Fueling Your Circular Economy Business Model Canvas

Circular economy is seen as a demanding change. Due to natural resource constraints, corporations are more inclined to move from a traditional, linear approach towards a circular one. But, as with all business transformation processes, not design or theory but execution is the hardest part. How can one move from an existing linear business model to a more circular one?

Masterclass "Jump-starting the Circular Economy"

On 18 February 2016, Finch & Beak & PRé Sustainability team up to host a Masterclass aimed at discovering how to transform the circular economy into a mainstream practice for sustainable innovation.

Biobased Coffee Capsules Are the Answer to Nespresso's "What Else?"

Global coffee consumption is still moving more and more towards specialty coffees and single-serve pod machines. The Nespresso coffee capsule system has become the worldwide standard for single served capsule systems. Every year around 15 billion of capsules are sold. Although the single served capsules are really convenient, it has one drawback: the aluminum and plastic they are made of, create a lot of waste.

Sekisui Inspires Youngsters to Drive Sustainable Change

Sekisui Chemical Company, the Japanese manufacturer of high quality polyolefin foams is very active in the field of sustainability. In 2007, when Sekisui celebrated its 60-year anniversary, it organized the first Global Children’s Eco Summit in Japan with children from all over the world, followed by regional events in Europe, North-America and Asia.The big idea behind the involvement of this specific stakeholder group is that they are very well equipped to be change agents for a sustainable future.

Sustainable Brands 2015: Three Key Takeaways

Last April, the premier global community of brand innovators, Sustainable Brands, organized its first live event in Spain, Barcelona. During a two-day conference international and national brands came together to share their challenges and successes in the journey towards delivering deeper customer value through sustainability. In case you were not able to attend the conference, here are our three key takeaways.

24 Ways to X-ray Your Customers in a Sustainable Fashion

Many companies around the globe are gradually evolving from CSR centered around communication and philanthropy towards a form of business integrated sustainability. As a result, more and more companies are making an effort to capture the hidden market opportunities in this new vicinity. Unfortunately, the opportunities do not present themselves that readily. Moreover, many organizations are using old maps to find new land by applying traditional market research methods that fail to focus on uncovering the correct sustainability drivers. But how can companies better research and unlock the innovation potential from material issues?

Sustainable Brands Live Event 2015 Barcelona, Spain

On 27 and 28 April Sustainable Brands organizes its live event in Europe's most innovative city, Barcelona. Successful brands are expected to deliver deeper customer value. Through better business models, smarter product design and the engagement of stakeholders in partnership, businesses will build on the better world of tomorrow. During the two-day congres, participants will collaborate on the theme of redesigning business success from sustainability. Leading brand innovators from all over the world are presented to share their knowledge and experiences.

3 Solutions to Tackle the Plastic Soup

Over the years the global community has spent more time admiring and talking about the great plastic waste problem than finding a solution. Luckily, a number of organizations has started to take matters in their own hands. They engage the right stakeholders, create a solution to address the problem and make a profit along the way, by re-engineering their business model and sustainable innovation.

How Leading Chemicals Companies Surpass Their Competition

For the case studies we wrote for IMD business school on Royal DSM, and the forthcoming case on Novozymes for INSEAD, Finch & Beak did a deep dive in the sustainability performance within of the chemicals sector. This has taught us that at least a few chemical companies are among the global community of corporate sustainability front runners, which sparked the question: what is the status of sustainability in the rest of the industry?

Umicore: the World’s Most Sustainable Company

The Canadian research institute Corporate Knights has named Umicore as the world’s most sustainable company. This is quite a feat, as Umicore used to have a rather unpopular image of a polluting company. With revenues of about €12.5 billion (2012), 14,600 employees, 77 industrial sites and 15 R&D centres in 34 countries, there is no doubt that Umicore is doing well. But what is the key to Umicore’s success and how did sustainable change led to value creation?