Circular Stories

07/01/2022

New article on the Circular Stories’ website!

The oceans are an incredible source of life, hosting between 50% and 80% of all life on Earth and producing half of the oxygen on the planet. Its ecosystems are essential for the survival of millions of people and yet, they have been heavily disrupted by human activity.

ReefSystems addresses this issue, designing coastal and maritime solutions to protect our coasts and make our cities greener while providing shelter to fish throughout their migration route.

Learn more about the amazing work of Max Dijkstra and Jesse De Bont on our website!

https://circularstories.org/reefsystems/

ReefSystems: Bringing life back to the oceans Preserving an essential ecosystem While the Amazonian forest is often considered the lungs of the planet, this title actually belongs to the oceans. Marine ecosystems are responsible for at least 50% of the Earth’s oxygen, with planktons and algae bein...

31/12/2021

As 2021 comes to an end, we wanted to reflect on everything that happened in the last 12 months. This year has been challenging for all of us, but Circular Stories still had the chance of working on amazing projects, with amazing people.

From entrepreneurs that are entirely rethinking products, offices, spaces, wonderful vegan pastries, or changing the perspectives of new generations. We got to help circular entrepreneurs share their passion, and bring a positive change across widely different industries.

Circular Stories had the pleasure of contributing to the success of amazing events and we also published the stories of fascinating sustainable actors bringing the doughnut economy model to life in their region, or frontrunners that give a real circular meaning to what we currently call waste.

Our team got to experience truly moving moments with Marielle becoming a mother for the first time and our first team get-together after more than a year.

We got to meet countless creative entrepreneurs from many different countries and backgrounds. Despite the challenges we all faced in the last two years, there are still so many people who share the drive to innovate and make the world a greener place. We will be there next year to tell their stories!

Thank you all of you for this amazing year!

24/12/2021

Happy holidays from the Circular Stories team!

23/11/2021

🏆 The circular awards are back! As part of the 2022 Dutch Circular Week, all sustainable SME’s and initiators of circular projects can sign up for the 2022 edition of the circular awards. This event organized by Versnellingshuis Nederland circulair!
and Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat aims to showcase the work of companies and individuals who are bringing an end to linear economic thinking.

🥇The jury panel and the public will deliver the awards to the most impactful and innovative ideas. These awards are a great opportunity to inspire and get inspired by other sustainable companies while reaching a wide audience of circular actors, be it partners or investors.

Holland Circular Hotspot will also present the award winners to their international partners as examples of the Dutch circular successes of the year.
You have until the 10th of December to apply so waste no time and create some noise for your circular projects!
Sign up and get more information about the award right here:
👉 https://lnkd.in/gwWe_fv

Welkom bij de Week van de Circulaire Economie

06/10/2021

Some stories are too good not to be told. Circular Stories helped Betteries tell theirs.

While electric cars are without a doubt more sustainable than gas cars, there remains the issue of end-of-life management. In some cases, electric car batteries still have 70% of their capacity at the end of the car’s life. Rainer Hoenig and Ralf Shroeder saw this as a great circular opportunity. At Betteries, they upcycle car batteries, turning them into mobile and multi-purpose power sources. Betteries offer batteries that can supply multiple types of electric appliances and provide a more affordable power solution to their customers by renting the batteries instead of selling them. In this way, Betteries has fully embraced the circular economic model and is a great example of how to close the loop on complex products.

If you are a circular business owner, entrepreneur, or innovator with great sustainable ideas and need help reach your audience, be it, investors or customers, Circular Stories is here to help!

29/09/2021

Circular Stories helps purpose-focused businesses like Orbisk develop a strong communication strategy and tell their circular story to clients and investors!

Food waste is a massive issue in the restaurant industry. It is estimated that up to 10% of the food in restaurants is wasted before it reaches the customer’s plate while 17% of the food being served is also left untouched. Orbisk aims to put an end to this environmental disaster, helping restaurants cut down food waste and better manage their supply chain. Orbisk’s food waste monitor generates insights into which specific products are thrown away through recognition software and how much overall food is wasted on a daily basis. This allows restaurants to know which products are discarded the most and to track their overall progress in waste management, cutting down their costs and environmental footprint.

If you are an entrepreneur and need help sharing how you contribute to the circular economy, reach out to us and we’ll make it happen!

23/09/2021

Finding a balance between protecting the environment and ensuring societal needs has been a point of discourse since the first time sustainability was introduced into economic thinking. The doughnut economy framework aims to address this issue, helping entrepreneurs build profitable businesses within planetary boundaries.

Currently, Curaçao has been at the forefront of circular thinking, utilizing the doughnut economy framework to regenerate the economy on the island in a sustainable manner.

Amazing work is being done by multiple actors from sustainable platforms like BPM - Curaçao Business Platform for Sustainability
Curaçao Doughnut Economy or Curaçao Data Driven, social enterprises like Green Phenix, purpose-driven entrepreneurs like Andrew Kirchner, Sharon Lieuw-Sjong or research experts like TNO or University of Curaçao.

Read the article written by Juan-Carlos Goilo, the senior information specialist at Gemeente Amsterdam about the different projects on the Circular Stories website!

https://circularstories.org/doughnut_economy_curacao/

Nine ways for circular businesses to set up shop on the island of Curaçao The island of Curaçao is about to embark on a great journey that will make its economy flourish for many years to come. Do you want to know what is happening and how they are designing their future? On March 24th of

10/09/2021

Consider Sustainability (capitalized) as an umbrella consisting of the vision set out by the Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Any activity or process that strives to meet this vision has a place under this umbrella.

08/09/2021

Circular Stories set the goal to work with businesses like GreenPay to help them formulate their story and build a strong communication strategy around their circular objectives!

Karel Lammers founded GreenPay, after realizing that second-hand markets should not be limited to clothes or furniture. Most products from electric bikes to streetlights still have value after their owners don’t see a use for it anymore.

GreenPay is a financial payment system that aims to bring this value back to the economy, by offering buyback guarantees to consumers who send their goods back to the seller, and thus helping manufacturers recuperate and resell the goods they produce. If you are a business struggling to find sustainable products or you want to become fully circular by including a financial buyback system, the GreenPay platform might very well be the first place to check out!

If you want to find your brand story, promote your circular business and show the world how you contribute to a more sustainable future, reach out to Circular Stories and we’ll make it happen!

06/09/2021

Start with the “why” and people will listen to the rest of your story. This is Simon Sinek’s message to aspiring leaders.

Especially in circular business, where values and principles are the pillars of your company, having a strong rationale is the best way to build trust and long-term collaboration with partners.

Your core beliefs will be drivers of a great business story and a giant leap towards circular success!

03/09/2021

Have you ever heard of Repair Cafés? They are community-based gatherings revolved around repairing everyday items from laptops to furniture or bicycles.

Too often, we consider broken products as disposable. Even for expensive items, the habit of looking into repairing instead of buying new is not as common as it should be. Repair cafés fight against this habit!

The idea is to motivate visitors to bring in broken products and have experts or handy volunteers help fix them! That way, people get to realize the value that’s still in their products and move from a Buy/Use/Dispose mindset to a Buy/Use/Repair one!

01/09/2021

The next edition of the is right around the corner, so make some space on your agenda!

On September 13th, 14th, and 15th, multiple speakers from academia, as well as key decision-makers will share their vision of circularity and discuss a variety of sustainable challenges from plastic production to the ecological transition.

Circular Stories had the pleasure of filming webinars for the WCEF+Climate with speakers from Holland Circular Hotspot, Springtide back in April. The WCEF September edition organized by the Canadian government as well as the Finish innovation fund Sitra promises to be as exciting and inspiring!

So don’t wait too long and sign up for the September Session right here!
https://www.wcef2021fmec.com/info/

31/08/2021

Circular Stories helps companies just like ENJAY who find ways to make their industry move towards circularity and need help telling their story!

ENJAY was founded by Jesper Wirén who saw a huge energy loss problem in restaurants.

In most restaurant kitchens, the work of the chefs and cooks creates a lot of heat that cannot be converted back into energy by standard heat exchangers. ENJAY’s team worked on this issue and offered a new system able to capture the energy from kitchens and return it to other operations of the business, helping restaurant cut energy costs and their carbon footprint!

If you want to promote your circular business and show the world how you contribute to a more sustainable future, reach out to us and we’ll make it happen!”

30/08/2021

Storytelling marketing means using a narrative to communicate a message. The aim is to make the viewer feel something – enough that it'll inspire them to take action.

Storytelling in marketing helps consumers to understand why they should care about something, and it works to humanize your brand.

Why is this important?

You are not selling a product, you are selling a story;

People tend to pay more for a good story because they pay for the idea and the story.

You can use it many times and in multiple ways and content to communicate about your brand.

What are you waiting for? Start writing your story today and we will help you communicate it tomorrow.

27/08/2021

Exact een jaar geleden hebben we samen met MissPublicity Marketing & PR ons eerste event georganiseerd in destijds het 'nieuwe normaal'. Wij willen ontmoeten, ontdekken en verbinden en dus waren we heel blij dat we een get together van gelijkgestemden konden organiseren!

Bij Miss Publicity wordt dat al jaren gedaan door het organiseren van mooie PR evenementen en activaties voor betekenisvolle merken. Circular Stories richt zich met haar activiteiten specifiek op een niche groep: duurzame en circulaire ondernemers die op zoek zijn naar strategische alignment zoals internal branding als het aanboren van belangrijke nieuwe en bestaande PR netwerken in de circulaire wereld. No wonder dat we samen een evenement wilden organiseren om onze netwerken bij elkaar te brengen.

En dat gaan we hopelijk snel weer doen! Welke circulaire ondernemers zullen we hier de volgende keer in betrekken? Let us know!

Want naar een circulaire wereld ga je niet alleen, dat doen met elkaar.

26/08/2021

➡ With all the innovations and strategies going around to close loops we sometimes seem to forget what we are actually doing.

👍 One of the underestimated strategies in our opinion is still reusing materials to make new products because it reduces the need for virgin materials.

🔁 Reusing products avoids greenhouse gas emissions associated with extracting and mining virgin material, and allows you to save on energy, transport, and material processing costs.
You are thus doing both the environment and your company wallet a favor!

25/08/2021

“Variety is the spice of life”

This is Terence Speyer’s message to entrepreneurs willing to make the jump towards circular business models.
In an interview for Circular Stories he underlines the importance of international partnerships.

Understanding different perspectives on sustainable problems faced in multiple regions of the world, be it social or environmental, can be an amazing starting point for businesses to know where, and how they can have a positive impact.

Read about his mission as a senior commercial attaché at the Dutch Embassy in London right here!

https://circularstories.org/interview-dutch-embassy-london/

24/08/2021

Wanna have a Video Brand Story, just like Jan Jaap? Book a shoot here: https://lnkd.in/d9Z_KDg

We asked Jan Jaap how it was to work with us and this is what he answered:

🙌 🎥 "I do now have a professional video to introduce my company and have used it a lot in international seminars, pitches, and presentations. So happy we now have this.
Working with Circular Stories was a pleasure. In times where we are at the beginning of big changes, storytelling is very important to engage people and get people moving. As no other Circular Stories is able to understand the need for a change to a circular economy and hence to develop the right story with us."

Thank you, Jan Jaap Folmer! 🖖

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3zHnA0uD5s

20/08/2021

Michel Scholte fights against "impact illiteracy" and, together with Adrian de Groot Ruiz, he is the initiator behind True Price, a company that gives a real price to products such as jeans or bread.

“The language of social impact must be as fluent as the financial language”

Why this is important? If you calculate the real price, the costs for the environment and society are also calculated there. And you need that to be able to pay for the consequences now and in the future that many linear products entail.

In a circular economy, we assume maximum value creation for everyone. If you can't offer that, you have to make choices. For example, to really do it differently.

18/08/2021

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little”

Amazingly, a quote from a Greek philosopher that is over 2200 years old still resonates with today’s circular challenges.

Sanne Kaasjager, the economic counselor at the Dutch embassy of Warsaw chose this citation to describe in an interview for Circular Stories, his attitude towards his sustainable goals for Poland.

In the article, he talks in detail about the state of circular projects in the country, the cultural shift towards a more responsible lifestyle, as well as the struggles of reaching circular goals for Polish start-ups.

Want to know more? Find the article right here!
https://circularstories.org/interview-dutch-embassy-poland1-eng/

17/08/2021

📅 New dates coming in!

We will be filming Circular entrepreneurs - maybe you! - on the 21st of October.

We still have some space for the 16th of September.

For more info and registration 👉 https://circularstories.org/videobrandstory/

16/08/2021

Show them what you've got!
And Start Practicing!

🔥 Nothing is more exciting than recording your own video. Even if it's for a vlog, or like we do with a professional shoot and edit, it's always a bit scary. 😅

😍 Therefore, a few tips for you to practice so that you are well prepared for the day:
# Shoot a steady video (no walking)
# Produce Creative Shots
# Practice Widescreen Videos
# Avoid Unnecessary White Noise
# Check The Light Outdoors
# Check The Light Indoors
# Position Lights for the Look You Want
# Compose Your Shoot, know what you want to say!

Gooooood luck 💪✨

11/08/2021

Circular companies focus on the fact that the planet can only produce a finite amount of natural resources. But to be truly circular should organisations not also acknowledge that the human body can only produce a finite amount of energy? Shouldn't we invest this energy in productive, innovative and rewarding activities instead of wasting it on office policies, infighting etc.?

We are looking for testimonials of new ways of management, such as salary transparency, inclusion, human first philosophy etc., to make ourselves, Circular Stories, better but also to be able to share it with our circular entrepreneurs community!

Any recommendations? Find ours in the comment section.

10/08/2021

✍️ When redesigning to a circular product, you as a company and entrepreneur have to think carefully about the various parties involved that you need to attract to make this possible.

✨Because you want to create equal value for everyone.

🔥 Various models have been made for this, which show you what your value proposition is for your customers, as for all other stakeholders.

😍 We call this multiple value creation and we have published an article about it together with Jan Jonker and Niels Faber.

🤩 In a circular economy it is about value for many.

🌀 In a circular economy you will sometimes also have to make many different redesigns for these different stakeholders, because they are all a bit different.

🤗 But that's not a bad thing, right?

04/08/2021

📖 🧠 In her book "How Network Governance Powers the Circular Economy" Jacqueline Cramer states that "In all kinds of practices, frontrunners emerge and demonstrate that the circular economy is in reach. These stand-alone initiatives add up to a movement that grows in size and strength, particularly when they join forces. Network governance can facilitate this process."

🌐 💪 Today, we would like to test the power of our own network! So, dear Facebook friends, if you know sustainable entrepreneurs who are eager to share their company story.ies but have no time nor budget for it? Mention them in the comment section and we will contact them for a short itw.

03/08/2021

✍️ Storytelling…🙄 everyone seems to be doing something with it and finding something about it.

😅 A good marketer should also be a good storyteller. And between all that bla bla of stories you no longer know what it really is about.

🧐 Storytelling isn't about storytelling, of course. It's about the story it is telling.

😇Your story. Your products story. The one that you want to share with the world.

✨ Good marketing however goes hand in hand with good storytelling!

🤩 And companies in the circular economy by definition have good stories. At least we think so.

🔥 Because if you think about it thorough-fully, every product within a circular value chain already has a story from a previous life or provides input for the next life.

👍 And that's where great stories come from!

29/07/2021

📈 Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when our worldwide demand for ecological resources and services in the given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that 12-month period.

🆘 To be short: if this would be your pantry, then you were having serious problems; you consumed everything and all shops are closed for the rest of the year. Aiaiaiai, that’s bad news...

‼️ More bad news: because today, unfortunately, is that day. For the rest of 2021, the pantry is empty and we are living at the expense of future generations.

♻️ The good news: Our past doesn’t need to determine our future—there are other options and solutions to .

🌀There are multiple things you can do today to make up and change your behavior so you can influence the date next year.

28/07/2021

What are you doing on the 26th of August?

We will be filming entrepreneurs willing to share their story.ies!

Book your shooting day via this link: https://circularstories.org/videobrandstory/

26/07/2021

Imagine a world…

✨ It is always good to start with that simple sentence, when you are working on your first video.
👉 You are a startup in the beginning phase of your existence. You have great ideas, interesting vision and now you need partners and clients on board.

🧐 They first need to believe in you before they buy you.

✍️ Paint the picture and take them by the hand into your world and visualize what it can do for them.

🙏🏻 When your are on the same page, you can start to create your story together.

24/07/2021

✋ Pre-consumer waste is a material that was discarded before it was ready for consumer use.
👉 It means the reintroduction of manufacturing scrap (such as trimmings from paper production, or these denim fabric leftovers from a clothes factory.) back into the manufacturing process.
✍️ It is commonly used in manufacturing industries, and is often not considered recycling in the traditional sense.
💪 but taking in consideration that this was normally labeled as waste, there is a huge impact we can still make!