Launched in 2010, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is putting Circular Economy on the map internationally. The Foundation is amongst other issuing reports together with McKinsey & Company on Circular Economy, has a broad network of partners (the CE100) and organises multiple events to promote a transition.
The Guardian has a portal specifically designed to adress news on the circulair economy.
Other
Collaborative Consumption shares information on the shift in consumer values transitioning from ownership to access.
Check out the AskNature for inspiration on how to apply Biomimicry.
For more info on Cradle to Cradle check out McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry and the C2C Knowledge Platform.
The Centre for Sustainable Design shares their knowledge and expertise on sustainable innovation and product sustainability online.
Find out more on the Natural Step strategy and initiatives.
The Rocky Mountain Institute stimulates an efficient and restorative use of resources.
The Factor 10 Institute provides support for sustainable value creation.
The Blue Economy website opens its doors on Blue Economy principles and 100 case studies.
In the Netherlands
Circle Economy is a Dutch based CE platform aiming at making the Netherlands a circular hotspot.
Stichting Circulaire Economie is also a Dutch based CE platform.
CIRCO stimulates a transition towards CE through circular design.
Products that Last (research project from the TU Delft) informs you on successful business models and design strategies that promote longer lasting products
Nature Inspired Design (research project from the TU Delft) keeps you updated on nature inspired design strategies.
Publications
Several organisations are leading the path towards a circular economy internationally and in the Netherlands. Here's a non-exhaustive list of them:
International
Resources
We've gathered a bunch of interesting resources for you below. Feel free to contact us if you have awesome things you'd like to share! Have fun!
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RSA, "Investigating the role of design in the circular economy," 2012.
Links
Like our Facebook Page for interesting news, funfacts, insights, articles and website updates.
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Twitter accounts you should follow according to the Guardian
clips
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, “Towards the Circular Economy Vol. 1, 2 and 3"
These reports written with McKinsey & Co are at the base of the theory on Circular Economy. The three volumes are different when it comes to the specific focus of the study cases. The theory is finetuned throughout the years.
Lots to read and see on Circular Economy (going from basic info to more detailed):
Reports
Intelligent assets: unlocking the circular economy potential
With up to 50 billion connected devices predicted by 2020, a pervasive digital transformation is reshaping the economy. Will this ‘fourth industrial revolution’ lead to an acceleration of the extractive, ‘linear’ economy of today, or will it enable the transition towards a society in which value creation is increasingly decoupled from finite resource consumption?
The new plastics economy: rethinking the future of plastics
Applying circular economy principles to global plastic packaging flows could transform the plastics economy and drastically reduce negative externalities such as leakage into oceans, according to this new report.
Books
C. Bakker, M. den Hollander, E. van Hinte, Y. Zijlstra, Products that Last. TU Delft Library, 2014.
Publications from schools of thought inspiring CE are also really interesting to read:
T. E. Graedel and B. Allenby, Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Prentice Hal, 2010.
J. Benyus, Biomimicry Innovation Inspired by Nature, 1998.
M. Braungart and W. McDonough, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, 2002.
M. Braungart and W. McDonough, The Upcycle. North Point Press, 2013.
G. Pauli, The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs. Paradigm Publications, 2010.
K.-H. Robèrt, The Natural Step Story: Seeding a Quiet Revolution. New Society Publishers, 2002.
J. T. Lyle, Regenerative design for sustainable development. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1994.
Papers
Looking for more specific information? Scientific papers on CE specifically are scarce at the time of writing. Nevertheless, various articles on aspects of CE are worth reading to gain more insight.
Disassembly
M. Hoffmann, B. Kopacek, P. Kopacek, and R. Knoth, “Design for Re-use and Disassembly,” in Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, 2001. Proceedings EcoDesign 2001: Second International Symposium on. IEEE, 2001, pp. 378–381.
R. Bogue, “Design for disassembly: a critical twenty-first century discipline,” Assembly Automation, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 285–289, 2007.
G. Boothroyd and L. Alting, “Design for Assembly and Disassembly,” Annals of the CIRP, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 625–634, 1992.
J. Chiodo, “Design for Disassembly Guidelines,” 2005.
T. Dowie and M. Simon, “Guidelines for designing for disassembly and recycling,” in Proceedings of the R95 Conference on Recovery, Recycling, Re-integration, Geneva, Switzerland, 1994.
Maintenance
C. W. Gits, “Design of maintenance,” International Jounral of Production Economics, vol. 24, pp. 217–226, 1992.
Modularity
K. K. Ishii, “Modularity : A Key Concept in Product Life-cycle Engineering.” Handbook of Life-cycle Engineering, 1998.
Product Life Extension
J. Chapman, “Design for (Emotional) Durability,” Design Issues, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 29–35, Oct. 2009.
W. Stahel, “The Utilization-Focused Service Economy: Resource Efficiency and Product-Life Extension,” in The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems, Richards and Allenby, Eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994, pp. 178–190.
K. Ishii, C. Eubanks and P. Di Marco, “Design for product retirement and material life-cycle,” Materials & Design, vol. 15, no. 4, pp 225-233, 1994.
C. Bakker and M. Hollander, “Six design strategies for longer lasting products in circular economy”, 2013.
Product-Service System
R. Roy, “Sustainable product-service systems,” Futures, vol. 32, no. 3–4, pp. 289–299, Apr. 2000.
Recycling
N. Hultgren, “Guidelines and Design Strategies for Improved Product Recyclability,” Chalmers University of Technology, 2012.(thesis)
Remanufacturing
D. Parker and P. Butler, “An Introduction to Remanufacturing,” Aylesbury, Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse, 2007.
W. Ijomah and C. McMahon, “Development of robust design-for-remanufacturing guidelines to further the aims of sustainable development,” International Journal of Production Research, vol. 45, no. 18–19, pp. 4513–4536, Sep. 2007.
Other
S. Moeller and K. Wittkowski, “The burdens of ownership: reasons for preferring renting,” Managing Service Quality, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 176–191, 2010.