#Circularity2022

WOW! It was an honour to wrap up each day with Nicole T Garofano, PhD, AAIP and Ashleigh Morris (GAICD) .

How to summarise 2 days of jammed packed #Circularity with 100+ speakers and 250 attendees?

The first thing that stood out what the incredible level of care and passion in the room.

Now, how do we catalyse that care, energy, capability through effective, true collaboration/ cooperation to fast track the outcomes each part of the sum is working on at the moment?

I have captured some of my highlights below (non-exhaustive!)

The rationale (the WHY) to move to a circular economy is not questioned anymore. The narrative is moving away from a waste-focus to a value-focus. The transition to a CE is happening, momentum is building across government, the private sector globally and also in Australia. The progress made in Australia since 2018 is phenomenal and CE is now seen as an important enabler to decarbonising the economy.

The challenge is that it is not fast enough and not at scale. The real focus is now on HOW we do that.

Progress & Challenges:

1.????Government’s commitment: The announcement of the Minister of Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek to achieve a circular economy by 2030, as well as the establishment of a circular economy ministerial advisory group cutting across ministries was certainly ambitious and galvanising.

2.????Digitisation: digital twin, product passports, blockchain are developing to inform decisions across project lifecycle and capture the journey and stories of materials and products.

3.????Industry leadership: Making bold commitments that go beyond what is in organisation’s direct control, such as Lendlease aiming for absolute zero carbon by 2040 is the type of brave and revolutionary leadership we need to shift the conversation beyond short term, self-interested outcomes to true systemic transformation.

4.????Design: 80% of environmental and cost decisions are locked in at the design stage. Pippa Corry shared about the 4 key roles in design: System Thinker, Leader & Storyteller, Designer & Maker, Connector & Convener. Which one(s) can you play?

5.????Localisation: Taking a place-based, community led approach combined with circularity is the way forward, with culture and country at the core.

6.????Procurement is a powerful tool to create circular markets and transform entire industries that needs to be holistic.

7.????Value what we have: Looking up and around to value and reuse what we have is where we need to start. Then, if we need make changes, then we need to design for disassembly, modularity, flexibility and durability.

8.????Data is key: We are entering a new era of transparency and need data to support claims. ?We need to measure value and not just mass, and on that note, “We can’t start to make a circular economy without putting a price on externalities”, Andy Hill at Planet Price | B Corp

9.????Circular Business Models: Decarbonising our economies will require so much (more) materials than we currently use, different ones too. Finding innovative business models to supporting the transition is absolutely crucial to reimagine how we access, produce and use materials, sharing more, accessing products as services, defining what a thriving lifestyle looks like… because at this rate, we won’t have enough materials to successfully electrify everything.

10.?Collaboration is the glue bringing it together: The launch of the State of Circularity demonstrated the power of #collaboration between the ACE Hub technical partners and highlighted the importance of living ecosystem mapping to connect the dots, scaling existing initiatives through a transformative approach, the role local government plays, the power of procurement and more. Check the report here: State of Circularity in Australia: Perspectives from the field (acehub.org.au)

11.?Investment is lagging/ lacking: the case for change and the value proposition of circular economy solutions need to be better defined, pitched at the right scale to unlock capital. This is currently limiting our progress.

Reflecting on the conference, it will all come down to:

1.???Thinking bigger than ourselves: it will require to put aside egos and focus on the collective outcomes

2.????Adopting a circular mindset: we need our decisions to be underpinned by circular principles, take a radically different approach, ask different questions, be ok with not having the answers.

3.????Drive Behaviour + System Change: behaviour change needs to happen at a systemic level and underpinned by a supportive and evolving culture. Don’t shy away from complexity but find ways to navigate it, constantly sensing an adapting.

4.????Be nature-focus: we need to connect with nature, intimately, understand it, truly, learn from it, value it, be inspired and guided by it. Remembering that we are part of nature...

5.????Scale of change: redesigning products is important and will only work if we redesign value chains, rethink value and legal frameworks to enable cooperation

6.????Timescale: aligning our decision-making to long-term outcomes (for the next 500 years not 5)