As the COP26 climate change conference draws to a close in Glasgow, Louise Nash and Katie Glasgow-Palmer have a call to action for business leaders to be far more ambitious than their political counterparts | Content partnership
To say that COP26 makes us feel uncomfortable is an understatement.
I suspect you might be getting pretty uncomfortable too.
New Zealanders are known to be a practically-minded group of people, and amorphous goals like net zero by 2050 can be pretty intangible. With such long timeframes, these government pledges can often appear out of reach and easily pushed out of mind to be dealt with some other day by someone else.
Since the first COP in 1995, politicians have known of the climate crisis and the impact of our industrial systems on the planet. And together with fossil fuel lobby groups, they have been stalling through a dragged out process of setting and failing to meet emissions reduction targets.
On the other side are thousands of protesters and millions of ordinary people fed up and frustrated with the status quo, both here and overseas.
The announcement that, despite increased commitments in Glasgow, “the world is heading to at least 2.4 ̊C of warming, if not more” should unequivocally encourage us all to make the shifts to create a different reality for life on planet earth.
But will we?
We can and we must - here in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Beyond the politics
So, how can we work with nature, not against it? How can we shift away from an economy geared towards linear hyperconsumption? And how might business truly be a force for good?
These are the questions I took into a Masters of Technological Futures three years ago as I pivoted out of an industry that ignored its impact on the planet, into one that didn’t look away. I was dismayed at the amount of waste entering the environment, and that we were exploiting the value we gain from these invisible ecological services like natural pollination of crops and clean air, provided to us ‘for free’. I asked myself how we might design out waste and pollution altogether, and how I could upskill myself to develop the tools and methods to help businesses give more than they take.
I knew inherently that behind every business is a leader who I could help to steer the ship in a different direction - away from business as usual. What I uncovered through interviewing, desk research, and prototyping directly with trailblazing clients, was that a design-thinking approach was the most successful way for businesses to love the problem and design new solutions that dramatically change the status quo. I found that by using empathy, systems thinking, and the simple principles of the circular economy, we have a chance to act on what the science told us we must do.
The result? I founded Circularity - a circular design company that works with innovative leaders to solve these challenging problems right at the source. We do so by designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials flowing through our economy (rather than into landfills or exported overseas), and regenerating natural systems. We encourage mining the economy for valuable resources such as cobalt, rather than the environment. We seek to align the value we make with the values we live by. And we measure our impact now and into the future.
Implemented fully, the circular economy could eliminate the 45 percent of global emissions that come from industry, agriculture, and land use.
There is a perception that the changes we need to make will be costly, but there is also incredible value to be created by industries and businesses. This isn’t just a grassroots movement, it is an economic opportunity worth up to $4.5 trillion globally and $8.8 billion in Auckland alone. Where does the value come from? Retaining the materials we use every day, but rather than throwing them ‘away’, we design circular business models and technologies to create value again and again without the need for mining and producing new resources.
Groundbreaking NZ companies
Some New Zealand business leaders are already making the transition from linear to circular ways of operating.
Gaelle Thieme, the founder of clean skin and haircare company Dust and Glow, was frustrated at the vast amounts of unnecessary water added to beauty products, water that was then transported across oceans unnecessarily.
She explored how she might design out the need for water, to create an innovative waterless beauty range of powdered products in reusable, recyclable aluminium bottles, without compromising quality or customer satisfaction. Circularity helped her design and test the circularity of her packaging, and see the potential of her brand to go waterless, enabling her customers to give back water to those in need, via Charity Water.
It’s not just start-ups that can pivot to new ways of working - we've been able to co-create change in big companies too. We are working directly with Mikayla Plaw, executive director, organisational development and sustainability at Profile Group. Profile Group is the parent company of New Zealand’s largest aluminium window and doors supplier, APL Window Solutions. Plaw approached Circularity for help with designing out waste, utilising renewable resources, keeping materials in use and out of landfills, and upholding social responsibility across their integrated supply chain.
Like many other large scale manufacturers, Profile Group relied upon plastic packaging to protect its quality products during transportation. Within their linear packaging system, we uncovered together that there was enough single-use plastic wrap to cover 25 percent of the planet annually and it was all going to landfill. But without it, the aluminium would become damaged, increasing costs and energy usage as Profile would then have to begin the whole manufacturing process again.
Working collaboratively with staff, partners and the region, Circularity is exploring how we transform the company’s packaging system into a completely regenerative, reusable, renewable ‘packaging service’ called Wool Looped. This is currently being trialled across the Profile Group network and it is all made within an hour of their Waikato base using low grade, recovered New Zealand wool.
Through our work, Profile Group will be the first company in Aotearoa to measure and validate the circularity of its products, packaging, energy and water, using the global tool CTI (Circular Transition Indicator), created by the World Business Council For Sustainable Development.
“We are grateful to have the ability to initiate change," says Mikayla Plaw. "We can challenge and trial, discover what works, what doesn’t and pave the way with willing transparency. We can create progress that makes it accessible for more.”
We are now scaling up our work, inviting other businesses wanting to initiate change to join our Nationwide XLabs circular economy programme, supported by Auckland Unlimited, Ministry for the Environment, NZ Trade and Enterprise, Callaghan Innovation, Sustainable Business Council, Greenhouse Capital and Trees that Count. Starting with our self-directed online LEARN program to help businesses build their capability to co-create their future to be circular right now. XLabs alumni include Centrality, The Warehouse Group, Fletcher Building, Haka Tourism, EV Maritime, Bobux and Auckland Transport.
Meanwhile, there are other pioneers: like fashion designer Maggie Marilyn, who has shifted her retail model to use only regenerative, organic and recycled materials in her manufacturing, or Mutu, an online sharing marketplace extending the useful life of products through rental.
There are also some innovative businesses in the food industry, such as Citizen Beer, turning rescued bread into craft beers, or Foodprint, an app that alerts users to food at discounted prices nearby, helping to minimise food waste. There’s also Everledger, a company using blockchain technology to increase transparency in global supply chains for diamonds, wool and garments using digital labels.
These businesses are on track to be our potential billionaire unicorns and it’s great to see, but these kinds of innovative and circular businesses make up less than 10 percent of the world's economy - and that's not enough.
Businesses taking the lead
We need to be creative and ambitious, scaling up all kinds of innovations to prevent environmental degradation in Aotearoa. Like food waste to bio-energy plants, like designing products that don’t demand our energy, like food that regenerates biodiversity and human health, and like using bio-based materials for products, sourced locally, which are easily absorbed into nature at their end of life.
It’s all about rethinking consumption with new methods and business models. But it doesn’t start with the consumer; it starts with leaders in our businesses and organisations.
Thinking our future rests in the hands of a few politicians and lofty goals isn’t correct, despite how it may seem.
Most New Zealanders aren’t politicians. We’re the sales assistants, entrepreneurs, managers, marketers, designers, service workers, teachers, engineers, academics, electricians, policy writers, mechanics or accountants of the world.
We are highly connected to our communities and the natural world. This is our advantage.
We know the levers to push and who can push them - just think of the supply issues that could be solved through reuse and the resources that could be used regeneratively to create new value for our industries and our environment?
We can slow the climate crisis from where we are, right now, with hard work and a collective vision. By helping businesses take circular economy theory into the real world, we're designing a world with less pollution. And our businesses’ innovations are providing services that meet the needs and wants of our society, without the waste and emissions. Our survival depends on us to make these changes at scale.
So, don’t wait for the politicians at COP26 to change the future - it likely won’t happen if we do.
We encourage you to step forward out of your discomfort zone and put rhetoric into action around what you can do for your business right now. Let’s shift our mindset, leverage our strengths and form radically new partnerships to start making those critical changes right now.
Regeneration of the planet requires an economic transformation.
That’s why we believe that together, we need to make the shift from linear to circular in order to thrive.
Will you join us?
