There is race among apparel and footwear companies, with both new and established players vying to unlock the potential benefits of circular business models. The insights generated in the process can help inform broader innovation across many other industries in a transition to a circular economy.

Join this tutorial to learn how the fashion industry’s experience illustrates key elements in building a circular business model. Participants will be invited to take part in a fun, interactive competition to better understand the challenges and opportunities companies face when testing and scaling new models.

Facilitated by World Resources Institute (WRI) and QSA Partners, the session will review the innovations needed to overcome an “implementation gap” between talk and testing. WRI and QSA will share early insights on behalf of a group of organizations—supported by C&A Foundation’s Bridging the Gap initiative—working with fashion industry leaders to put circular economy ideas into action.

(No experience in the fashion industry necessary. Only shirts and shoes required.)

This interactive, solution-oriented workshop will provide tangible tactics and strategies for you to consider applying to regional water circularity solutions and collaboration by hearing examples from members of the MN Sustainable Growth Coalition.  This private/public/non-profit partnership aims to advance the circular economy for the growth and prosperity of the region by focusing on water, materials and energy from a systems, social level approach. Hear water-focused takeaways and lessons learned from leaders at Fortune 500 companies. 

Voluntary product take-back schemes are an effective way for companies to reduce waste, engage consumers, reclaim valuable materials and establish a more circular supply chain. But once a company has successfully recovered a product at the end of its usable life, what next? Join reverse logistics and take-back experts from IKEA, I:CO and Best Buy for a conversation about how to determine the appropriate path for used products that keeps materials at their highest and best use, complies with health and safety regulations and also pencils out.

As more companies commit to innovative circular economy and sustainability strategies and investments, there is an increased need to learn the best practices for successfully communicating these decisions externally. Too often, we hear about what circular approaches companies are taking but not how they are communicating the relevance of those approaches. This session will explore how companies can most effectively communicate to their customers and stakeholders about their circular ambitions, products, and service offerings by focusing on circular solution(s) and the accompanying communications approaches they employed.

During this interactive session, delegates from GreenBiz, GlobeScan, Danone, IKEA, P&G and WWF will share and discuss fresh insights from recent stakeholder and consumer research conducted around the world. Hear what the results mean for major B2C brands and understand the implications for shifting consumer behavior.

This session will explore how retailers are using returned consumer products to implement more circular business models through recommerce. Customers return $390B of merchandise annually and return rates for ecommerce purchases can reach 40%. Meanwhile, resale of consumer product (or recommerce) is an 18B market, with online recommerce disruptors growing up >30X faster than traditional retail. This session will focus on how retailers and brands have changed their own business models to adapt to the growing trends around returns and recommerce. You will hear about challenges, successes, and how a move towards circularity is fueling innovations in reverse logistics. 

Design thinking is a powerful mechanism to generate breakthrough concepts. It is premised on three elements: empathy, ideation, and experimentation. Biomimicry, the practice of looking to nature for inspired ideas, is a way to radically expand the ideation phase while reducing the number of iterative cycles for experimentation (since the design already works in a different environment). It is also a way to open our hearts with empathy that extends not just to human-centered experiences, but a design that works for all species. This session will also feature a case study of Lockheed Martin’s journey to integrate bioinspired design into the product and technology development process at its famed Skunk Works® to spark innovation and instill a culture of sustainable product design. Join this working session as we practice the power of design thinking coupled with biomimicry design process.

The world’s plastic pollution crisis can be fixed – but only with the power of business to catalyze solutions across the plastic material value chain. From product and supplier decision-making to influencing consumers, retailers and FMCG companies play an especially critical role in helping fix the pain points along the broken plastic system. But as large-scale problems call for large-scale actions, how do these companies tackle the problem in a way that’s consistent and reflects the systems-change we need to see?

Join the discussion led by World Wildlife Fund’s Erin Simon, who’s packaging engineer expertise and conservation-driven approach is helping companies answer this question and adapt practical approaches to one of the world’s most complex crises.

Stay tuned!

Sustainability is propped up by the three pillars of economic prosperity, social justice and environmental protection and the circular economy has been identified as the optimal economic model for sustainability. Therefore, the concept of a circular economy may seem to inherently include social justice or equity, but does it? Can it? Should it? How does CE to the SDGs? Join Dr. Raj Buch, Circular Economy practice lead for Arizona State University, for a robust conversation on the role of social justice in the circular economy model and how your organization may be missing this element as part of your CE strategy.

Industry trade associations play an important role in providing companies at all levels of familiarity with the circular economy pre-competitive space to benchmark and learn. Join the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) for a discussion on how the circular economy is explored within its committees, from student case competitions to education, as part of a larger dialogue on the ways companies can seek and support the unique activities available through their industry trade associations.

With 1.4 million dairy cows in California, dairy farm operations are the largest source of methane in the state. Together, Land O’Lakes, one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned agricultural cooperatives, and California Bioenergy , a renewable energy company—are working with California dairy farmers to generate renewable compressed natural gas (R-CNG) from farm waste. The digesters will help support California’s new standards to reduce dairy and livestock manure-related methane emissions by 40%, by 2030 with also providing a new revenue stream for farmers.

Connect with some of the journalists who shape GreenBiz’s coverage of the circular economy issues and solutions. Learn more about the trends and technologies most likely to capture our attention; discuss our policies when it comes to embargoed briefings and news; and hear about how the team prioritizes incoming pitches and press releases. This will be a roundtable-style gathering, so come prepared to talk.

Without intention, a circular economy will continue to reinforce the inequity and injustice inherent in the current linear system and communities will be no better off than they were before. However, an economic reimagination will require fundamental changes, which opens up the opportunity to center equity in the new economic model. Join this breakout to hear real-world examples of how circularity can create jobs, mitigate injustice and cultivate resilient local communities.

Materials matching has been tried many times before, often with limited results. Recently there has been renewed interest by a number companies looking to increase the amount of recycled content in their products and countries looking divert more waste from landfills. It’s time to find out if materials marketplaces can scale and provide the services to support circular strategies.

Everybody loves the idea of circular water management, but we’re a long way from making it happen. In fact, we don’t even agree on what circular water management is. That’s a problem, because we face a projected 40 percent water deficit by 2030 and businesses are already feeling the effects of mounting water scarcity. But it’s also an opportunity, because our margin for progress is wide-open. This breakout is a live brainstorming session with the best water minds from a variety of companies on the front lines. What does circular water management mean to them? Which obstacles are they finding on the journey and what are the best ways to overcome them? And how are they propagating these best practices up and down the supply chain? The answers will determine the actions we take to ward off a crisis and safeguard sustainable growth in the crucial next decade.

As the circular economy gains traction we navigate not only how to design new products and services, but also what enabling infrastructure needs to be in place for these new systems to work and scale. From clothing to electronics, food, transportation, and more; Most of the tools that we need to unlock a circular future exist, the question is how we will use them. Please join IDEO for an interactive session focused on co-designing key and enabling infrastructure required for a set of specific industry challenges to realize their circular potential.

What's the role of advanced recycling technologies in keeping materials circulating through our economy and creating circular plastics? 

There’s been a noticeable uptick lately in buzz around chemical recycling, and the promise of technologies that can fix the broken recycling system. However, the technologies, terminology and applications can be confusing and are not widely understood. This session will build on the findings from a recent report by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, and explore the landscape of transformational technologies that stop plastic waste, keep materials in play and grow markets. Speakers will discuss the state of the market and highlight the potential for transformational technologies to turn waste plastics back into new materials, decrease reliance on fossil fuels and curb the flow of plastics into marine environments.

How do brands and retailers balance regional context with national and international footprints? Recycling systems are inherently local, influenced heavily by city and state-level ordinances and regulations, the proximity of end markets, cost of waste and existing infrastructure. At the same time, supply chains and manufacturing are increasingly global. Standardization is a commonly suggested solution, but where along the value-chain does that make sense? Join the discussion to hear from global retailers and mission-based non-profit recyclers to explore the challenges and opportunities of regional circularity. 

A widely untapped opportunity, remanufacturing offers companies the ability to extend the life of products and keep materials at their highest and best use for longer. But it's easier said than done. Companies must recover, dissasemble and repair components for resale, while maintaining performance, quality and specifications. Hear from industry experts on how to appraoch remanufacturing for your company, including a discussion of design, material health, consumer engagement and new business models. 

Do you want to get more people buying into circular practices and products? Find out how to use storytelling and behavior change strategies to move your audiences to action — from employees and consumers, to suppliers and buyers. Join this session to learn best practices in storytelling and behavior change from those who’ve used these techniques to advance circularity, sustainability, and social impact for leading businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits. Case studies and research results, combined with dialogue and interactive exercises, will give you a foundation and practical next steps for framing for your story and designing your behavior change campaign.

The backlash against planned obsolescence has begun, and products makers of all types — from consumer electronics to industrial equipment — are waking up to a new world of design and service. Advocates of the “Right to Repair” movement are demanding that manufacturers prioritize the development of better maintenance paths for their products, through modular designs and broader availability of components that make repair simpler for the DIY set — and that extend product lives in the process. Policymakers are paying attention: as of early 2019, 20 states including California and Minnesota are actively considering legislation. What does this mean for makers of stuff? How does this philosophy play into circular models of production? Our expert panel weighs in on the implications for product design, maintenance plans, the availability of repair components, intellectual property and more.