ViodiTV


From Linear to Circular at VERGE 2016


The focus on the circular economy at the Verge 2016 was really uplifting to Jason S. Trager Ph.D., Managing Partner of Sustainabilist. The circular economy is about considering how an output of one process can be an input to another with the goal of eliminating waste.

In a sense, the circular economy is about going back to the mindset of the depression-era generation who fixed things, instead of disposing and replacing. But, it is more than that, as it is also about building things to be repairable and re-usable. Prager also suggests that the shift to a circular from linear economy is about being users, instead of consumers.

He points out that one manifestation of this change is the so-called sharing economy, where people use resources when they need them, as opposed to owning resources and having them sit idle much of the time (e.g. music sharing, as opposed to owning Compact-Disks). As outlined in this McKinsey paper, an approach where the supplier “leases” an asset to a user is one where the supplier has an incentive to re-purpose said asset at what would traditionally be its end of life. Prager points out that this approach can improve corporate profits, while helping society by eliminating harmful externalities.

Along these lines, some of the VERGE 2016 highlights for Prager included:

One response to “From Linear to Circular at VERGE 2016”

  1. […] From Linear to Circular at VERGE 2016 […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.