Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
How This Book Is Organized 4
Part 1: Linear Is Out, Circular Is In: An Economic Revolution 4
Part 2: Rethinking Business for a Circular Economy 5
Part 3: Rethinking Material Lifecycles — The Circular Perspective 5
Part 4: Redesigning the Future to Be Circular 5
Part 5: Creating a Circular Economy for All 6
Part 6: The Part of Tens 6
Beyond the Book 6
Where to Go from Here 7
Part 1: Linear Is Out, Circular Is In: An Economic Revolution 9
Chapter 1: Rejecting Waste, Rethinking Materials, and Redesigning the World 11
Rejecting the Idea of Waste 12
Waste as a driver of the economy 13
Waste as a resource 13
Rethinking Material Lifecycles 16
Take, make, and waste 17
Making technical materials circular 17
Making biological materials circular 18
Upcycling versus downcycling 19
Redesigning the Future to Be Circular 19
Food production 20
Circular businesses, products, and clothing 20
A circular economy for all 22
Chapter 2: What’s Wrong with Being Linear, Anyway? 23
We’re Taking the Wrong Stuff 25
We’re not importing this stuff from space 27
Everyone keeps having kids 28
We don’t have as much as we thought 30
It all revolves around oil 31
We’re Making the Wrong Stuff 31
You’re buying trash 32
Even kids can build with blocks 33
Trying to recycle the unrecyclable 33
We’re using materials that are bad for us 34
We’re Wasting the Wrong Stuff 34
It all comes at a big cost 34
We’re running out of room 35
It’s expensive to throw things away 35
The debt collector is knocking at the door 35
Change Is Really Hard, We Know 36
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it 36
Taking risks 37
Chapter 3: A Growing Demand for a Circular Economy 41
The Drive to Make Money 44
Redefining risk and liability 44
Innovating to attract new customers 46
The Drive to Be Healthier 46
Lifestyles that foster health and sustainability 46
Wellness as a priority 47
The Drive to Be in Compliance 47
Environmental, social, and corporate governance 48
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) 49
Climate and shareholders 50
A Larger Drive Toward Deep Sustainability 50
This has been brewing for a while 51
Precedents 51
Looking to the future 54
Chapter 4: From Linear To Circular: What You Need To Know 57
So Much Chaos: Understanding Entropy 58
Externalized costs 59
Linear versus circular: A hilarious-yet-depressing comparison 60
Borrow from nature, not from the future 64
Waste = Food: Redefining Disposal 66
All materials have another use 68
Product stewardship 69
Building Resilience Through Diversity: Redefining Strength 71
Responding to disruption 72
Takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ 73
Durability and reparability policies 74
Part 2: Rethinking Business For a Circular Economy 77
Chapter 5: Identifying Your Business Opportunities 79
Exploring the Benefits of Going Circular 79
Exploiting the profit opportunities 80
Reducing volatility and ensuring greater supply chain security 81
Managing the new demand for business services 81
Improving customer interaction and loyalty 83
Rethinking the Business Model 85
Building new types of capital 86
Rethinking money as the only medium of exchange 87
Reflecting the true cost of products 87
Embracing diversity 89
Rethinking your supply chain 89
Designing for the future 90
Examining Business from a Global Perspective 91
Chapter 6: Rethinking the Conventional Business Model 95
Rethinking How We Look at Cost 98
The hidden cost of procurement 100
The hidden impact of transportation 104
The hidden burden of inventory 104
The hidden secrets of quality 105
Maximizing Your Value Proposition to Customers 105
Becoming a mission-driven company 106
Safeguarding your workers 107
Greenwashing 107
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities 108
Listening to customers 109
Creating unspoken demand 110
Rethinking old assumptions 110
Bending linear into loops 111
Thinking of businesses as a system 112
Chapter 7: Exploring the Essentials of a Circular Business Model 113
The Six Rs: Your New Circularity Mantra 114
Refuse: Say no to what you don’t need 114
Reduce: Use less for longer 115
Reuse and remanufacture: Extend product life 116
Repurpose: Find other uses 116
Recycle: Return materials for rebirth 116
Rot: Return it to the soil 117
Developing a Circular Business Structure: The Bones of the Operation 117
Identifying potential material loops 118
Considering innovative business models 118
Who’s at the table? Engaging your stakeholders 120
Developing a message 121
Benchmarking and improvement 122
Chapter 8: ’Round and ’Round: Making Your Products Circular 127
Managing Material Lifecycle Performance 128
Designing products for reuse 129
Designing products to be remanufactured 130
Designing products for recycling 130
Making Your Product Lifecycle Smarter 131
Creating effective and serviceable products 132
Being flexible 132
Seeking collaborators and partners 133
How It All Comes Together 134
Everything is circular first 134
Everything is transparent 135
Chapter 9: From Trash to Treasure: Converting Waste into Products 139
Seeing Why the Circular Economy Is All About Retaining Value 140
Stop Being Linear: It’s a Waste of Time 144
Why Buy Waste When You Can Sell It? 145
Selling your old stuff 147
Starting your own business 149
Troubleshooting a Wasteful Product Lifecycle 152
Where the wild things are 153
Signed, sealed, delivered 153
Waste not, want not 154
Being a sustainable shopper 154
Finding value in the ugly 155
Part 3: Rethinking Material Lifecycles: The Circular Perspective 163
Chapter 10: Understanding the Circular Material Lifecycle 165
Viewing the Entire Spectrum of Environmental Impact 166
Defining degenerative lifecycles 167
Defining sustainable lifecycles 167
Defining regenerative lifecycles 168
Understanding the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Butterfly Diagram 169
Examining the circular economy’s structure: The bones of the operation 169
Renewables flow management: Harnessing biological cycles 171
Stock management: Optimizing technical cycles 172
Promoting environmental restoration: Investing now to obtain even more later 175
Chapter 11: Analyzing Material Lifecycle Processes 179
Looking at Material Processes 181
Fostering transparency 183
Instituting chemical management 183
Rewarding innovation 184
The Lifecycle Principles: Identifying Where Change Can Happen 184
Preserving natural capital 185
Enhancing the usefulness of products, components, and raw materials 186
Developing effective systems that minimize negative externalities 187
Looking at Opportunities for Optimization 187
Refusing the new: Reusing the old 188
Employing the remaining factor: Remanufacturing 189
Biochemical extraction for the win 190
Chapter 12: Improving the Material Lifecycle 195
Improving How Material Lifecycles Function 196
Looking at Materials in a New Way 198
Getting to know your lifecycle 199
Refuse before you reduce, reuse, and recycle 200
Examining Operations in a New Way 201
Looking at human capital 201
You can be everywhere 201
Connecting Sourcing, Suppliers, and Customers 202
Chapter 13: It All Comes Down to Selecting the Right Materials 207
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Exploring Materials 208
Oil or Plastics — They’re Really Much the Same Thing 208
What’s Harder than Rock? Metals 212
Paper Products and Cardboard 214
Through the Looking Glass 217
And Everything In-Between 218
Identifying Hazardous Materials 219
Red list materials 220
Red list material alternatives 221
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 221
Sourcing, Ethics, and Standards 222
Understanding strategic sourcing 222
Establishing ethics 223
Exploring certifications and standards 223
Chapter 14: Circular Materials, Products, and Packaging 227
Redesigning Materials and Products: The Transition from Linear to Circular 228
“Less bad” does not equal “good” 228
Planning for material reincarnation 230
How To Keep Materials In Use Forever 231
Why things break 232
From planned obsolescence to planned permanence 232
Shipping Global versus Producing Local 234
Building a regional economy: A shipping substitute 235
You’ve got to be shipping me 238
Permanent packaging 239
Part 4: Redesigning the Future to Be Circular 245
Chapter 15: The Circular Economy of Food Production 247
Examining the Two Ways of Producing Food 248
Investigating the Hidden Costs of Agriculture 249
Food waste: Expending money, time, and resources unnecessarily 250
Environmental degeneration: Damaging the planet with increasing speed 252
Permaculture to the Rescue 252
Following nature’s lead: Permaculture design principles 253
Taking a look at permaculture management zones 256
Chapter 16: Circularity for Design 259
Redesigning Design 260
Understanding circular design 260
Designing out waste 263
Keeping products and materials in use 264
Regenerating natural systems 264
Recognizing the Problems Designers Face 265
We’re being overtaken by trash 265
We’re running out of materials 265
We’re choking on carbon 266
Creating a Framework for Circular Design 267
Applying the ReSOLVE framework to buildings 268
Layers of useful life 269
Putting the pieces together 271
Chapter 17: Circular Economy for Builders, Makers, and Manufacturers 275
Assessing a Building’s Lifecycle 276
Defining construction and demolition debris 276
Gauging the economic opportunities of C&D waste 277
Measuring C&D waste impact 277
Defining lifecycle impacts 279
Identifying human health hazards and promoting transparency 280
People, planet and profit 280
Selecting Appropriate Building Products 283
Sourcing responsibly 284
Something stinks 285
We All Embody Carbon 287
The human’s relationship to carbon 288
The building’s relationship to carbon 290
Operational carbon 290
Embodied carbon 291
Carbon influences on building design 293
Straight from the Open Source 294
Recognizing the benefit 294
Looking at open source in action 295
Chapter 18: The Circular Economy for Fashion and Clothing 297
Sewing Together the Issue: Where Fashion Is and Where It’s Headed 298
Fashion = Waste + Pollution 299
The current trajectory to catastrophe 302
Making It Circular: A Future Forecast for Fashion 303
The Phase Out phase 304
Redesigning how clothes are used 305
Optimizing collection and recycling 306
Relying on renewable resources 307
Comparing Common Fashion Fabrics 310
Plastic 311
Plants 313
Animals 314
Part 5: Creating A Circular Economy For All 317
Chapter 19: Understanding an Individual’s Circular Opportunities 319
Looking at the Food You Eat 320
Sourcing 320
Managing food waste 321
Sizing Up the Products You Buy 327
Recycling: The last resort 327
Selecting products with reuse potential 328
Evaluating the House You Live In 328
Considering lifecycle costs 329
Building better 329
Thinking About the Way You Commute 331
Be car-less for once 331
Choose more efficient options 332
Revisiting the Way You Work 332
Promoting telecommuting and teleconferencing 332
Managing office supplies 333
Chapter 20: Creating a Career in the Circular Economy 335
Looking at the Future of Jobs 336
Jobs that are central to the circular economy 338
Jobs that are enabling the circular economy 338
Jobs that are indirectly related to the circular economy 339
Skills required for a circular economy 341
Where to Go for More Education 341
Earning certifications 341
Earning degrees and diplomas 342
Chapter 21: A Global Vision of a Circular Economy 345
Seeing What a Circular Community Looks Like 346
Sourcing community resources and aid 347
Looking at food management 348
Eyeing transportation 349
Seeing What a Circular University Looks Like 350
Learning from living laboratories 351
Insisting on data visibility 352
Seeing What a Circular Restaurant and Brewery Look Like 353
Fostering effective and efficient sourcing and prep 354
Revising service standards 355
Viewing waste as a resource 356
Part 6: The Part of Tens 359
Chapter 22: Ten Questions to Ask About Your Material Lifecycle 361
Where Did This Material Come From? 362
What Are the By-Products of Harvesting This Material? 362
What Are the By-Products of Manufacturing This Material? 362
How Is the Material Delivered? 363
How Is the Material Installed? 364
How Is the Material Maintained, Powered, or Operated? 364
How Healthy Are the Materials? 364
What Can We Do with These Materials After We’re Done with Them? 365
What Can Be Done to Extend, Prolong, or Maintain the Material? 366
What Can We Do to Encourage the Reuse, Refurbishment, Redistribution, or Remanufacture of the Material? 366
Chapter 23: Ten Questions to Foster Innovative Thinking 367
How Can We Make This Product Redundant? 368
How Can We Rethink How This Product Is Used? 369
How Can We Reduce the Resources or Materials Used? 369
In What Ways Can This Product Be Reused by Another Consumer? 369
In What Ways Can This Product Be More Easily Maintained and Repaired? 370
In What Ways Can This Product Be Restored or Kept Up-to-Date? 370
How Can Discarded Parts Be Remade into a New Version of the Same Product? 370
How Can Discarded Parts Be Remade Into a New Product? 371
In What Ways Can We Recycle These Materials into Quality Products? 371
How Can We Dispose of This Material in a Manner That Recovers Energy? 371
Chapter 24: Ten Questions to Ask about Your Supply Chain 373
What Drives Your Product Design? 374
What Are Your Users’ Needs? 374
Will Your Customers Access or Will They Own Your Product? 375
Who Are Your Partners? 376
What Materials Are Required? 377
How Will You Produce Your Product? 377
How Will Users Receive Your Product? 378
How Will You Support the Repair and Maintenance of Your Product? 379
What Refurbishment Options Will You Offer for Your Product? 379
How Will You Reclaim Your Product at Its End of Life? 380
Chapter 25: Ten Questions That Reveal How Much Your Waste Is Costing You 381
What Labor Costs Are Tied to Waste Disposal? 382
What Is the Real Cost of Waste Disposal? 382
What Is the Impact on Human Health? 383
How Does Waste Impact Ecosystem Services? 383
What Is the Innate Value of Waste? 384
How Much Raw Material Is Required to Offset Waste? 385
What Are the Indirect Costs of Waste? 385
How Much Does Poor Efficiency Cost? 386
What Natural Resources Are Required for Waste? 386
What Waste Remediation Will Be Required? 387
Index 389
