IDEO became a partner and other information on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
IDEO, the global innovation and design firm, IDEO, has become the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Design Partner. IDEO, led by its London studio, will work closely with the Foundation to apply design thinking and expertise to help capture opportunities presented by the circular economy
Ellen MacArthur commented: “The circular economy’s system-wide implications require creativity as well as expertise in big picture design. We are delighted to be working with IDEO as the Foundation’s Design Partner, to help us turn forward-looking ideas into tangible, inspiring visions.”
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation works through business innovation, education and analysis to accelerate the transition to a more restorative and regenerative circular economy. Achieving the shift to a circular economy requires re-imagining many aspects of our global economic system, to move away from existing linear models and associated thinking. In its work, IDEO uses ‘design thinking’, a creative, human-centred approach to innovation, to transform products, services, processes and strategy. There are many opportunities to apply such an approach to tackling circular economy challenges, whether through the circular design of systems, such as new business models, or products, for example by creating standardised components.
Over the coming weeks, IDEO and the Foundation will be working together to identify specific programme areas around which initial collaboration will be developed. The agreement with IDEO is the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s second specialist partner agreement; it already works with Knowledge Partner, McKinsey & Company, which provides analytical support.
ResCoM
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is one of 12 consortium partners in ResCoM, a European Commission-funded project that aims to help manufacturers to capture value by ‘closing the loop’.
The ResCoM project is developing a decision-support software platform which will be based on product lifecycle and material information management software modules. The project is on course to deliver finalised outcomes in 2017.
Circular economy on the agenda in Davos at World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland (January 20-23, 2016) will include more than 20 sessions on the circular economy – evidence that the concept is gaining traction at the highest level.
Two events on January 19, 2016 kick off the Meeting from a circular economy perspective:
• the launch of our major new research report on global plastics as part of Project Mainstream, a CEO-led collaboration between the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Company.
• announcement of The Circulars 2016 award winners – several CE100 member companies have been nominated.