Ashley Robb,Director, Green Gain Ltd

The Circular Economy in Action

Introducing the Circular Economy

Circular Economy tick list• Substituting traditional raw materials with renewable

resources;• Design for repair / remanufacture / recovery;• Systems thinking - business models which reduce resource

use and optimise circularity.

Innovative

…. and inspiring

The circular economy mattressThe Furniture Recycling Group:• Collects end-of-life mattresses

from hotels and households;• Manual disassembly… new

mattress built from springs;• All other components reused

or recycled.

High growth rate company… rapidly expanding around UK

Are Mushrooms the New Plastics?

Ecovative business growth rate: 0 to 70 (employees) in six years

Packaging material made from fungi mycelium grown in crop wastes:

• Renewable, non-toxic and compostable;• Same function as expanded polystyrene, but better.

WARPit: re-use market place

• WARPit offers a subscription service purchased by each organisation;• Staff can give away or loan/rent out their surplus or underused assets to

other staff in a secure controlled online environment; and• WARPit also sets up the technical and legal framework to allow

organisations to link up and share their surplus resources.

ECONATION LIGHT ENERGYSmart natural lighting

• EcoNation - supplier of ecological daylight solutions for selected industrial market applications;

• LightCatcher - advanced mirror and technology-based system, bringing in more daylight into buildings than traditional light shafts or domes;

• EcoNation - offers to finance large industrial lighting projects by itself. EcoNation then places LightCatcher light domes on the customer's roof, absorbs the entire investment, monitors the energy savings; and

• Customer - saves 20% - 70% on the energy bill without investing one single euro.

Ricoh: printer remanufacturing

Interface – Net Works• Net-Works enables fishing

communities in developing countries to sell waste nets back into a global supply chain;

• Interface receives a fully recycled source of nylon for carpet tile production, and the local community receives long-term incentives to protect their natural environment; and

• To date, collected 61 tonnes of discarded fishing nets, helping 4,500 villagers in 14 collection sites in Philippines.

ConclusionsInspired to develop new circular economy enterprise?

• Take the time to properly research an idea;• Collaboration is key;• So is strong leadership;• Funding available – but don’t get fenced in;• Be prepared to change direction; and• Being an ‘early adopter’ does not come without risk!

Thank You for Listening

Ashley RobbGreen Gain

M: 07786 248220E: ashley@greengain.co.uk