Meri Kirihimete!

Meri Kirihimete!

Happy summer to our Circularity whanau, partners and community. We hope you are able to rest and recharge over the holiday season and spend some quality time with loved ones.?

2021 has certainly brought its fair share of challenges for all of us. However, it has also been a big year of growth for the Circularity team — and we’d like to thank you for supporting and being a part of our mahi over the months. We’d love to share with you some of our highlights from the year …

• Circularity is proud to be certified Climate Positive Business Operations with Ekos. We have measured and offset 120% of our carbon footprint for (activity and time boundary) with certified carbon credits. These certified carbon credits are sourced from projects that grow and protect forests in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and help to deliver climate resilience, waterways protection, erosion control, biodiversity conservation and community economic development. We choose the Rarakau Rainforest Conservation Project in Southland.?
• Partnering with Newsroom to support Rod Oram's COP26 coverage direct from Glasgow including 56 stories, 104,000 page views, 10 dedicated newsletters on COP with 431 subscribers and co-writing one of the top five stories with a call for businesses to act now - alongside our writing heroes Anne Salmond, Mark Daalder, Rod Oram, Jack Santa Barbara and Sally Brooker.
• Working with Countdown to help them achieve their zero food waste goal.?
• Designing ‘Wool Looped’, a bio-based, reusable packaging system that will see Profile Group eliminate all single-use plastics currently used in the packaging of aluminium windows and doors for Vantage, Altherm, and First products. We also worked with Mikayla Plaw and the Profile team to create Aotearoa's first CTI circularity measurement of progress, created by Circular IQ for the WBCSD, and Profile Group’s first responsibility roadmap - watch this space!
• Designing, writing and creating Re:Plastics with Plastics New Zealand, a brand, website, design guide, webinars and training program for reshaping the way we create plastic packaging and products in Aotearoa directly addressing the knowledge gap in the market.
• Growing our team by welcoming the amazing Samantha Walmsley-Bartlett as Environmental Strategist, Katie Glasgow-Palmer as Engagement Analyst, Carol Soundy as our Client Strategy Director and? Fleur van Lieshout as Engagement Designer.
• And as part of scaling up the XLabs circular economy lab for all of Aotearoa, we created NZ's very first dedicated circular economy online course. XLabs LEARN our self-directed online course is open now and we're excited to see the summer cohort progress through the course, in preparation for our LIVE design sprint in April next year.?Right now we have Lion, Downer, Becca, Essano, Fine Biotextiles, Adventure Hostels Queenstown, Ministry for the Environment and Advanced Systems Group doing the LEARN program and becoming certified in 'Designing for a circular economy in Aotearoa'.

Our Summer Recommendations?

If you’re hanging out by the beach this holiday season, we’ve made a list of some of the best things to listen to read, and be inspired by.?

• Check out this true crime podcast with a twist - it's all about climate crimes. Drilled exposes the companies and people responsible for downplaying the climate crisis, manufacturing debate, and even inventing the term ‘carbon footprint’.??
• If you’re getting out in the garden, Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore:A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook is the perfect read, connecting traditional Māori gardening techniques with knowledge of the Tikanga around our soils and whenua.?
• WaterBear is an interactive streaming platform dedicated to stories of sustainability, climate justice, biodiversity, community and more. We recommend Brooklyn Farmer, following the inspirational journey of a farmer seeking to run a commercially viable farm across the rooftops of New York City.?
• Did you know that indigenous people protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity? If you want to learn more about the fight for native environmental justice in the US, we recommend As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock.?
• Mushrooms are incredibly interesting and play an important role in maintaining and regenerating our ecosystems. You can learn to grow some yourself, or safely forage your own with Tui Garden’s Mushroom Growing Guide.
• So much of the Western world’s waste is shipped to developing countries, often unable to cope with the sheer volume. Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo is the incredible true story of the inhabitants of Mumbai slum Annawadi, and the perils of making a living collecting the waste from a nearby hotel.?
• Fill your instagram feed with inspiration. Some of our favourites are @earthrise.studio, which collects stories of hope and environmental exposes from around the world, @maori_mermaid with gorgeous illustrations of environmental and Māori activism, and @bloomberggreen, bite-sized climate journalism that focuses on the big picture.??

It's been a journey working on XLabs over the past few months, as we've scaled up the program for Aotearoa NZ.?

Our Circular Design Strategist Bree Asmus has shared what she is looking forward to seeing at Xlabs 2022…?

“For me… the week of XLabs LIVE is the really exciting part. This is where design and creativity can play a leading role in changing the narrative of our current economy. It’s where different teams and businesses begin to really collaborate... sparking new ideas, building on possibilities and creating solutions that they wouldn’t have thought of alone...?

That's the magic. Those are the moments I see us making real change for Aotearoa New Zealand. When the systems, roles, constraints and industry silos we all play by day-to-day begin to blur and we can collectively redesign a better path forward.”

If you and your business are looking to collaborate across industries and start designing your shift from linear to circular, we hope to see you at XLabs in the New Year.?

Get started with XLabs LEARN and join the summer cohort with our online course for $399.

You can also bring a team of 6 for the full package, XLabs LEARN-LIVE-COACH for $15,000.?

Secure your spot by registering at xlabs.nz, and join the likes of Lion, Downer and more!

Or you might have a challenge or opportunity to explore that you are seeking 1:1 support with..get in touch at Circularity.co.nz

Thanks for being a part of Circularity’s coalition of the willing through this challenging year. We hope you have a rejuvenating and relaxing summer and return energised for the year ahead, a year in which we see huge potential for change.