Innovation in a Circular Economy

Our world is at a critical point in the way we do business. There is a need to de-couple our resources from economic measurement. But circular economy opens up a raft design and technological possibilities, industry initiatives and the potential of government regulations to stimulate a new way of business.

Our panelists will discuss the business models of circular economy and how it can be linked to every business. Product stewardship and examples of businesses who are adopting these approaches. And finally Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and how to assess the overall emissions from a manufacturing perspective.

Our panel:

Holly Leach - Project & Partnership Manager - Sustainable Business Network
Holly works on the Climate Action 20/25 programme. She previously led SBN’s Now Crowd young professionals network and project managed our Leadership in Sustainable Business course. She has a Master’s of Sustainable Business and an undergraduate degree in Food Science from Otago University. Holly is interested in helping businesses understand their impacts, coming up with the plan and supporting them to take action.

Louise Nash - Founder of Circularity and XLabs
Louise Nash holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics, a Masters of Commercial Law, Masters of Applied Technological Futures and an IDEO Certificate in Business Design.

Her experience spans 20+ years experience in global strategic brand development, human-centered design thinking facilitation and emerging disruptive technology. Her strategy work has covered the depth and breadth of business, goods and services, across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore.

In November 2018 Louise founded Circularity - a circular design and transformation partner that redesigns business for a resilient and regenerative future.

In 2020 she delivered XLabs, New Zealand’s first circular economy lab in Tāmaki Makaurau in partnership with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development. At XLabs, Louise facilitated a design sprint over nine weeks (including lockdown) for 18 businesses (over 100 people) to unlock circular solutions that contribute to building a resilient and regenerative economy for Tāmaki Makaurau.

When not designing regenerative circular systems in her sleep, she is mum to two daughters, wife of a novelist, feeding worms with food scraps, attempting to grow all her veggies and is making the switch from snowboarding to skiing.

Barbara Nebel - CEO thinkstep-anz
Meet Barbara Nebel from Thinkstep. Barbara's passion is to enable organisations to succeed sustainably. As CEO of thinkstep Australasia, she delivers a full range of sustainability services from strategy and materiality assessments through to detailed Life Cycle Assessments and Cradle to Cradle® projects.

In her role as President of the Life Cycle Association New Zealand (LCANZ), Barbara initiated the Australasian EPD Programme.

In our Circular Economy event, Barbara will discuss the LCA of NZ Post courier bags where NZ Post are committed using 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025.

The ‘cradle to grave’ study that covers the production of raw materials, manufacture of the mailer, transport to NZ Post and through our network to the final customer, and finally end-of-life. We investigated three different disposal options: landfill, recycling, and composting in the study that follows international standards ISO 14044 and ISO 14067.