about...
When a Party Extends Your Life
In 1924 the expression “planned obsolescence” did not exist, but the phenomenon was already there. Indeed, during the same year, a few light bulb manufacturers signed a non-aggression pa...
C'mon People, Let's Repair!
Do you have a sweater you really like, but so do moth which left a clear trail on it? Did your children break the toy train they got as a Christmas present? Do you have to reposition your bicycle br...
Disruptive Design
It has become increasingly normal for businesses to manufacture products that are specifically designed to lose value over time, dramatically so in some cases, with the intent to manipulat...
A Bioethanol-Fuelled Bioeconomy
Abundance of non-food biomass, soil and vast availability of natural resources, a biodiversity almost unmatched anywhere else in the world and a biotechnological and chemical industry focused on inn...
Barcelona, Fab City
There is a new idea of a society that is catching on in many cities, from Paris to Boston, Amsterdam to Barcelona. Actually, it is more of a movement stemming from the very principles of the circula...
Amsterdam, the Circular City
The city of Amsterdam has made a major step in the transition to become one of the world’s first circular cities. The goal? Minimize waste, innovate product-as-a-service business, boast new bu...
Pollution as Blue as Our Jeans
In Tehuacán there are over one hundred industrial laundries, some legal and others illegal. For over thirty years the city, in the region of Puebla, has been a cornerstone of the textile...
A Textbook Case
Analysing internal industrial processes and finding the keys to make them sustainable. This is one of the most interesting and hardest challenges of the circular economy because if sustainability do...
The Lazarus' Effect: The Second Life of Patagonia Clothes
Product Life-Extension is an oft-talked pillar of the circular economy, many talk the talk, but less walk the walk. Patagonia, the famous outdoor fashion brand from Ventura, California, ha...
The Need for a Perspective Change
“All packaging plastic must be recyclable by 2030.” This is the appeal launched by Brussels at the beginning of 2018. A strategy aimed at drastically reducing plastic waste while creatin...
The Landfill, a Model for Economic Participation
The story of Belvedere SPA started in the past century. Founded in 1997, for the last 20 years, it has managed the waste disposal site for the Municipality of Peccioli, in the Province of Pisa. A un...