The Circular Economy Show Podcast Ellen MacArthur Foundation

With 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from how we make and use things, design has huge potential to influence our transition to a circular economy.
In this episode of the Circular Economy Show Podcast, we explore why design is important, what ‘circular-ish’ means, and hear about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s six design leverage points.
In a conversation taken from a recent episode of the Circular Economy Show, hosts Seb and Lou talk to the Foundation’s Design Lead, Joe Iles, about how these leverage points can support designers in their journey towards circularity.

The term ‘open source’ is often linked to the development of software. But what about hardware? In the final part of this series, Colin meets two experts working in this space to hear how, much like in the natural world, collaboration can be used to address some of the problems of a linear economy, and help to accelerate a circular one.

Colin is joined by Alastair Parvin from WikiHouse, an online service that provides blueprints of houses for free, and by Pilar Bolumburu from Materiom, a company sharing locally-appropriate material recipes that anyone can use.

If you’ve enjoyed this series, please leave a review as it helps other people find it. We’ll be back with more episodes soon!

There are significant material, energy, labour and carbon savings to be made by reusing, rather than remaking, a product.
How does this work in business? And how does it fit into a circular economy?
In this episode, Colin Webster from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation speaks to José Manuel Moller from Algramo about the role of reuse in household shopping, and to architect Nitesh Magdani about reuse in the built environment.

The circular economy is often wrongly characterised as a tech solution, or a solution for tech, but it’s about much more than that.

As we heard in episode 97, there are two cycles: the technical and biological one. In this episode, we’re exploring the latter.
Colin Webster from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation talks to farmer and soil advocate Abby Rose, and Gero Leson, Vice President of Special Operations at Dr. Bronner's, to hear about the benefits and practicalities of agriculture in a circular economy.

What do you do when something you own, say a toaster, breaks? You’ve usually got two options: fix it, or replace it. It often feels like replacing an item is easier than repairing it, and the most cost-effective solution. But in a circular economy, we want goods and materials to stay in circulation at high value for as long as possible. So how does that work in reality?
In this new series, Colin Webster from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explores individual elements of the circular economy.
In this episode, he’s joined by Dr Conny Bakker, Professor of Design Methodology for Sustainability and Circular Economy at TU Delft, and Josephine Philips, the founder and CEO of Sojo, a UK-based third party clothing repair service, to discuss the role of repair.

Sometimes the concept of a circular economy seems so large that it's difficult to get to grips with it. It's never about one thing. It's about a million things at once.
We're back next week with a new look, and a new series!
Over the next four episodes, Colin Webster from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s learning team helps break the concept down into smaller chunks.
He’ll speak to experts from the fields of repair, agriculture, open source, and reuse to find out how they relate to the circular economy.
Subscribe or follow The Circular Economy Show Podcast so you never miss an episode.