17 innovations accelerating the transition to a circular economy

The world faces unprecedented challenges caused by our current approach to production and consumption. The resulting waste from plastic, textiles, food, electronics, and other industries has an enormous negative impact on the environment as well as on our overall health. In 2019, over 92 billion tonnes of materials were extracted and processed, contributing to almost half of global CO2 emissions. This underlines why the shift towards a circular economy, promoting the elimination of waste and the continual safe use of natural resources, is critical to forging a more sustainable future.

In an important move to catalyze ecosystem action on the circular economy, The Circulars Accelerator launched its very first cohort of circular innovators, Cohort ’21 in February. The Circulars Accelerator (an evolution of the highly successful Circulars Awards) is a bespoke, action-oriented program that supports trailblazing circular innovators across the globe to overcome their barriers to scale. It is led by Accenture, in partnership with Anglo American, Ecolab and Schneider Electric. The World Economic Forum and UpLink – a leading digital platform for scaling innovation and driving progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals – are key collaborators of this initiative.

Over the next few months, Accenture, along with partners and supporters, will provide the Cohort with support to scale their impact through advisory sessions, innovation coaching and through brokering introductions to leading experts and investors to further accelerate growth.

The 17 innovators constituting The Circulars Accelerator’s debut Cohort ’21 are driving sustainable innovation across geographies and industries:

Cohort ’21 have joined the growing community of UpLink innovators who are benefiting from collaborating through the platform. Beyond the Cohort’ 21, The Circulars is driving collaboration on circular economy across the ecosystem through the new Circulars Community Action Group on UpLink. Circular entrepreneurs are encouraged to join the Action Group and get involved in this dynamic community. This network enables innovators, experts and others to share solutions, ideas, and fresh perspectives to design for circularity, reduce waste, and transform production and consumption processes, to truly enable the creation of a regenerative global system over the coming decade, The Decade to Deliver.

Join the Circulars Community on UpLink today to access opportunities within the circular ecosystem and be a part of this critical conversation, at this crucial time.