The Circular Economy Show Podcast

In this episode, we’ll join Gianmarco, Luigi and Cristina from the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo to learn how the circular economy has become a strategic priority for them and discuss the critical connection between the circular economy, biodiversity loss and climate mitigation in relation to finance.   Learn more about the Foundation’s work on financing the circular economy .

In 2018, the Foundation alongside the UN Environment Programme launched the Global Commitment, the biggest global voluntary effort to tackle plastic waste and pollution. In this podcast episode, we hear from Sander Defruyt, Plastics Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, who reflects on the progress and learnings to date from five years of the Global Commitment, the need for a legally binding glo...

Welcome to The Circular Economy Show Podcast. Join the team from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as each week we explore the innovations that can address issues such as climate change, waste, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Get ready to be inspired, informed, and empowered. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

In this week’s episode, Jess Mevel travels to Bordeaux, France, to learn how Back Market is working to make refurbished tech better than new. Back Market is an online marketplace founded in 2014, who are on a mission to help make refurbished electronic products more reliable, affordable, and better than new.

To conclude this bite-sized series on regenerative design, in this week’s episode, Neil Harwood, Associate Director at Arup, elaborates on his company’s efforts to deliver nature-positive projects in different parts of the world. We’ll have an insight into their results with A30 in Cornwall and the Sea Wall project in Shenzhen, South China. Arup is a global collective of designers, engineering and...

In the penultimate episode of our bite-sized series on regenerative design, this week we hear from Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature , on how to combine ambition and biomimicry to create regenerative infrastructures in our cities.    Learn more about the connection between circular economy, biomimicry, and doughnut economics Find out more about biomimicry and the w...

As part of our bite-sized series on regenerative design, this week, we hear from Nicole Miller at Biomimicry 3.8's Project Positive about key ways it can be scaled within companies and communities. Project Positive is a group of change agents dedicated to raising the bar on what acting sustainably means—driven by a sense of urgency to move beyond arbitrary reduction goals to science-based targets...

In this week’s bite-sized episode we hear from Michael Pawlyn, known for his work in biomimetic architecture and innovation. Michael uses nature-inspired design to create fundamentally different results for business, people and the environment in spaces and buildings.   Ep 92: Redesigning the future

What dynamics prevent us from moving from a linear to a circular economy? In this episode, Kate Raworth, author of the book Doughnut Economics , shares with us an inspiring reflection on how we need to collectively rethink our economy to ensure that no one falls short of life's essentials without overshooting the boundaries of our environment.   Shifting mindsets: a regenerative future - Summit 22...

In this episode, we hear from Costa Samaras from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to learn how policy is helping the circular economy to take hold in the USA.   Find out more about the role of policy in the circular economy.  

As the brand behind products including Ben and Jerry’s, Hellmann’s and Marmite, Unilever represents an important opportunity to scale a circular economy for food. In this episode, we’ll hear from the company’s Vice President & Managing Director, Eric Soubeiran, about how the business is shifting towards a regenerative and nature-positive approach in the creation of its products. We’ll also hear fr...

How can we use storytelling to get people to move away from the problems of a linear economy to explore the solutions offered by a circular one? In this episode, we’ll hear from Sam Sutaria, chief executive of streaming platform Waterbear, and Hannah Harrison, Chief Sustainability Officer at WPP, about the opportunities around sharing experiences from the circular economy. Visit the Circular Econo...

When we talk about the circular economy, we often think about the technical aspects of transitioning away from the linear economy. In this episode, the artist Es Devlin talks to curator and author Francesca Gavin about the power of art to inspire change.  Find out more about the power of art in driving systems change Learn more about how art can change the economy for the better

As we heard in our recent Redesigning Food series, our food system needs to be redesigned to help nature and people thrive. In our final episode from London, we meet Julie Brown, Director of Growing Communities , and Danny Fisher from Better Food Shed , about how they’re working to supply Londoners with healthy, regeneratively-produced fruit and vegetables. Find out more about circular economy in...

One of the biggest challenges facing London is the need to provide housing and infrastructure for the city's residents and workers. To deal with increasing demand, we need our buildings to be designed with the circular economy at their heart. In this episode we’ll hear from Andrea Charlson, ReLondon's former Commercial Manager and Built Environment Lead, and Meanwhile Space’s Executive Director, E...

Wayne Hubbard, CEO of ReLondon, is on a mission to help Londoners revolutionise their relationship with stuff. His organisation, which is a partnership of the Mayor of London and the London boroughs, is designed to transform the city into a leading low carbon circular economy, and to improve its waste and resource management. In this episode we’ll hear from Wayne and his colleague Ali Moore, ReLon...

In this episode, we visit the London Borough of Hackney to find out about the possibilities for a circular economy in the UK’s capital city. We’ll hear from the borough’s mayor, Philip Glanville, about how the area is looking beyond waste and recycling in transitioning to a circular economy. We’ll also meet Charlotte Thorpe from social enterprise Library of Things to find out more about the initia...

With the second round of negotiations for a UN treaty to end plastic pollution underway, in this episode we’ll explore how the INC-2 event taking place in Paris this week marks a crucial stage in the negotiations. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WWF has convened the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty to bring together businesses and financial institutions committed to supporting th...

Over the last four episodes, we’ve heard how we need to change our food system to one that is nature-positive. But how can we scale a circular economy for food to feed the global population, which the UN estimate will reach 10 billion by 2057? In the final episode of our Redesigning Food series, we hear from Professor Tim Benton, Research Director of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatha...

What if there were no bad choices in your shopping basket? What if every bite of food had been designed in a way that helped to regenerate nature? In this episode, we hear from Waitrose and Natoora about the steps they’re taking towards a circular economy for food. This episode was supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Learn more about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s food work Sign u...

In a circular economy, food ingredients should be diverse, low-impact, upcycled, and produced in a regenerative system. But what does that look like in practice? In this episode we meet three brands - Rubies in the Rubble, Grounded Ingredients and Hodemedod’s, to find out how they are applying the principles of Circular Design for Food to their products. This episodes was supported by players of P...

What is regenerative production? And how can farmers help address the damaging effects our industrialised food system has on the climate and biodiversity? In this episode, we’ll hear from Philippe Birker, co-founder of Climate Farmers , an organisation working to empower farmers. We also visit Nunwell Home Farm to learn how they are using regenerative methods to improve biodiversity and soil healt...

Welcome to the first episode of our new series looking at the need to redesign our food system. In the episode, we look at what’s wrong with the current system, and learn how a circular economy for food can help address some of today’s biggest global issues, such as biodiversity loss and climate change. We’re joined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Food Lead, Reniera O'Donnell, Ecology, Social,...

Our current linear food system is failing us. It is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions and, while 10% of the planet’s population goes hungry, we waste almost one-third of the food we produce. What if there was a better way? What if we could produce food to help nature thrive? In a new five-part podcast series, we’ll explore how a circular econ...

The current fashion system is broken. Every year the fashion industry misses out on hundreds of billions of dollars and contributes significantly to waste and pollution through the linear take-make-waste economy. In this episode, Chloe Anderson from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s fashion team joins us to discuss the business opportunities around applying circular principles to the fashion indust...