The Circular Economy Show Podcast

Join Fin, Lou and Pippa from the Circular Economy Show as we look back at a year in the circular economy. In this episode, the team shares highlights from this year’s show, and talks about some of the moments you might have missed. Thanks for listening to the Circular Economy Show from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Help us grow our audience in 2025 by sharing your favourite episode with your friends and colleagues.If you’d like to get in touch, email us at podcast@emf.orgExplore the episodes discussed:Ep 159: How to build a nature-positive circular economy for Europe Read the paper.Ep 157: Inside the world of industrial symbiosis Ep 149: Scaling refill and return with GoUnpackagedWe also mentioned our episode with Vincent from Dunia Bora - who features in episode 150: Creating nature-positive nutrition from cacti with Dunia Bora.Watch the Redesigning Food Series, which Fin mentioned.

In this episode of the Circular Economy Show we discuss Arda Biomaterials' journey of transforming beer by-products into sustainable materials. Brett Cotten, co-founder at Arda, details the company's origins, challenges, and successes, including raising pre-seed investment in 2023 and scaling operations. Amy Tsang from The Mills Fabrica highlights their 360-degree support for innovators, emphasising investment, collaboration, and showcasing technologies. Both discuss the importance of scalability, impact measurement, and the commercial viability of biomaterials, with Brett noting the potential of chemistry-based approaches and Amy highlighting innovative startups including Epoch Biodesign.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

In this special episode of The Circular Economy Show, we’re sharing a conversation between Ellen MacArthur and Christiana Figueres from the climate podcast Outrage + Optimism.Christiana was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016, where she oversaw the delivery of the historic Paris Agreement. In this episode, the pair reflect on the outcomes of the INC-5 negotiations for a global plastics treaty, the role businesses play in addressing plastic packaging pollution, and why a global, legally-binding treaty is necessary to address this global challenge.Listen to episode 165 to find out more about why the INC-5 negotiations matter, or visit the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website.Find out more about a circular economy for plastic.Check out the Outrage + Optimism podcast.

In this episode, we discuss the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s latest publication, The circular economy: A 'triple play' solution for achieving China's climate objectives. We’ll explore how adopting a comprehensive circular economy framework can play a pivotal role in achieving both China’s climate and economic goals. Lei Chen and Seb Egerton-Read highlight the triple play benefits of applying the circular economy in China. These include reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the country’s climate goals, securing the supply of critical raw materials for the renewable energy transition and transition to electric vehicles,  and the increased resilience of China’s economy.Head over to our website to read the full report mentioned in this episode.  If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

At the end of this month in Busan, Korea, INC-5 will take place. For the fifth and final time, the United Nations international negotiating committee will reunite to create a legally binding global treaty that ends plastic pollution.In this episode, Marta Longhurst, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Treaty Manager, tells us what opportunities a well designed treaty could unlock to tackle the world’s plastic waste crisis.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

The circular economy can be a powerful climate mitigation strategy. But what about the other side of the climate action coin? In this episode, we explore the connection between circular economy activities and climate adaptation outcomes.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

When we talk about durable materials, products, and services, what do we really mean? This episode unpacks the physical and emotional dimensions of durability and explores how this key design principle can help set circular business models up for long-term success. Would you like to know more about Back Market, the circular business model example mentioned in this episode? Listen to our episode 126: Changing the way we buy and use technology with Back Market.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

Is the circular economy just another form of sustainability? In this premiere episode of the Circular Curious season, Emma Elobeid and Lou Waldegrave explore the key overlaps and core differences between sustainability and the circular economy and discuss some of the common pitfalls in conflating these two vital yet distinct practices. Would you like to learn more about the key ideas that form the circular economy? Head to our website for more information.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

Ever wondered what the difference is between sustainability and the circular economy? Or whether circular economy activities can help us adapt to the effects of climate change at the same time as tackling it at source? Have you ever considered what we really mean by designing for durability? In this season of the Circular Economy Show for the circular curious, we’ll be talking around the edges, peeling off some layers, and unravelling some common misconceptions around the circular economy – at both an ideological level and in implementation terms too. 

In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, we uncover the power of collaboration in scaling the design of products that are fit for a circular economy. Host Pippa Shawley is joined by Megan Dawson-Elli, Product Sustainability Manager at Tapestry, and Steven Bethell, Co-founder of Bank and Vogue, to discuss their groundbreaking partnership that led to the creation of Coach’s sellout Soho bag. Learn how post-consumer denim, innovative design, and a shared vision resulted in a beautiful product and a life-cycle assessment showing that the repurposed denim had up to a 95% reduction in water usage and up to 80% less carbon emissions than conventional first use denim. Tune in to find out how circular design is fundamental to both circularity and commercial success.Learn more about Tapestry and Bank & Vogue.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

With New York Climate Week underway, this episode of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Show, dives into the growing momentum of the circular economy in the US.Host Pippa Shawley is joined by Jon Smieja, Vice President of Circularity at Trellis Group and Danielle Holly, North America Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Together, they’ll discuss the need for systemic change, the opportunities for circular business models, and how this transition can help meet climate goals. Join us as we unpack the opportunities ahead and explore how the US can lead the transition to a circular economy, creating lasting environmental and economic benefits.Do you want to learn more about the different sources mentioned in this episode? Head over to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website to learn more about the Foundation’s Industrial Decarbonization Report. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Ellen MacArthur North America newsletter to keep up to date with new developments in the circular economy in North America.Learn more about the work Trellis does to accelerate the just transition to a clean economy in the US.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

In this episode of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Show, we’ll explore the critical relationship between a healthy economy and a thriving natural environment. With biodiversity declining at unprecedented rates, we will delve into the Foundation’s latest report, "Building Prosperity: Unlocking the Potential for a Nature Positive Circular Economy for Europe." We’ll be joined by Julia Okatz, a director at Systemiq, who led the analysis for the report, and Joss Bleriot, the Foundation's Executive Lead for Policy and Institutions. Together, we will explore the report's key findings, illustrating how cities and built environments can contribute to a circular economy that benefits both nature and people. Discover how innovative nature-enhancing strategies can transform urban spaces, reduce material consumption, and regenerate nature, all while creating economic opportunities. Do you want to know more about the Building Prosperity report? Head to our Building Prosperity page to learn more. Head to our website to read the transcript for this episode. Want to watch this episode? Find it on YouTubeIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy. 

Get ready for the launch of our new season on The Circular Economy Show! Join us as we explore wider outlooks for the circular economy. We’ll hear about the case for a circular economy in the US and how rethinking the way we build in Europe offers huge potential for change. Plus we’ll explore how collaboration, when done right, can help companies scale their circular ambitions.The new season starts on Tuesday 16th July. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts, or if you prefer to watch your shows, then you can catch the Wider Outlooks season on YouTube and Spotify.

At the heart of the circular economy is the need to retain the value of goods and materials, so that we can slow down the use of the Earth’s resources. Selling performance instead of products could be a way to achieve this. In this season’s finale, we’ll discuss this and other insights from Walter Stahel, author of The Performance Economy. Join us as we discuss how retaining the value of goods and materials can transform industries, boost job creation, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll explore the idea of sustainable taxation, and learn why selling performance, not products, could be the future.If you like this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

In nature, symbiosis refers to two or more species benefiting from living closely together. In this episode, we explore how the same thing can happen in business, through something called industrial symbiosis. We’re joined by Lisbeth Randers from Kalundborg Industrial Park, one of the best-known examples of industrial symbiosis. Plus, Radu Godina, Associate Professor at NOVA School of Science and Technology, highlights the potential of industrial symbiosis in a circular economy by sharing resources and reducing waste within a local community. Hosts Colin and Pippa discuss the financial incentives, environmental benefits, social advantages, and challenges of this school of thought that has shaped the circular economy as we know it,If you like this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

In today’s episode, we’re placing nature in the centre of the conversation. Joined by Sean Quinn, Director of Regenerative Design at HOK, we’re exploring the role of regenerative design in creating infrastructures that are in harmony with our communities and the planet.Notes: In today’s episode, we’re placing nature in the centre of the conversation. Joined by Sean Quinn, Director of Regenerative Design at HOK, we’re exploring the role of regenerative design in creating infrastructures that are in harmony with our communities and the planet and the importance of building technologies that restore natural systems instead of overpowering them. But we’re not stopping there, join us as we discover an exciting case study that uses regenerative design. Do you want to know more about Building Prosperity, the Foundation’s report mentioned in this episode? Head to our Building Prosperity page to learn more. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

Are Cradle to Cradle and the Circular Economy essentially the same thing? In this episode off our Origins season, we’ll explore the key differences and similarities between the two system change solutions.Join us as we sit down with Katja Hansen, Circular Economy & Cradle to Cradle expert, to explore nuances between the two systems, their relationship with the sustainability movement and how this might have been co-opted by companies to mean “business as usual”. Have a look at the butterfly diagram mentioned in this episode!If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

Where did the concept of the circular economy come from? In our new season “Origins: The ideas shaping the circular economy”, we dig into the different ideas that have inspired the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s concept of a circular economy.In this season premier, we'll learn more about biomimicry, the practice of looking to nature for solutions to human problems. Join us as we discuss the origins and broader implications of biomimicry with Stefano Semprini, Co-director at BiomimicrySA, and delve into its practical applications with Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Helicoid Industries Inc.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.

Get ready for the launch of our new season on The Circular Economy Show! Join us as we dig into the different ideas that have inspired the circular economy. Over five episodes, we'll explore the origins of this movement through the schools of thought that influenced its creation: Biomimicry, Cradle to Cradle, Regenerative Design, Industrial Symbiosis and the Performance Economy. We’ll learn what the circular economy took from those influences and about the differences between them. But it’s not just theoretical. We’ll also meet the organisations applying those schools of thought to their work today.The new season starts on Tuesday 16th July. Subscribe to the Circular Economy Show now so you never miss an episode.

How can a company as large as Microsoft help to regenerate nature? In this episode, we discuss how the organisation is designing its rapidly-growing number of data centres to become sanctuaries of biodiversity with Kaitlin Chuzi, Microsoft’s Director of Biomimicry and Advanced Ecosystems, and Alessandra Pistoia, Microsoft’s Circular Economy Lead. We’ll hear how data centres, often seen as energy-intensive infrastructures, are being leveraged to rejuvenate natural ecosystems. We’ll also learn how excess heat from data centres is being repurposed to support agricultural activities and renewable energy projects, and how data centres can play a pivotal role in environmental monitoring and restoration projects. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Your support helps us to spread the word about the circular economy.