Recorded live during Climate Week NYC, this episode explores how technology can accelerate the transition to a circular economy, not as a bolt-on fix, but as a built-in business strategy. Host Danielle Holly, Executive Lead for North America at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is joined by Jen Huffstetler (Chief Sustainability Officer, HP), Jim Sullivan (Head of Product Management, SAP), and Vrushali Gaud (Global Director of Strategy and Operations for Net Zero, Water, and Circularity, Google).

Circular business models rely on coordination across teams, functions, and partners both internal and external. Without shared goals, incentives, and ownership, even strong business models run aground at scale. This is the fourth and final part of our mini series on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report: How not to fail: Avoiding 10 common pitfalls when scaling circular business models. In this episode, the report’s lead researchers, Maddy Oliver and Ella Hedley, explain how success at scale demands more than a strong model – what really matters is who is empowered to deliver it and how well are they aligned. If you enjoyed this series, then please share with your colleagues, or leave us a review or comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.

Circular business models can drive new revenue streams, build brand strength, customer loyalty, and market traction, while also unlocking value through resource efficiency, cost savings, and reduced risk to supply chain volatility. But there is often too much focus on short-term gains in revenue or sustainability and waste reduction metrics, while overlooking their full business value. In the third part of our mini series on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report: How not to fail: Avoiding 10 common pitfalls when scaling circular business models, we hear how, when circular business models are pitched primarily around sustainability, internal commitment is lower. Pippa is joined by the report’s lead researchers, Maddy Oliver and Ella Hedley, to explore why circular business models rarely scale without a strong, broad financial case.

Circular business models often fail when they’re designed without factoring how the business works, what the customers want, and what the product requires. These need to be considered together, not in isolation, to ensure that delivery, adoption, and revenue generation are possible at scale. Thinking about fit might feel obvious, but in this episode, we hear how many businesses often overlook these elements.

What makes circular business models fail to scale? In this new four-part series, we’ll be exploring the common mistakes businesses make on their journey towards circularity. Based on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report: How not to fail: Avoiding 10 common pitfalls when scaling circular business models, Pippa is joined by Maddy Oliver and Ella Hedley, who led the research on the paper. You’ll hear about the experiences of pioneering companies, and learn about the practical steps that businesses can use to avoid common pitfalls and enable circular business models to reach transformative scale.

Have the current political and economic shocks actually created enormous opportunities for change? Can businesses currently working on transforming themselves, work together on driving an entire market transformation? And what role can the rest of us play in resetting the system and helping to shape that change? In this episode, Jonquil Hackenberg, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Lindsay Hooper from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership discuss how catalysing market interventions and designing out competitive disadvantages can work to reshape our system. We know that complete market transformation is possible, we have already seen renewable energy progress, but no single business or group can do this alone.

Scaling the circular economy requires more companies to launch circular products and services, but many competitors transitioning towards the circular economy face similar barriers to scale. One way to address this is commercial collaboration, where businesses work together on issues that are not tied to their competitive advantage.

It was a busy summer for the circular economy. In this episode, Seb brings you up to speed with some of the headlines and all in less than 10 minutes!

As Climate Week NYC kicks off, what’s momentum like for the circular economy in North America? In this episode, Pippa’s joined by Danielle Holly, Executive Lead for North America at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to explore how circularity is moving from theory to practice across the continent — and why that matters for business leaders looking ahead.

Waste and pollution aren’t accidents—they’re the result of design. Which means we can design them out. Design is where it all begins – and where real change can happen. In this episode, host Pippa sits down with Joe Iles, Head of Design Activation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to discuss what circular design really means. In this episode hear about: - How it differs from the traditional approach - Where the creative crossovers are - Why designers hold the power to shape a better system

Amid rising emissions, rising temperatures, and the rapid rollout of material-intensive renewable energy systems that promise to curb them both, climate mitigation and adaptation are a central priority for China’s government. In this episode, host Seb talks to Lei Chen from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s China team. They go behind the headlines to look at: - The role China could play in accelerating global circular transitions - Why the circular economy could offer China a ‘triple win’ in achieving its climate ambitions. China probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of a circular economy. But maybe it should be.

Could rethinking our cities through a circular lens be the key to future-proofing Europe whilst offering exciting investment opportunities? Join us in the third of our five-part Circling Back series of the Circular Economy Show, to hear host Lou Waldegrave speak with Julia Okatz from Systemiq and Joss Bleriot, Executive Lead for Policy and Institutions at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. They discuss how circular economy strategies can, by bringing nature back into our built environments, help us adapt to extreme weather—cooling down cities, restoring green space, and building resilience into every street—while generating substantial economic, environmental, and social benefits. From Paris to Berlin, and cities across the continent, Europe’s urban centres are feeling the effects of heat domes and climate stress. But, the circular economy offers a powerful, nature-positive way forward.

The circular economy can no longer be sidelined as a ‘nice to have’. Not only can it future-proof individual business operations, it can also help entire industries stay competitive and resilient in a fast-changing world. In this episode we’re going back to the beginning of the year, when Seb caught up with Lindsay Hooper, CEO for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Joe Murphy, Executive Lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s business network. Together, they discuss why the end of the ESG hype bubble, far from being the end of business-led action, could mark a real shift in corporate circular economy approaches.

In this episode we’re bringing together two top-of-mind topics: the scramble for critical minerals, and how circular economy strategies can help us secure and stabilise their supply. Humans have been mining metals and minerals for thousands of years. Today, critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements are essential for not only renewable energy products like wind turbines and EV batteries but the infrastructure and systems needed to power them. As part of our Circling Back series, over the next five weeks, we’re revisiting some key conversations from our archive that feel especially relevant right now. Join us in Episode 189 to hear: From Ke Wang at the World Resources Institute about why the circular economy is central in the energy transition How economics and competitiveness are driving that transition, and examples of where that is already happening in practice As the rollout of renewable energy scales at pace, e-waste continues to increase, and the first generation of EV batteries and wind turbines start to reach the end of their lives, we have a window of opportunity to build a better system, based on the principles of a circular economy.

Building circular business models - where products are rented, repaired, resold and remade - is key to transforming our economy from a take, make, waste linear system, to a circular one.

How do we keep clothes in use at their highest value and make money without having to make new clothes? In this episode of The Circular Economy Show, we explore the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s demonstration project, the Fashion ReModel, and hear from one of its participants: H&M Group.

In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, our guests Georgie Rose from Selfridges and Simon Davies from VISA tell us how they have been working together to find out. Collaborating with Mindworks Marketing to optimise messaging and branding for promoting circular shopping behaviours, Georgie and Simon discuss how their behavioural lab has been bridging the gap between customer intent and action.

For years, marketers have been helping to shape how consumers think and feel about products that are driving the linear economy. However in this episode of the Circular Economy Show, we explore how they can harness their skills to unlock the opportunities that the circular economy provides.

In this episode of the Circular Economy Show, we explore the intersection between fashion, business, and technology - revealing why shoes are central to systemic innovation.

To truly transform the food system, we need retailers to sell food that enables nature to thrive. In this episode, learn how leading retailers from around the world are embracing circular design for food, and facing the challenges that occur on the journey. Our guests are Helly McAlister, Senior Buyer at Fortnum & Mason, and Susy Yoshimura, Senior Sustainability Director at Grupo Carrefour Brazil, two pioneering businesses from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Big Food Redesign Challenge. Find out: - Why investing in circular design for food is a strategic move that defines the future of retail - How top retailers are cultivating customer demand for products that keep nature in mind - The fundamental importance of cross-team collaboration within organisations - Ideas for engaging suppliers and scaling circular economy initiatives far beyond pilot projects