In occasion of our event Re-think Circular Economy Forum in Milano last October we had the pleasure to have as guest Karin Beukel, Co-Founder at Circular Food Technology, who explained us how 10% of estimated 2027 global food shortage can be covered by ONE waste stream. Karin began by acknowledging the consequences of a linear food ecosystem, which is the result of a food system focused on the economy of scale and scope. Worldwide consequences like food loss, hunger, malnutrition and over consumption. Food Loss: 1/3 of all food produced is never consumed. –Hunger: 820 million people suffer from hunger; 2 billion people are food insecure and 785 million people lack access to safe and clean water. –Malnutrition: 13% of the adult population is obese. In 2017 obesity was the underlying cause for 8% of deaths. –Over consumption: we are currently consuming at a rate where we would need more than 1,7 of the planet every year, and 22% of global CO2 emissions comes from the food sector. As a way to tackle these challenges, Circular Food Technology is following the path of up-cycled food. Ingredients that otherwise would have not gone to human consumption are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment. They believe this is the new market trend because recent market data shows: -A growth of 20% in sustainable fast-moving consumer good sales (Nielsen, 2019) –Up-cycled food market is 47 billion USD in the US market (Future Market Insights) 57% of customers aim to buy up-cycled food in the coming years (Mattson, 2019) -Consumers are ready to pay more for up-cycled products than conventional products (Drexel Uni). Circular Food Technology focuses on Brewer’s spent grains (BSG) which are leftovers in the beer production. BSG are demolded and mashed grains used to brew. Every year more than 40 million tons of spent grains are...
Month: September 2021
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24 September 2021Excess Materials Exchange – A dating site for materials Who said only people can date? At our event Re-think Circular Economy Forum 2020 in Milan, Maayke Aimee Damen, presented Excess Materials Exchange, which she founded with the aim of creating a digital platform and marketplace where companies can exchange their excess materials or as she called it, a dating site for materials. Maayke started her presentation by posing two questions: what percentage of products we buy ends up as waste within six months? What percentage of material value is lost after a single use? The answers are respectively 99% and 95%, much more than what most of the people would expect. In addition, the resource path trend is on the rise and it is projected to increase even further. At the same time, products on the market are becoming increasingly more complex. Moreover, estimations based on a forecast of materials for technology extracted, shows that there are not many resources left. While demand for resources and the complexity of the product are increasing, most of the European countries import raw materials. Focusing on the city of Amsterdam, the native land of Maayke, a great amount of materials is coming from countries outside Europe, as China and Russia. Due to the current situation, the economic and political tension is rising, so being independent on import is a risky choice. On the other hand, the recycling rates of these materials are very low. Even though we have overexploited our resources and we are very dependent on other countries, concrete actions on this topic have not been made, and instead worldwide waste-rate is expected to grow with 75% in 2050. The ultimate goal would be reaching a 100% global circular economy, in which resources are infinitely cycled across different sectors without having a negative environmental impact, but at the moment the world is only 8.6%...
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21 September 2021By Shyaam Ramkumar, Circular Innovation Expert at Tondo lab In the occasion of our Re-think Circular Economy Forum 2020 in Milan, Shyaam Ramkumar, Circular Innovation Expert at Tondo lab, explained us how digital technology can form a roadmap to enable Circular Economy. Shyaam Ramkumar focused his speech on how digital technology can form a roadmap to enable Circular Economy. Since the latter half of the 20th century we have seen an increasing digitalisation of the world. A proof of this huge exponential digitalisation is visible, for instance, by comparing the amount of world information stored in a digital format. Indeed, in 2014 this percentage overcame the 99%, while in the 80s less than 1%. We are currently experiencing the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution, with incredible advancements in different kinds of technologies that are changing our reality (AI, digital fabrication, IoT etc.). Especially this year due to Covid-19, we have seen an accelerating trend towards a more digital society, increasingly moving in the direction of online working, online learning and online socializing. This trend has huge implications for governments, companies and citizens, creating a new normality in a post-covid world. This increasing use of digital technology has actually a huge positive trend to enable the circular transition as well. Technology allows for greater knowledge sharing and collaboration, insights and analytics to support a better use of assets and resources and improved wellbeing for all. As highlighted in Circular Economy’s “DISRUPT” framework, incorporating digital technology is a key element of the circular economy, especially with regard to how resources could be optimized and connections between actors among the supply chain could be strenthened by using digital online platforms. During his speech, Shyaam focuses on four kinds of technological solutions: digital platforms, blockchain, big data analytics and artificial intelligence. It is relevant not only to understand how these technologies are contributing to the Circular Economy, but also how they are connected to each other. Many digital platforms have been recently developed, creating the foundation to enable greater connection and collaboration to advance Circular Economy. Through them companies, governments and citizens are able to exchange knowledge, share assets, reduce transaction costs and some of the inefficient market failures for second-hand resources, wastes and products. The constant use of digital platforms is also generating a great amount of data and insights in terms of: patterns of the use of resources and wastes, the demand and the supply of second hand goods. An example of this is Floow2, an online marketplace that enables companies to increase and valorise their existing assets, services, knowledge and skills by sharing them with other businesses under a given price. The platform really opens new opportunities for collaborations within companies and is gathering data on what are the biggest resources required, who has the biggest needs and who has the resources to provide them. Thinking about the creation of these platforms, it is important to manage and store all of this information in a secure way, while providing them to the different stakeholders. The blockchain can provide a decentralized way to manage and store this information, allowing a greater transaprency in terms of the origin of product, resource use, authentication, tracing supply chain issues etc. In addition,...
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17 September 2021Italiano La Professoressa Simona Tondelli dell’Università di Bologna è stata nostra ospite in occasione di Hacking the City lo scorso aprile. Il suo intervento, sintetizzato in questo articolo, si è concentrato sull’applicazione dell’economia circolare nell’ecosistema urbano. Il focus della Prof.ssa Tondelli è sulla circolarità urbana, che è per noi oggi un tema centrale poiché le città sono solitamente luoghi in cui la maggior parte degli impatti che noi generiamo si concentrano, ma li subisce anche perché la gran parte della popolazione mondiale vive qui e continuerà ad aumentare. Inoltre, nelle città abbiamo circa l’81% dei consumi; la metà delle città con oltre 100.000 abitanti tendono a soffrire di scarsità idrica; possono esserci problemi di food security; l’artificializzazione del suolo che causa la perdita di terreni agricoli; si consumano il 60-80% di risorse naturali; si producono oltre il 50% dei rifiuti e oltre i 2/3 delle emissioni di gas serra oltre a consumare circa il 60% dell’energia. Bisogna però tener presente che le città sono tutte molto diverse tra loro, sia al loro interno che tra di loro, avendo queste diversi stadi di sviluppo che possono vedere città caratterizzate da spopolamento o invecchiamento della popolazione provocando quindi l’abbandono di spazi ancora utilizzabili, ad esempio Detroit, e dall’altra parte, ci sono invece città in cui la popolazione tende a concentrarsi perché sono poli economici importanti, spostando invece attività meno redditizie nelle periferie, ad esempio Vancouver. Un possibile approccio alla circolarità urbana è quello sviluppato dalla Circular Cities Hub che spiega quali sono le caratteristiche che una città dovrebbe avere per diventare effettivamente circolare: La “città locale”, nel senso che la chiusura del ciclo a cui si ambisce deve concretizzarsi il più possibile nella produzione e nel consumo all’interno dei confini di questo centro. La “città in loop”, un luogo dove le risorse vengono riciclate, riutilizzate, recuperate e poi usate per...
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14 September 2021RE-THINK CIRCULAR ECONOMY FORUM APPRODA A TARANTO Conferenza stampa di presentazione Martedì 14 settembre 2021 – ore 11.00 Castello Aragonese, Piazza Castello 4, Taranto Presentazione dell’evento del 28 e 29 settembre in cui aziende, istituzioni, startup ed enti di ricerca mostreranno il loro percorso tutto circolare per favorire la nascita di attività innovative e imprenditoriali nel territorio pugliese 28-29 settembre 2021 – 28 settembre dalle 9.00 alle 18.30 & 29 settembre dalle 9.15 alle 18:16 – Evento in presenza e online – Link per registrazione Milano, 14 settembre 2021 – Mancano pochissimo a Re-think – Circular Economy Forum che, per questa edizione, approda a Taranto. Il 28-29 settembre presso il Dipartimento Jonico dell’Università di Bari la protagonista indiscussa sarà l’economia circolare. Il giorno 14 settembre si è svolta la conferenza stampa dove hanno partecipato il Sindaco di Taranto Rinaldo Melucci, Silvio Busico, Presidente di ITS Logistica Puglia, Francesco Fumarola, Co-fondatore di Tondo, Patrick Poggi Presidente di Eurota ETS, e Gianni Azzaro, Consigliere Nazionale ANCI. Durante la conferenza sono stati annunciati alcuni dei temi che verranno trattati durante la due giorni. Si partirà dal Green Deal, caposaldo europeo per l’attuazione di nuovi importanti cambiamenti nell’industria e non solo, fino a raccontare i progetti più virtuosi messi in campo nel territorio tarantino e pugliese in ambito economia circolare. Tanti gli ospiti d’eccezione locali, nazionali ed internazionali che parteciperanno alla 2 giorni, da corporate e startup ad enti di ricerca ed attori istituzionali, che a diverso livello stanno portando avanti e supportando progetti sull’Economia Circolare. Main sponsor dell’iniziativa è Eni, che, grazie alla sua presenza storica nel territorio, ha instaurato importanti rapporti con il tessuto sociale, mettendo a disposizione conoscenze e risorse, in linea con la vocazione del territorio, per dare voce alle sue innumerevoli potenzialità. Con il contributo di Eni, co-protagonista nell’organizzazione...
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10 September 2021By Giovanna Matrone and Simone Bambagioni, Tondo associates English Every day organizations take decisions with a direct impact on their internal and external stakeholders. In order to build trust and make stakeholders understand the organization’s true value, risks and opportunities linked to these decisions need to be transparently communicated. A key enabler to realize this process is the sustainability report. A corporate sustainability report is a periodical report released by companies with the goal of making public their commitments – as well as their actions – in social and environmental areas. Although it isn’t (yet) mandatory, an increased interest of public opinion on these areas pushes companies to disclose non-financial information about how they operate and run their social and environmental challenges. So, it becomes mandatory for organizations to give insights about how they’re taking care of environmental (CO2 production, raw material use, energy management) and social (Diversity Equity and Inclusion, respect for human rights) concerns. Being a not-mandatory self-initiative, there is not a regulatory standard to refer to. Therefore, to make this reporting as useful as possible for companies as well as for stakeholders, a unified – widely recognized – standard is required allowing reports to be quickly assessed, fairly judged, and simply compared. Since international companies have started developing sustainability reports, the most used framework is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). However, while some (medium-large) organizations choose to write a standardized report useful for specific certifications, others opt instead for a free-style report. Either way, some items are often included: a CEO statement briefly introducing the vision and the drivers behind the sustainability report; a presentation of the organization’s governance structure and business model; a SWOT analysis for opportunities and threats linked to company’s business; a materiality analysis in which the main worries of the organization and stakeholders...
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3 September 2021English Food waste is still one of the biggest world problems, indeed according to FAO around 1.3 billion tonnes of food gets lost or wasted every year. As Kaitlin Mogentale, founder of Pulp Pantry told us, generally, food waste creates a huge burden on the world, environmentally and socially, as resources are extracted to produce food that will never be eaten. In fact, it is estimated that if food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the US. Who is Kaitlin Mogentale and what is Pulp Pantry? Kaitlin Mogentale earned a degree in Environmental Studies, with an emphasis on Social Entrepreneurship, and Urban Policy & Planning at the University of Southern California, is a self-proclaimed food waste warrior and the founder of Pulp Pantry, which she started in 2015. Pulp Pantry transforms upcycled ingredients —the overlooked, nutritional byproducts of fruit and vegetable processing —into wholesome, better for people and better for the planet, snack staples. “Waste Less, Thrive More”, is the company motto, because a thriving humanity depends on a thriving, healthy planet. Kaitlin had her business idea while looking at a friend who wanted to waste his carrot pulp. She could not stand it and decided to make cookies from the saved carrot pulp instead. She started her business when she became closely acquainted with the unsettling disparities in the American food system. In a country where obesity and preventative diseases are sweeping the nation, the paradox is that the foods people could benefit from most are the very foods going to waste at the greatest rates: fruits and vegetables. The mission of Pulp Pantry is indeed to transform upcycled ingredients – the overlooked, nutritional byproducts of fruit and vegetable processing – into products with the ingredients, nutrition, and...