Realising our intrinsic wealth with the circular economy.

Last week we had the pleasure of donating a decent number of We Are Acuity laptops to our dear friends at local #charity Goods For Good. TBH they’d been lying unloved around the office, & I hadn’t been totally sure what to do with them.

Technical advice from our IT team is a laptop has served its purpose after only about 3 years. But I find the idea of landfill for something like this totally abhorrent. Such a waste, especially when 85% of the carbon emitted from a laptop is during production.

So in a flurry of spring cleaning, we wiped, updated & made a call to Rosalind Bluestone MBE. I was expecting to find either nobody wanted them, or that there was some legislation saying they couldn’t be re-used. But to my delight our donation was accepted with open arms & some mild whooping! Apparently, they have some vulnerable groups already in mind for these machines.

This is the #circulareconomy in all it’s wonderful glory. If you haven’t heard of it before, a circular economy entails markets that give incentives to reusing products, rather than scrapping them & then extracting new resources.
 
In such an economy, all forms of waste, such as clothes, scrap metal and obsolete electronics, are returned to the economy or used more efficiently. This can provide a way to not only protect the environment, but use natural resources more wisely, develop new sectors, create jobs, and develop new capabilities.
 
In our current economy, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, & eventually throw them away as waste – the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place. A circular economy isn’t anti-trade and industry. In fact, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says, “the goods of today are the resources of tomorrow at yesterday's resource prices”.
 
The amazing work that Goods For Good do is all part of the circular economy. Working with donations from companies like Next, Nike, Boots UK, UNIQLO & communities or individuals. From overstock, to new, pre-loved or 2nd hand goods they ensure this is delivered as aid where it’s suitable & needed in an ethical, thoughtful, legal, transparent, positive way. It’s truly brilliant.

But that’s only one part of the circular economy as there’s so much more to it. Thought leaders are The Ellen MacArthur Foundation which works to accelerate our transition to a circular economy. Through design, they aim to eliminate waste & pollution, circulate products & materials, & regenerate nature, creating an economy that benefits people, business, & the natural world.

What’s not to like? I’ll post a brilliant video of the Foundation’s work in the comments.

Many global companies certainly think this is the way to go. New partners & members in #2023 include Arup, Unilever, Essity, Jaguar Land Rover, Tapestry, Tetra Pak, CARBIOS, Danfoss, Haleon, Macy's, Under Armour & UniCredit.

Good for our planet doesn’t have to mean bad for business…if you're a brand invested in the circular economy, like us, we would love to hear from you, get in touch with We Are Acuity today for a chat by clicking HERE.

Or if you'd like to read more about Local Marketing have a look at our blog page "Local Thinking': https://www.weareacuity.com/local-thinking-our-blog