Startups Powering the Shift Towards a Circular Economy

Published in

Metta

8 min readNov 3, 2023

Driving the transition to circularity through innovative technologies and new business models.

Applying my learnings from Circular Economy Management (CEM) from the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability (EIIS), in this blog series on sustainability & regeneration, I’ll be exploring how circularity is making an impact on traditional business models, mapping the startups that are building innovative solutions and exploring case studies from industry.

In this blog, we’ll explore 5 startups that are making an impact across 5 different industries: textiles, construction, water management, energy efficiency and waste management.

—

Startups in Circular Economy

Following our introduction to circular economy, I wanted to explore the role of startups in this space. At their core, startups reimagine how things are done by leveraging #innovation, technology, and bringing fresh perspectives. It feels fitting to tackle challenges in circularity where we need to rethink traditional business models for a more sustainable future. Solutions in this space include the reduction, reuse, and recycling of resources to create a more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient economy. These startups are not only addressing environmental concerns, but are also capturing new market opportunities by offering solutions that cater to consumers increasingly integrating sustainability into their daily lives — by actively seeking #eco-conscious and #sustainable products and services.

This is also the moment for startups to thrive given the introduction of sustainability mandates in Europe. First, environmental regulations and sustainability standards are having an impact on businesses of all sizes. In March 2020, the European Commission adopted the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). It is a key part of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth.

—

Transition to a Circular Economy

The EU’s transition to a circular economy (CE) will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. According to a study by the Ellen McArthur Foundation and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, CE could generate a net economic benefit of $1.8 trillion by 2030, with the potential to create over 100,000 jobs in the EU alone. This transition is also a prerequisite to achieving the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss.

—

How are startups supporting the shift to a circular economy?

There are many overlapping characteristics between what the circular economy needs and how entrepreneurs operate, including:

Innovation: CE leverages emerging technologies and relies on unconventional approaches and out-of-the box thinking, just like entrepreneurs
Market disruption: CE challenges existing industries to reevaluate their practices and become more sustainable, just like startups
A new way of operating: Many emerging startups are promoting environmental responsibility and driving sustainable innovation.

There are great resources like the Circular Startup Index that show which startups are supporting the shift to a circular economy or working with businesses to make their models more circular. There are also industry-specific platforms such as Good On You in the fashion space that map impact on three overarching areas: people, the planet, and animals.

Let’s take a look at 5 brilliant startups that are making an impact across the following different industries:

Textiles
Construction
Water management
Energy efficiency
Waste management

—

Textiles: Vividye 🇸🇪

“We make printed fabrics part of the recycling loop, instead of being a part of endless landfills. Our groundbreaking technology makes it possible for anyone and everyone who uses printed fabrics to lessen their waste and reduce their carbon footprint. We need to close loops. Not open new ones. And for long, the textile industry has been wrestling the fact that so little is being recycled. In Europe alone, only 1% of textiles are being recycled.”

The main aim of circular economy in the fashion industry is to minimize waste, reduce the consumption of raw materials, and extend the lifespan of clothing and textiles. Textiles also play a key role as the production is resource-intensive and can involve the heavy use of water, pesticides, and energy. Vividye have developed a completely new production technology for circular textile printing.

Due to the processes involved, screen printing uses an average of around 50–60 litres of water per metre. Textile production alone is estimated to be responsible for around 20% of global clean water pollution. Vividye’s resource-efficient dyeing technology, makes it possible to remove old designs and print new ones on fabric, and to colour the same garment over and over again, without doing any harm to the textile fibres.

Vividye were semi-finalists in the European Social Innovation Competition and participants in the Women TechEU program. They’ve recently launched their latest new EU Project Partnership: the RegioGreenTex Project.

—

Construction: Material Mapper 🇳🇴

Material Mapper is an AI-powered forecasting tool for locating reusable construction materials. Their platform provides insights into which buildings are to be demolished, rebuilt and newly built and shows the data on waste and CO2 savings.

In today’s context of climate change and resource conservation, the construction industry is ripe for innovation and growth. The integration of data analytics and real-time monitoring allows for smarter, more informed decision-making, leading to safer and more sustainable construction practices. Material Mapper is able to tell where, when, what types and what quantities of building materials will result from demolished buildings at a given time.

The CEAP outlines strategies to reduce the environmental impact of construction and demolition waste. This includes measures to promote the reuse and recycling of construction materials, as well as the reduction of waste in construction projects. Material Mapper is on a mission to help municipalities, building developers, and architects and constructors with material reuse and save the landfills from construction waste. Their platform shows available re-use reports in addition to estimates of the materials these buildings consist of — reusable materials from demolitions, material amounts from renovations, amounts of excess materials from new buildings.

—

Water Management: Hydraloop 🇳🇱

“Hydraloop empowers people and organizations to save water and energy by offering smart and affordable water recycling products. We believe that water recycling should become a standard item in every single home, just like a fridge, oven or washing machine.”

The vast majority of Earth’s water, approximately 97%, is in the form of saltwater, making it unsuitable for human consumption or most terrestrial life. This saline water exists in our planet’s oceans and seas. In contrast, the remaining 3% is freshwater, which is theoretically drinkable, but much of it is inaccessible, making it challenging to obtain for essential human consumption.

Launched in 2017, Hydraloop empowers people and companies to save water and energy with smart and affordable water recycling products. The system recycles 85% of all the water used in a home or building by disinfecting shower, bath, and washing machine water to reuse for toilet flushing, washing machines, gardens, or swimming pools. Hydraloop helps households and organisations produce 45% less waste water.

It was a pleasure to speak to Sabine during one of our EIIS modules about how her and her husband Arthur Valkieser started Hydraloop from their garage, hearing about the success of their global launch in 2020 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where the team won ‘Best of Innovation’, how they have grown the business since and their ambitions for the future.

—

Energy Efficiency: Enode 🇳🇴

Enode is accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy system by connecting and optimizing the world’s energy devices.

One of the central principles of the circular economy is to minimize resource and energy waste throughout the entire lifecycle of products and materials. By using resources more efficiently and reducing waste, energy consumption can be lowered, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a smaller ecological footprint.

Enode helps energy companies connect energy devices (e.g. EVs, solar, batteries and thermostats) to their apps, so that its users can access their live data and controls, and optimise their energy consumption. It’s building digital infrastructure for a connected and sustainable energy system.

The Y-Combinator alum has created over 400+ integrations with EVs, home chargers, heat pumps, solar panels and more, with a whole range of companies using Enode’s API including Northe (electric vehicles) and AmpX (grid edge digital energy platform). Enode has also entered into a partnership with TotalEnergies, one of the world’s leading energy companies.

—

Waste Management: Resourcify 🇩🇪

Resourcify’s solution focuses on digitizing the end-of-life process and journey, enabling companies to achieve a circular economy by optimizing recycling, reducing waste, and promoting a more holistic approach to resource management.

Resourcify is on a mission to enable a zero-waste future. Through the digitisation of daily operations, their recycling platform enables all businesses to manage, track, and improve their recycling while having less administration, and saving up to 40% of the costs compared to conventional waste management.

Waste management is not just about disposing of waste but is an integral part of resource conservation and sustainable resource management. It helps to close material loops, reduce environmental impacts, and create a more sustainable and efficient system for managing resources and products throughout their life cycles.

Resourcify has processed over 500,000 tonnes of waste via their platform, and plans to further increase the CO2 savings for its clients and the environment. The company has entered into a partnership with Interzero, Europe’s leading circular service provider.

—

How can we scale circular economy innovation across industries?

While change starts with all of us, it is the cash-rich entities who can significantly change the narrative around how business is done - that is large organisations, corporates and government. Existing regulations and policies present hurdles to adoption of circular economy as they may not always align with or support CE practices so advocacy is key. Similarly, circular economy brings a layer of complexity to supply chains as it involves collecting, processing, and repurposing materials so necessary resources and systems need to be in place to mitigate operational issues.

To scale circular economy innovation across industries, startups will need to find the right partners, get an inside look at existing supply chains and infrastructure to make the necessary shift. It’s an exciting time to build in this space and many more startups will emerge!

Thank you to the EIIS team, Philippa Grogan from Eco-Age for her insights into the fashion industry and to Sabine Stuiver for sharing her journey creating and scaling Hydraloop.

For more information about Metta and the work we do, head to our website. Check out our podcast Metta Talks to hear the latest about startups, innovation, and sustainability. The team is also on Twitter — reach out to us @mettatalks.

Check out some of our other articles —

Want to learn more about Metta? Let’s talk 🗣

Ksenia Kurileva — ksenia@metta.partners | linkedin.com/in/kseniakurileva/