LOOPED IN with Carl Warkentin

Carl Warkentin
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

The podcast about understanding, building and managing circular business models - this is the place where we dive deep into the future of business, sustainability, and circular economy. After a decade of entrepreneurial experience as a founder and investor, Carl had countless, meaningful behind-the-scenes conversations about how we can reshape industries, close the loop, and create real impact. And now, we want to bring these conversations to you. On Looped In, Carl sits down with entrepreneurs, business owners, venture capitalists, and policymakers who are at the forefront of change. Together, we’ll explore innovative business models, breakthrough technologies, and the regulations shaping the circular economy.

  1. 1d ago

    Making Sustainability Human: Storytelling, Systems Change and Nature with Breitling CSO Aurelia Figueroa

    Security is the word everyone is using right now, but the surprising truth is that it keeps pointing straight back to sustainability. Carl sits down with Aurelia, a chief sustainability officer and systems thinker, to map where sustainability stands in 2026 after the hype cycle and the hard reality check that followed. We talk about what’s actually progressing (the energy transition and renewables scaling faster than most headlines suggest) and what’s still dangerously behind (nature regeneration, valuing ecosystems, and the widening gap of wealth inequality). We get specific about why inequality can derail climate policy and why “just transition” can’t be a slogan. Aurelia shares a vivid on-the-ground lesson from the Yellow Vest movement era in France and explains why the success or failure of sustainability often comes down to trust, coalitions, and whether people feel they’re being asked to sacrifice without a believable payoff. That leads to a core idea: science-based evidence is essential, but leading with data alone won’t move society. Stories will. We dig into what a useful sustainability narrative sounds like, including real scenarios that show what life can look like on the other side of change. You’ll also hear an inside look at corporate sustainability in global luxury brands, from high-risk upstream supply chains to responsible sourcing shifts like artisanal small-scale gold and lab-grown diamonds. We cover why startups are a non-negotiable ingredient for circular economy progress, how communities like Imagine and Villars help leaders stay brave, and how reconnecting to nature can reshape the way we lead. If this conversation sharpens your thinking, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Making Sustainability Human: Storytelling, Systems Change and Nature with Breitling CSO Aurelia Figueroa

  2. Jul 27

    Mapping the Circular Fashion Transformation with Tiina Nyman

    Secondhand is everywhere, but the mechanics behind circular fashion are messier and more interesting than most headlines admit. We sit down with Tina Newman, a Finland-based circular fashion journalist and consultant behind Circular Fashion News, to get a grounded view of what is actually changing in textiles right now and what still feels stuck. We talk through the circular business models reshaping the market: why fashion resale is growing fastest, what makes rental harder to justify for many brands, and how repair is gaining momentum while often being treated as a customer service add-on. Tina shares how she builds a highly focused audience across LinkedIn and Substack, how she curates weekly updates, and why condensing news into quarterly-style reporting can reveal the real direction of sustainable fashion. Then we zoom out to textile recycling and the surge of attention on chemical recycling, including what “commercial scale” really means and why barriers like cost, infrastructure, and demand still slow adoption. We also unpack the unglamorous operational bottlenecks that limit resale profitability, from single-item listing work to the need for better processes and automation. Along the way, we land on a clear definition of textile circularity that starts with designing and producing less, making garments durable and repairable, and only then relying on recycling for what cannot stay in use. If you care about circular fashion, textile recycling, fashion resale, and the future of sustainable textiles, this conversation is a practical roadmap. Subscribe for more, share this with someone building in the space, and leave a review with your biggest question about making circularity scale. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Mapping the Circular Fashion Transformation with Tiina Nyman

  3. Jul 12

    Dissolver: The Modular Technology Removing the Hidden Chemicals from Textile Waste with Founders Ditte & Charlotte

    Textile recycling sounds simple until you touch real post-consumer waste. It’s not just cotton and polyester. It’s elastane blends, heat-transfer logos, dyes, heavy metals, and PFAS that can derail downstream processing and destroy product quality. From Brussels, we sit down with Charlotte and Ditte from Denmark-based Dissolver to unpack a different angle on chemical textile recycling: don’t break the polymers if you don’t have to, clean them. We walk through Dissolver’s modular, selective solvent approach for contaminant removal and why “designed for complexity” matters more than perfect feedstock. They explain how their process targets disruptors module by module, how solvent recovery works (their “washing dishes” analogy makes it click), and why keeping polyester intact can avoid some of the energy and refining burden seen in depolymerization routes. We also get practical about the messy middle of the value chain: what sorting is realistic, why Dissolver starts from shredded fibers, and the open question of who should own hard-part removal across a new recycling infrastructure. Then we zoom out to scaling. Dissolver shares plans for an industrial pilot built to de-risk unit economics and prove off-take with spinners, plus a second path where individual modules can plug into other recyclers’ plants as preprocessing. We talk about siting decisions, Europe’s policy tailwinds, Asia’s gravity in textile manufacturing, and why the next decade likely brings both collaboration and consolidation across technologies. If you care about circular fashion, fiber-to-fiber recycling, PFAS removal, elastane challenges, and what it takes to build real industrial capacity, hit play. Subscribe, share this with someone in the textile value chain, and leave a review telling us which part of textile recycling you think is hardest to scale. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Dissolver: The Modular Technology Removing the Hidden Chemicals from Textile Waste with Founders Ditte & Charlotte

  4. Jun 29

    Reinventing Vinyl: Sustainable Records with Good Neighbor Music Co-Founder Tim Anderson

    Vinyl is back, but the way we make records is stuck in an older industrial playbook. Carl joins us from our LA studio to explain how a booming physical format collides with modern climate expectations, from PVC-based materials to shrink wrap and global shipping that drags out release timelines for artists who want their music out now. If you care about sustainable manufacturing, circular economy ideas, and the future of music merch, this conversation gets surprisingly concrete.  We follow Carl’s journey from touring and producing to founding Good Neighbor, then dig into the technology shift that makes their approach different: injection-molded PET records developed with Green Vinyl Records in the Netherlands. We talk energy use, why moving away from natural gas-heavy pressing matters, and how rPET opens the door to turning recycled bottles into high-quality records. Just as important, we get into the unglamorous parts of climate tech in the music industry: fundraising, hardware costs, pricing pressure, and why “green” only works if the product still sounds incredible.  From there, we zoom out to the bigger vision: cleaner packaging, fewer plastics, smarter merch, and even a festival-to-factory loop where local cups and bottles could become records tied to the show you just watched. We also close with a great behind-the-scenes Billie Eilish moment that captures how unpredictable creative careers can be. If you want more stories like this at the intersection of entertainment and sustainability, subscribe, share this with a friend who buys vinyl, and leave us a review. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Reinventing Vinyl: Sustainable Records with Good Neighbor Music Co-Founder Tim Anderson

  5. May 25

    Building Textile Recycling at Scale with Syre CEO Dennis Nobelius

    A recycling breakthrough is useless if it never reaches real scale and Syre is betting everything on getting there fast. From Syre’s office in Stockholm, we talk with CEO Dennis about why they chose polyester as the first target, why their mission is “speed and scale,” and why they believe the textile industry needs industrial capacity now, not a decade from now. We dig into Syre’s unusually customer-driven origin story and how off-take agreements change the rules of the game. Dennis shares how commitments from global brands like H&M, Nike, and Target help unlock project financing for a first-of-its-kind Vietnam facility targeting 150,000 metric tons of circular PET output. We also talk honestly about what makes this hard: chemical-plant ramp-up, purification challenges, and the reality that post-consumer collection and sorting systems still lag behind the demand for recycled polyester. On the technology and strategy side, Dennis walks through Syre’s glycolysis-based chemical recycling approach, why they prioritize polyester-rich feedstock, and why they shifted toward an orchestration model that partners with best-in-class providers rather than trying to invent every step in-house. We also get into why Vietnam matters for circular textiles, how regulation around textile waste imports can make or break scale, and what a global expansion roadmap could look like as legislation and demand accelerate. If you care about textile-to-textile recycling, circular economy supply chains, sustainable fashion, and the future of recycled polyester at industrial scale, this conversation will give you a clear view of what it takes to execute. Subscribe, share this with someone building in climate and materials, and leave a review with your biggest question about scaling circular textiles. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Building Textile Recycling at Scale with Syre CEO Dennis Nobelius

  6. May 18

    Making Sustainability personal with The CSO Shop Founder Danielle Azoulay

    Your favorite “sustainable” product might still be built for the trash. Carl sits down with Danielle from The CSO Shop, a longtime sustainability leader and fractional CSO, to get brutally practical about what circularity really demands and why recycling is only a small piece of the circular economy. We start where consumers actually live: what goes in us, on us, and around us. Danielle explains why beauty and personal care are such a powerful consumer climate tech lever, then connects the dots to what companies can realistically do today when suppliers, materials, and infrastructure limit the options. We talk incentives, venture funding gaps, and why policy can speed things up, while strong business models still need to stand on their own. From there, we go hands-on with circular design. Danielle breaks down the difference between circularity and recycling and walks through a simple “pick up an object” exercise that exposes how many materials and value chains hide inside everyday products. You’ll hear real-world examples of sustainable packaging that works with curbside recycling, plus how brands can make circular fashion feel cool instead of sacrifice. We also dig into the unglamorous truth of scale: why Fortune 500 “incremental” moves like post-consumer recycled content can send demand signals that reshape upstream markets and cut virgin plastic at massive volume. If you want practical circular economy thinking you can apply to product design, supply chain strategy, Scope 3 emissions, and consumer messaging, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who cares about climate action, and leave a review with the one product you think should be redesigned first. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    Making Sustainability personal with The CSO Shop Founder Danielle Azoulay

  7. Mar 9

    The Future of Product Creation with Mode Maison Founder & CEO Steven Gay

    Imagine typing, “Warmest low‑profile jacket for Siberia, size M, modern look,” and seconds later seeing a faithful simulation on your avatar—plus the exact factory files needed to make it. That’s the leap from pretty pixels to physics‑native product creation we dig into with Steven, founder and CEO of Mode Maison Home. We trace Steven’s path from Ralph Lauren’s Purple Label to building TMAC, a material scanning system that captures not only how fabrics look but how they behave—torsion, tension, compression, and thermal performance. Those measurements fuel a physical world model that knows where a sneaker will bend, how a linen will drape, and when a suede will fail, producing simulations you can trust and manufacturing files you can ship. The result: fewer samples, faster cycles, and designs that move from intent to production without the usual guesswork. This shift unlocks on‑demand, onshore microfactories and a new kind of commerce where the minimum order quantity is one. We talk hyper‑personalization at scale—garments tailored to your climate, taste, and movement—while cutting overproduction, warehousing, and global shipping. We also explore circularity with digital product passports and embedded IDs, making resale, repair, and recycling smarter and simpler. Along the way, we weigh real challenges: today’s siloed toolchains, the risk of brand sameness in “ghost manufacturing,” and how brands can stay distinct by treating AI as a physics‑aware co‑designer rather than a pixel pusher. Looking ahead, Steven outlines a five‑year horizon where brands specify outcomes in plain language and receive validated designs plus tech packs in moments, and a ten‑year horizon where brands act as creative directors while systems generate products within their guardrails. If you care about sustainable fashion, advanced manufacturing, or AI that grasps the real world, this conversation connects the dots from factory floor data to build‑ready files. Enjoy the episode, then share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review telling us the first product you’d generate. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    The Future of Product Creation with Mode Maison Founder & CEO Steven Gay

  8. Jan 26

    From UGC to On-Demand Manufacturing - A Holistic Approach with Kitty Yeung

    What if the best-performing fashion ads never required shipping a single sample? We sit down with Kitty Young, founder of Wear It AI, to explore how hyper-realistic virtual try-on turns everyday photos into high-converting product content—then feeds those signals back into a smarter, cleaner supply chain. Kitty shares how brands can swap expensive, unpredictable influencer campaigns for scaled UGC, where micro and nano creators generate themselves in your styles in minutes and get paid on performance, engagement, and remixes. The content looks like real life—true bodies, true fits, brand-correct styling—because trust sells better than filters. The conversation goes beyond marketing. Kitty maps a practical route to on-demand production: use AI to see what people actually want, connect those preferences to 3D simulation, image-to-pattern generation, and local microfactories, and produce with MOQ of one. We talk digital printing, laser cutting, alternative bonding, and the stubborn realities of sewing automation. The goal isn’t hype; it’s a measurable drop in waste and lead time, with fewer missed bets and a faster path from try-on to delivery. Think Starbucks for apparel: proven silhouettes, seasonal specials, and personalization on fit, fabric, and print—served within hours to days. With a background in physics and stints in quantum computing, Kitty brings a systems mindset to fashion tech. We unpack how shoppable UGC, body-accurate avatars, and integrated tooling can make stores feel like studios and social feeds feel like showrooms. If you’re building for sustainable fashion, DTC growth, or retail innovation, you’ll find a blueprint here: everyone can be a model, many can be designers, and brands can finally match demand with supply in real time. Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a colleague who obsesses over on-demand, and leave a quick review with your favorite insight so we can bring more voices like Kitty’s to the mic. Contact Us This is interactive content - send us your questions to the guests and we record another session just focusing on your questions! You have suggestions for new guests or want to sponsor the show? Contact Carl via LinkedInThanks for listening and keep podcasting!

    From UGC to On-Demand Manufacturing - A Holistic Approach with Kitty Yeung
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About

The podcast about understanding, building and managing circular business models - this is the place where we dive deep into the future of business, sustainability, and circular economy. After a decade of entrepreneurial experience as a founder and investor, Carl had countless, meaningful behind-the-scenes conversations about how we can reshape industries, close the loop, and create real impact. And now, we want to bring these conversations to you. On Looped In, Carl sits down with entrepreneurs, business owners, venture capitalists, and policymakers who are at the forefront of change. Together, we’ll explore innovative business models, breakthrough technologies, and the regulations shaping the circular economy.

Information

  • Creator
    Carl Warkentin
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 LOOPED IN with Carl Warkentin
  • Show Website
    LOOPED IN with Carl Warkentin