The startup hope: Looking into the future for a ‘mainstream’ circular economy
Several startups are being started within the circular economy now — and we must let them set precedence for the future.
With all the current world news, it’s easy to feel a little lost on where we should store our hope for the future. The world oceans are warming up, the forests are burning, and in our pandemic-boredom many have resorted to doing even more online shopping than ever before. The garbage dumps of disappointing purchases are growing while the forests and the oceans seem farther away than ever before. The optimism for the future is gradually diminishing within many — which can be seen as quite remarkable as many of us were born in decades so characterised by their positive thinking: Every decade since the 1950s have had their own futuristic hopes. Arriving in the 2020s, it is evident we need new hopes urgently.
With our online-fuelled knowledge that there is still room for improvement, there are also (probably millions) ideas for what can be innovated. But where to begin, and what cause needs us the most? In recent years, there has been a growing understanding that nature is changing — and to a rapid degree. We are for example facing mass-extinctions on a broad scale. It is something which might not seem as intimidating at first, when you look at the nature you see in nature shows and your own backyard, or while hiking in the mountains. And yet, ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ makes it hard for us all to imagine the immense worth of nature and species that have been lost before our time — so instead, we end up basing our understanding on the current ecosystems. Seeing one single butterfly while on a nature walk is admittedly a poor substitute for seeing the butterfly swarms our own grandparents saw in their youth.
So what can be done? Taking on the task of saving ecosystems can seem daunting, and it will be easier (and potentially also more rewarding) to start out implementing changes that add a clear positive value right away. And that leaves us — the consumers of goods — with great power, given that the right services are in place.
LOOP at Oslo Innovation Week
At Oslo Innovation Week 2020, the circular economy initiative LOOP held a live-streamed webinar at the Startup Campus in the city centre of Oslo. With a community and a mindset tuned in to making lasting change, LOOP hopes to help startups and corporations create sustainable solutions for the future. The organization is based in four countries: Antrop (Sweden), Avanto Ventures (Finland), Agens (Norway), ArtRebels (Denmark), and Startup Norway (Norway). Startup Norway has joined this project together with Agens to work on a Nordic level to support more companies going circular.
At the live-streamed webinar, five startups got to present their innovation to the panel at the event: Virginia Vegas from Startup Norway, Marthe Haugland from Nordic Innovation, and Peter Lizamore from Agens. The five startups having talks at the event were EAT GRIM, Grin, Sharetribe, VERANDI, and Renewcell.
The Danish startup EAT GRIM aims to make us choose — and eat — food that usually are deemed ‘too ugly’ for consumption, such as an odd-looking carrot or potato. The Copenhagen-based company turns food that would normally be lost in today’s food supply chain into delicious products and services for people and food businesses. EAT GRIM’s proud team works hard to create a vision of a more diverse and transparent food system.
For the Norwegian startup Grin, recycling is at their heart: They develop the shopping bag ‘Panteposen’ (Deposit-bag), closely based on the return services for plastic bottles. The concept is that every customer using a Panteposen will be rewarded if they return the bag to the store after they have used it, so that others will get to use it too. (Rather than using the plastic bag in the wastebin at home.) Grin also works to develop a return system for medical equipment, with the intention that patients can return the equipment once it has been used (so it can be cleaned and made ready for reuse).
The Finnish startup Sharetribe’s marketplace software and platform expertise take you where you want to go. From idea to launch, profitability to growth, and beyond. Sharetribe has helped build successful marketplaces for over a decade. Everything they have learned is available to the user through Sharetribe’s books, blog, and expert support. Among Sharetribe’s services, there are the web design tools Sharetribe Go and Sharetribe Flex.
The Icelandic startup VERANDI is a producer of high-quality hair and body products made from recycled materials from the Icelandic food industry, agriculture, and other natural environmental friendly materials. They use ingredients such as cucumbers, coffee, beer and barley — which also do wonders for the skin and hair. The recycled ingredients play the main role in each product and are complemented with other environmental friendly ingredients to make the best product for your skin and hair. VERANDI wants to move from the linear economy of “take, make, consume and dispose” to an circular economy of “reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling” resources.
The Swedish startup Renewcell has their goal set on making fashion sustainable. They work with turning used cotton and viscose into new biodegradable pulp, new fibers, new yarn, new fabrics and new garments that can be produced and worn with a clear conscience. If one kilo of clothing is recycled instead of being produced from virgin sources, it saves thousands of liters of water and decreases emissions of both CO2 and chemicals.
The role of startups
So what is the ambition of initiatives like LOOP, and why should we invest our hopes in startups? Well, because they are among the places where action is being taken, and change do happen. Starting out by changing something on a small scale can have much more powerful implications than trusting the governments and international unions to do the same. The Amazonas rainforest is for example an ancient garden — planted and cultivated by families and communities during “8,000 years of indigenous agriculture.”
It is evident that starting small makes all the difference, when compared to not starting at all.
While writing this article, I was presented with a short story based on a novel by Loren Eiseley: The Star Thrower. Although it is not about a startup, it is about the power we have over our own actions. On a day-to-day basis, every small action shape what we get to experience: Choosing circular startups and innovation carries much of the same ripple effect. A consistent choice might not make the difference this week, but imagine the change in one year — or a decade.
The Star Thrower
One morning, an old man was walking slowly along the beach. He was picking his way between thousands of starfish stranded on the sand. In the distance he saw a young girl. Again and again the girl bent down, stood up and threw something into the sea. Was it a new kind of exercise? As he got closer, he saw that the girl was throwing starfish back into the sea, one after the other.
“Young one,” the old man said. “Why are you doing this?”
“The tide is going out,” she explained.
“The starfish won’t survive unless I return them to the sea.
” The old man laughed. “But there are thousands of starfish on this beach. You are wasting your time. You can’t possibly make a difference.”
At first the girl looked hurt, then thoughtful. She paused. Then she bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the water. Standing up straight, she looked up at the old man and said, “I made a difference to that one!”
— Based on The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley —
And so it is with The Star Thrower story that the moral of this article perhaps is most clearly revealed:
“Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
