In our blog post Steps to Circularity, we outlined five steps that a company can use as a guide to incorporate Circularity into their business. We will follow up with a deeper dive into each of the steps with the hope that your company adopts them.
Part 2 - Awareness and Education
Understand the principles of a circular economy. Ensure that the entire team, from top management to designers to the warehouse staff, is aware of the benefits and rationale behind the transition.
One challenge that often arises within a company on the precipice of change is that there is a small group of individuals who have gone ahead, researched an initiative or idea, become deep experts, and fought to build the business case. And this group of people can often forget, not everyone understands at the same level they do.
We recommend going backward to go forwards. Start from the beginning and educate your whole company on Circular. The sooner and broader you invest in Circular education, the greater your return is in the long run.
This awareness and education are built on two things.
- Ensure everyone is on the same page of what Circular means and
- Show everyone how to leverage their existing skills and expertise with a Circular mindset.
Circular is a unique way of seeing business. It is built upon principles. These principles have been informed and refined over the years and would recommend using the three principles from the Ellen McArthur Foundation as a start. The principles include:
- Design out Waste and Pollution
- Keep Products and Materials in their highest use
- Regenerate Natural Capital
When you look at an existing product and business through these Circular principles all kinds of questions come up. If products are now to be designed to be resold multiple times, how will our design process change, how will our sales process change, what is step one and what can we do later?
Having help guiding your company through this change management pays itself back multiple times over. There are a few companies that specialize in Circular Education Training. We have listed a few below to help as you explore partners in educating your teams and accelerate your ability to adopt and manage a Circular Transformation.
Some Training Companies are: Cascade Circular | Circle Economy | Circular.Fashion | Ellen MacArthur Foundation | Molte Volte
