Circular Hot Takes

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we start from the realities of a summer marked by extreme heat and ask what effective sustainability action actually looks like. We discuss the role of the circular economy in climate mitigation, the appeal of technological fixes, and whether tools such as AI can help us identify better choices — or simply make old patterns more efficient. The conversation then shifts to behaviour: people are often poor at judging which actions have the greatest environmental impact, and the most effective choices are not always the ones we find most attractive. So does sustainability have to feel like sacrifice? We explore whether circular and sustainable choices can instead become desirable because they are healthier, easier, more enjoyable, better designed or simply better products and services. From Marie Kondo and plant-based performance to natural wine, the question is whether the strongest sustainability strategies may be the ones people choose for reasons other than sustainability itself. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com — and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we are joined by Katherine Whalen, researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, host of the Getting in the Loop podcast and creator of two circular economy games. We explore what games can do that research papers often cannot: make complex systems tangible, memorable and engaging, while giving people a space to experiment with different choices and see what happens. Katherine takes us behind the development of In the Loop, a game about critical raw materials and circular economy, and Moving Planets, which gamifies the co-design of circular business models between companies and users. We discuss how games can support learning, influence behaviour, reveal preferences and become tools for research and business model innovation, and why good game design starts by being very clear about what you want people to experience and learn. We also connect gaming to experimentation more broadly and ask whether playing with possible futures can help companies make better circular choices in the real world. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com — and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.www.bdjpcircular.com

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we explore how circular business models can be designed, tested and improved in practice. We discuss design science research as a way of developing tools and frameworks iteratively with the people who will actually use them, and why experimentation matters when moving from promising ideas to workable solutions. Nancy Bocken and Ankita Das share examples including the Circular Rebound Tool, the Value Mapping Tool and regenerative business case databases, and we discuss how such tools can help companies identify unintended consequences, test assumptions and design better circular solutions. We also look at what happens when research tools leave academia and start being used, adapted and translated by practitioners, and why the shift from individual business models to circular ecosystems creates new design challenges around collaboration, partners and shared value creation. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com — and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we are joined by Dr. Laura Niessen-Wade from Maastricht University, an expert on sufficiency-based business models. We explore what sufficiency actually means and how it can play out in business, both in production and consumption. Drawing on Laura and Nancy Bocken’s How Can Businesses Drive Sufficiency? The Business for Sufficiency Framework, we discuss how businesses can encourage people to consume differently, consume less, or sometimes not consume at all, and what this means for products, services, growth and profitability. Patagonia, Tony’s Chocolonely and IKEA enter the conversation, while Lars Jacob talks about his daughter’s national dress, his record player and his espresso machine, and Paris Hilton makes an unexpected appearance as we dig into willingness and ability to pay. Ankita brings in a zoological perspective and draws parallels to regenerative business, Sveinung struggles with the idea of eating only until he is full and takes us to the World Cup, Morten Thorsby, We Play Green and Northern Playground, and Laura explains why she does not fly to Reykjavik, or anywhere else. We also ask whether sufficiency means sacrifice, whether it can be made attractive, how it relates to resilience and resource scarcity, and where sufficiency-based business models might emerge next. Finally, Lars Jacob brings out the crystal ball and asks Laura what the future of sufficiency might look like. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we turn to regeneration. What does it actually mean for a business to be regenerative — and does every company need to become one? We move beyond regenerative agriculture and explore what regeneration can mean for ecosystems, communities, employees, finance and the resources businesses depend on. We discuss regenerative finance, place-based responsibility, investing in ecosystems rather than individual firms, and why regeneration may make straightforward business sense when companies rely on healthy soils, communities, skills, water, biodiversity or other resources over time. We also ask whether the regenerative agenda risks setting the bar too high. The answer may be more pragmatic than it sounds: businesses do not have to regenerate everything at once, but they can start with concrete strategies, learn from others and gradually leave the systems they depend on in better shape than they found them. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com — and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.

In this episode of Circular Hot Takes, we go back to some of the ideas that helped make the circular economy easier to understand. Marking the tenth anniversary of the 2016 paper Product Design and Business Model Strategies for a Circular Economy, we revisit the logic of narrowing, slowing and closing resource loops—and how regeneration later became part of the picture. We look at where these ideas came from, how they helped connect environmental thinking with business and economics, and what the circular economy really boils down to. Why can simple design principles be so powerful, and how do they translate into products, business models and real-world decisions? We also explore what nature can teach us about efficiency, resilience and regeneration—and why some of the biggest circular business opportunities may lie in the inefficiencies of the supposedly efficient linear economy. Find out more at www.bdjpcircular.com — and feel free to send us questions, topics you think we should explore, or guests you’d like to hear on Circular Hot Takes.