Circular Economy

As COP27 drew to a close in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, this blog post intends to reflect on what happened over the past few weeks, take stock of recent progress and setbacks, and extrapolate the potential implications of international climate change discussions for global supply chains. What is COP27? COP is the UN […]

The world of corporate sustainability and, more specifically, climate action is currently buzzing with catchy goals and commitments such as Net Zero, Carbon Neutral, Carbon Free or even Carbon Negative. While their definitions, scope, and deadlines, as well as their authenticity and practicality, may differ and be debatable, they all share one thing: the stated […]

The burning platform is a term that has been widely used in change management. It describes a critical initial step in any change process aimed at helping people realise the grim consequences of not changing. It is based on the analogy of someone standing on a burning platform faced with the prospect of certain and […]

For most companies supplying technical products to their market (i.e., non-perishable, and non-consumable), becoming circular can means that, someday, close to 100% of their products may need to come back.  Now, any supply chain leader would almost instantly come to realise that their operations are just not set up for that.  While most companies would […]

Having embarked on their Circular Economy journey, organisations often reach a point where the ups and downs of their activity, and the shifting priorities that might go along with them, eventually take over the initial positive momentum. It becomes difficult to keep plans on track for a prolonged period and the lack of progress may […]

Earth Day 2022 is upon us, and our thoughts can’t help but turn to the impact of supply chains on the environment, and on climate change.  Sustainability and circular economy have rightly become a strategic focus for organisations, but the tactical approaches can differ.  The by now historic ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra comes to mind […]

Aftermarket certification for your ICT equipment For a long time, the fate of ICT equipment, no longer needed, has been the least of an organisation’s concerns.  Indeed, most seemed content to let someone take aftermarket equipment away for the smallest fee on offer.  Other companies, typically those dealing with higher volumes of more recent used […]

Circular Economy and supply chain – a practical approach Circular Economy and Sustainabillity.  Is it simple to achieve?  What steps do I need to take? Just as most parts of the world are starting to emerge from a global pandemic, the recent IPCC report and COP26 remind all of us of the urgency related to […]

Designing Supply Chains for Circular For generations, we have operated supply chains that extract materials from nature, in order to create products that shipped to customers.  What customers did with those products and what happened after use, was hardly a consideration for supply chain teams.  Customers just disposed of their products at end of life […]