Author name: Tim Zebahl

The CIRCLTR project has successfully demonstrated that leather style luxury goods can be designed, produced, and maintained within a circular and regenerative system.

Toern is a Hamburg-based start-up that provides an end-to-end returns platform for fashion e-commerce retailers. Customers upload photos, and a software checks the item automatically. If predefined criteria are met, the item is relisted in the original shop at a discounted price for the next buyer and for a limited time. Once a new buyer is found, the item is shipped directly from the first customer to the next (peer-to-peer forwarding).

Packaging materials are often not particularly environmentally friendly. Especially, when it comes to cushioning products to prevent breakage, materials such as Styrofoam are frequently used, which are barely biodegradable or not at all. The company PROSERVATION has developed a material made from grain waste that can replace environmentally harmful packaging materials. This new material is called RECOU and must first be shaped using negative molds. These negative molds are currently not made from the ideal material. They cannot be used very often and lack recycability potential.

Tsenso equips food crates with small temperature sensors to ensure that the cold chain between the manufacturer and the retailer remains unbroken and the products stay fresh. The sensors are battery-powered and have a lifespan of at least one year. Currently, retailers dispose of the sensors as soon as the goods are received. As a result, thousands of fully functional battery-powered sensors are regularly discarded after a single use. Eventually, Tsenso tries to establish a take-back and re-use system for electronic sensors.

A Hungarian company tested if the “waste” heat generated by gym users may be used as the primary energy source for water heating, creating a closed-loop energy cycle.  They found out that they can reduce their external electricity consumption by nearly 75%.

The German company transforms recycles plastic from the oceans back to the original pure material and uses it to produce pallets. Within their Up2Circ project they explored possibilities for a take-back system to keep their pallets as long as possible in use.

The German company seeks to establish a Membrane-as-a-service model in hydrogen production. The project strengthens sustainable and circular production as well as European resilience and independence.

The Berlin-based company transformed their business model from a linear interior design towards a production on-demand from sustainable wood and with regional production.

Exhibition booth construction leads to a lot of waste and inefficiency. Every exhibitor seeks a booth on site that should be unique and
individual. siebold/hamburg developed a trade-fair stand design in line with circular economy principles. An exhibition booth with as less waste as possible and with the smallest possible carbon footprint.