Planet Ark's Australian Circular Economy Hub (ACE Hub) held the inaugural CIRCO circular business design workshop, with nine organisations participating alongside nine candidates in this 3-day, action oriented, immersive training program.
The CIRCO circular business design methodology has been available in the Netherlands since 2015 and has since trained more than 3000 companies across 19 hubs globally but had never been brought to Australia. The ACE Hub partnered with CLICK NL to make the methodology available to Australian organisations, with the first workshop held at Sustainability Victoria’s offices in Melbourne from 3-5 September 2024
Thanks to the support of the Circular Economy Innovation Fund from the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre (CEBIC), CIRCO training will now be available to Victorian businesses. CEBIC is delivered by Sustainability Victoria on behalf of the Victorian Government.
The nine organisations participating in this inaugural workshop reflected a diverse cohort, including large brands such as Officeworks, Coles, and Reece, as well as APCO, K5 Furniture, Green my Plate, Purple Pear Pallets, and Golf Ball Recycling. Also participating was Hume City Council. Thanks to Bronwyn Voyce from Civic Futures Lab for the innovation competition that offered a ticket for the winner, allowing Green my Plate to participate!
The CIRCO Business Design Workshop offers a unique opportunity to explore circular economy opportunities for your business and take the initial steps in developing new circular products, services, and business models.
The training pushed participants to explore how circular economy business models and design strategies could offer efficiencies or even new product or service offerings, and ultimately resulted in nine new business ideas from a diverse range of organisations
Participants reflected on the depths they were invited to explore in their own value chains and the systems in which they sit:
“I learned so much in regard to the possibilities for our organisation and potential avenues that we had not previously considered. I can definitely apply everything that I have learned to our existing and proposed business products and services.” - Simon Lord, Golf Ball Recycling.
“The training has provided tools on how to map out the steps required to get from an idea to an implementation plan that will work within the business frameworks.” - Penny Austin, Reece.
“The small wins explored in the training can deliver big results in multiple ways, through customer interaction, reputation, collaboration and material impacts.” - Suzette Jackson, K5 Furniture.
Dutch co-founder of CIRCO Pieter Van Os and Senior Trainer Bas Roelofs travelled to Melbourne to deliver the training.
“The launch of CIRCO in Australia was the culmination of several years of discussion and planning. It was great to see it come to life,” reflected Pieter.
“The Australian participants showed sincere interest in the training and are now well placed to take their learnings and adopt the projects designed over the three days. It’s exciting to see Australia now in our global network. I look forward to seeing the results in coming months and years.”
The three-day workshop also provided the first stage of training for local trainers, who once accredited will be Australia’s first CIRCO-accredited trainers.
The three-day workshop also provided the first stage of instruction for local trainers, who will be Australia’s first CIRCO-accredited trainers once their training has been completed. These trainers represent advisory and academic institutions across Victoria including Anvarta Consulting, Deakin University, Edge Impact, and RMIT Activator.
“The value chain activity to identify the actors, transactions, value and phases was a really helpful frame to the training. It highlighted the value loss points as the foundations for new opportunities,” said Christian Keel, one of the trainers-in-training from Edge Impact.
With the experiment in hand, the next two workshops will see local trainers deliver the methodology in Geelong and Melbourne before launching nationally in 2025.
Register your interest for the two upcoming dates via this link:
3-5 December | Deakin University Waterfront Campus | Geelong
18-20 November | RMIT Activator | Carlton
Each three-day workshop is limited to 10 businesses and each organisation is asked to send two representatives. With a maximum of 20 participants, the training ensures a highly interactive and productive environment, allowing for meaningful collaboration and engagement.
Outside Victoria? Register your interest in CIRCO so we can let you know when the next training opportunity is coming to you!