The circular economy is an innovative approach to resource management that aims to minimize waste and maximize the use of resources by keeping them in a continuous cycle of use and reuse.
In a traditional linear economy, resources are extracted, processed, used, and then discarded as waste.
This linear model is unsustainable and contributes significantly to climate change.
In contrast, the circular economy promotes a system where products and materials are designed for durability, repairability, and recyclability.
It emphasizes strategies such as recycling, reusing, remanufacturing, and sharing, reducing the need for extracting new resources and minimizing waste generation.
By adopting circular economy principles, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve natural resources, and mitigate the environmental impact of our consumption patterns.
Circular Business Association (C-BASS) is a registered association based in Malaysia that is dedicated to accelerating the transition to a profitable circular economy ecosystem.
Recognizing the urgent need to address climate change and foster sustainable business practices, C-BASS aims to bring together a comprehensive network of solution providers, vendors, suppliers, and talent to support companies in their transition to the circular economy.
C-BASS focuses on increasing sales revenue and customer base for circular economy players, fostering joint product development and bundling, and working with regulators to implement policies that expedite the transition.
Through its platform, C-BASS actively collaborates with its members and the wider community to promote sustainable business practices and build a thriving circular economy that benefits both businesses and the environment.
Following is an interview with C-BASS Chairperson, Lijin Chin.
How does Circular Business Association contribute to accelerating the transition to a circular economy ecosystem?
CBASS, pronounced as C-Base, is how we fondly refer to Circular Business Association.
The term ‘Bass’ as in the bass player in a musical ensemble that is important for harmonising the various musical sounds into a tune, reminds us of the association’s role as an ecosystem builder.
CBASS aligns solution providers to build the strongest, profitable SME business ecosystem layer that can solve the climate crisis through the circular economy.
Specifically, we accelerate the transition by:
1. Setting up profitable relationships between ecosystem players and thus drawing more businesses and talents into the realm of sustainability and climate action (not because of a noble cause, but that there is shared prosperity).
We do so by identifying opportunities, undertake business matching and introductions, develop monetisation strategies, facilitate exploratory discussions and provide a neutral platform for pre-competitive collaboration.
After all, a customer who has bought a green product is already more inclined to buy another green product so we should help more businesses tap into that opportunity while helping the end clients make the transition to circularity and sustainability easier.
An example is between two of our Approved Community where one is a IT Remanufacturer and another is a sustainable protective packaging distributor.
Through our introduction, the packaging distributor was able to close a supplier deal with the remanufacturer who in turn could demonstrate to their investors and stakeholders that they were taking further steps to become even more sustainable.
Another example of this is our carbon markets and circular economy taskforce project to align providers all the way from carbon measurement consultants, lawyers, tax accountants, all the way to carbon project developers, methodology assessors, credit registries and carbon credit exchanges.
The aim being to help more circular businesses monetise from the carbon market and gain an unfair advantage over linear incumbents.
In May 2023, we have signed a MOU with the Hainan International Carbon Emissions Exchange (China) to increase the collaboration on this front and are also working with a carbon footprinting company.
We also work to support regulators in the implementation of policies that can accelerate the circular economy.
This may be in the form of consulting projects or industry expert discussions or taskforce projects to produce information needed by regulators to inform policy development.
2. Helping increase the customer base and revenue base of circular players – by increasing their exposure, brand value and enhancing their marketing and communications while also sharing out the cost of doing so.
For example, CBASS took up a booth package at one of the largest net zero sustainability and climate tech tradeshows called Reset Connect London, happening this 27-28 June.
It is a London Climate Action Week featured event attended by top management of investors, innovators and businesses.
Our association then split the cost of the event into smaller sponsorship packages and planned in streamed booth activities so that more circular players who would not normally be able to afford going to such an event could gain brand exposure with physical and online presence.
The association is also using the opportunity to call out to and invite more solution providers into our ecosystem and taskforces.
The association has also launched its second taskforce on Communications, Marketing and Engagements to align providers from content developers, consultants, brand management companies, sustainable copywriters, audio visual production houses, social media content managers and events and exhibition management etcetera into an ecosystem level solution.
The aim is to give circular players another unfair advantage over linear players by having equal or even better access to professional services at an affordable rate (e.g. due to bulk discounts we negotiate).
In doing so, our association can enable circular players to play bigger and engage better with their clients, investors and stakeholders so that their positive impact to sustainability and climate can be amplified at a faster pace.
At the same time, this would provide more sales revenue and customer base to providers who are supplying such services and gives them more avenues to contribute to solving the climate crisis through their professional work.
3. Empowering businesses to understand and apply circular economy – through trainings and workshops, talks and panel discussions, coaching and consultancies as well as being part of a community of like-minded people.
For example, the association had launched a programme for product and industrial designers to learn about the circular economy in celebration of the MOU signed with the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers (PEREKA).
There is also a free 6-step methodology on our website to support for businesses who want to begin embarking on their circular journey.
The association has also signed a MOU with sustainable education provider, GoImpact Capital based in Singapore and Hong Kong, to open up more opportunities to supply content to more talents.
Additionally, we realise that tribe and community is important to keep people going on this journey to solving the climate crisis.
Hence, the association organises Circular Catch Ups to allow business owners and talents interested to solve the climate crisis through circular economy and business to meet, learn, network and support each other as fellow comrades.
The association has also provided hand-holding and coaching services to our Approved Community to prepare them for sustainability-related engagements, speaking opportunities as well as marketing pitches to investors and tradeshow participants so that their content is well-aligned and adds to their brand value.
In addition, the association has conducted multiple talks and panel discussions mostly by invitation of another organisation to raise awareness about these topics.
4. Being empathetic, accepting and promoting the narrative of hope.
Too common is the narrative in sustainability about guilt and not doing enough.
Unfortunately, this paralyses people and limits their ingenuity and creativity to solve such big challenges like climate crisis and sustainability.
At CBASS, we believe that a circular economy ecosystem can be built faster and stronger if we empower people with empathy, accept where they are in their journey, and support them with an enabling narrative that we can do more good and not just less bad by being alive.
All these efforts are of course works in progress and we are always looking for talents who can take it even further and for opportunities to create an unfair advantage for players who care for solving the climate crisis and creating a livable world so that we can all thrive while rapidly replacing the linear economy.
How does the association support regulators in implementing policies that expedite the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy?
Our association supports regulators in implementing policies that will expedite the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy by building a global ecosystem that has many organisations and talents who can deliver the envisioned changes effectively, with minimal disruption.
To understand the weight of this statement, one needs to consider what policies and laws function as.
To put it bluntly, they function as ‘the rules of the game’.
Change the rules and you impact every player, be them individuals or entire organisations.
There are two likely scenarios that will happen if regulators implement a policy with no market-ready alternative.
One, the new policies or laws could stay on paper and be paying lip-service because there is no real alternative for people to switch to.
This is unfavourable because it leads to erosion of trust in the regulators’ institution and machinery.
This in turn makes it harder to drive change on the next attempt as first impressions only come once.
Two, if the changes are pursued forcefully, this may result in people losing their livelihoods and jobs or going bankrupt because the ‘rules of the game’ have changed in an instant.
This in turn creates resounding impacts on other aspects of their lives and well-being such as food, lodging, health, education, etcetera.
As the money, time and energy invested to do things the previous way may no longer be recoverable, this situation is political suicide for politicians and a huge discredit to the regulators’ efforts and may even lead to backlash as they lose public support.
Either situation described is unfavourable to regulators.
Thus, it is understandable why regulators would be cautious about passing and implementing new policies and laws.
And why having sufficient market players who have the right competencies to deliver the alternatives at the scale and pace of the resulting demand is such a critical piece.
“To deliver effectively with minimal disruption” is perhaps the ideal situation to have.
This is where our association comes in.
Through our ecosystem building work, we are:
1. Drawing-in and empowering more organisations and talents to understand and apply circular economy in a profitable manner to solve the climate crisis and sustainability (SDG, ESG) challenges. This comes in the forms of training, coaching, consulting, business matching, networking, taskforce projects and talent development.
2. Aligning the various suppliers, vendors and providers to deliver more complete and affordable solutions to end clients and make it a no brainer to switch to sustainability through the circular economy. This comes in the form of facilitating product bundling, cross referrals and joint product development.
Point 1 addresses concerns about having sufficient volume of competent and resilient providers that regulators can rely on to meet the scale and pace of market demands that come with policies and laws change.
More businesses already involved in circular economy means less companies left to pushback against it.
And our association would be an easy access point for regulators to reach these businesses and talents.
Indeed, feedback from such these talents would also be valuable input for policy enhancement, development and implementation.
As for Point 2, it addresses the concerns that there are insufficient market-ready alternatives that are competitive, accessible and affordable against the linear incumbents for majority of the market.
For example, CBASS has signed MOUs with the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers (PEREKA) and GoImpact Capital Singapore, a professional sustainability education platform, as well as the MBA Alumni Association of Gadjah Mada University, to increase the exposure and participation of their member and subscriber bases to the circular economy, carbon markets and sustainability.
Can you share success stories or case studies of businesses that have successfully transitioned from a linear to a circular business model with the support of Circular Business Association?
Sure but before I do, we need to question what do we actually mean by “successfully transitioned from linear to circular business model”.
Ideally, the simple answer would be that a business has 100% of their revenues from circular products and operations.
And if they do not have that record, then they are not there yet.
But in reality, even the most successful cases of circular adoption into business such as Signify (Philips Lighting), H&M, Danone etcetera cannot claim to have successfully transitioned.
Because they too operate within entire value chains and cannot control a lot of things on their own.
On the other hand, new businesses who have been born to have circularity in place from the start also cannot claim to be successful yet if you think about its ability to survive in the economy, its scale of consumer adoption etcetera.
So, this idea of ‘successfully transitioned’ is actually much more complex, is rapidly evolving and likely to go beyond the boundaries of individual businesses.
Everyone is still in the journey, the messy middle, we’re trying to get ‘there’ together.
That said, I really like this piece of reverse psychology that Patagonia recently shared by calling itself an Unsustainable Brand because it highlights that no company’s sustainability work is ever really done.
Ditto, no business’ pursuit of circular business models is ever really done and we have to celebrate every bit of success gained to keep going.
This is why our association keeps hammering on the ecosystem approach and the journey approach in our work.
Right, so coming back to examples of some successes we’ve helped create through the good work of our growing community.
Through our engagements and discourses, CBASS helped a company that provides international private fundraising readiness in Singapore and a private equity and venture capitalist firm in China understand more about the circular economy and how to recognise projects that could contribute to solving the climate crisis.
They have since adopted this into their business practices and use their expertise of raising funds to support and encourage other companies to be part of this journey of solving the climate crisis.
For example, one of them has helped raise funds for a chemical company that produces sustainable aviation fuel from agricultural waste and replacements for fossil-fuel based toxic chemicals used in oil and gas drilling activities.
With these additional resources, the chemical company is now able to expand its operations further which means it can replace more unsustainable chemical products and contribute more to the market offerings that can eliminate waste and pollution from the beginning.
They have also inspired a manufacturer and a parcel delivery airline company to include circular thinking, sustainability and climate into their strategies and fundraising pursuits.
To us, these are already small successes of transition that we will help to grow even further.
What strategies or methodologies does the association employ to help businesses identify key pollutants or waste in their value chain and develop profitable circular solutions?
In terms of circular thinking, our association subscribes to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s definition of circular economy of being restorative and regenerative by design, its systems thinking framework, and its three principles of regenerating natural ecosystems, eliminating waste and pollution from the beginning and keeping products in use for as long as possible at its highest utility.
This is the foundation identifying circular economy opportunities – be it in the key pollutants or waste that they produce or the performance they deliver or the positive impact they can create through their operations and products.
But for helping businesses develop circular solutions, our association has produced our own 6-step methodology that is published free on our website to help businesses think through their transition.
We are aware that there are various methodologies like Life Cycle Assessment, Material Assessment, ESG Framework Materiality Assessments, carbon footprint assessments, etcetera available but they missing key for businesses in thinking through the transition is knowing when to use which methodology, for what purpose and what information can be obtained from such assessments.
If you don’t have an overall thought process to guide your thinking about a profitable transition to circular solutions, then it is easy to be distracted into doing a lot of these methodises or strategies and spending the money but it won’t be profitable.
This is why our association produced our 6-step Circular Business Blueprint methodology can be accessed at https://www.circularbusinessassociation.org/le-to-ce for free.
Can you provide examples of strategies or initiatives that Circular Business Association recommends for making the transition to a circular economy profitable?
Now, to give you a taste of how the Circular Business Blueprint works.
To develop a profitable circular solution, we tend to work slightly deeper than just identifying key pollutants and waste in their own value chains.
That is one of the steps but not the first one.
Why? Because the circular economy is not about doing less bad with the system we’ve got.
But actually, being able to do more good by changing the entire system.
This changed framing also helps to shift focus away from ‘this is just a cost’ to ‘this could make us money’.
So, the first step is actually to identify what pain is the business trying to solve for others when talking about sustainability, circular economy, waste or key pollutants – what bothers them about their industry in terms of these matters and what they care about and choose one of their products that can solve that pain.
Solve a pain for someone and you’ve got the first basis for being profitable.
Solve a pain that is stopping others from becoming more sustainable or climate friendly and you’ve built in sustainability into the solution.
From there, we guide them to map out their value chain and billing relationships so that it is clear who they work with and how the money flows.
This helps clarify where the impacts will be felt and the where the opportunities are.
We then guide them to list out all the bad and the good of their existing value chain – negative on environment, climate and people as well the value proposition or performance that their industry delivers to people.
This is so that they can explore how their business could solve a pain for others to make them more sustainable while zeroizing their own bad and augmenting their good.
Often, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and socioeconomic assessments are useful methodologies to deploy at this point to be sure about a business’ impacts.
But from the solutions point of view, understanding the circular economy framework, business models and case studies at this point becomes helpful so that businesses get inspired on what could be done.
Once they have a set of ideas on what could be done, it’s time to test the business sense of those plans.
Projecting the management finances, the dollars and cents, of existing management compared to the finances after the zeroization and/or augmentation efforts needs to be done.
This is where financial impacts of key pollutants such as carbon taxes, carbon credits or extended producer responsibility expenses have to be included.
This exercise helps narrow down which ideas are likely to develop into profitable circular solutions.
But even if they are not immediately so, the last step of the methodology encourages businesses to consider what other tools they could use to make a positive impact on profits before tax.
Could it be in adjusting the idea further to tap into underserved customers (for this we have a TMOS Revenue Model, a methodology contributed by our Approved Community to see how the company’s product will compare to competitors in the ecosystem)?
What about green financing options or bulk buys and cross referrals with other green providers to lower the overall cost of customer acquisition?
How about working with regulators to migrate the industry or tapping into tax incentives and allowances?
What about earning from key pollutants offsets or gaining economies of scale by collaborating with companies (like how Tesla, Ford and GM have signed agreement on to supply more charging points to EV owners)?
What about the marketing and branding better to increase customer loyalty and per customer lifetime spend?
All these are potential tools that could help make a positive impact on profits and the association is working to activate as many such tools as possible for circular players quickly so their business and consequently their positive impact on climate and sustainability can grow rapidly.
Can you explain the importance of building an ecosystem layer of SME vendors and suppliers for enabling the circular economy and addressing the climate crisis?
SMEs constitute 90% of businesses in most economies and they are usually the last mile in the supply chain in specific localities.
This implies that if you want to change to happen at scale then you have to work with this ecosystem layer because collectively, SMEs have wide-reaching impacts on livelihoods, it’s their bread and butter, and how people access goods and services on a day-to-day basis.
Also, so far, there is already a lot of action with the big players by Ellen MacArthur Foundation, World Economic Forum, World Bank, United Nations which is creating the pull factor, which is good.
But the pain is that even if large companies want to be more sustainable or circular, their progress is limited by the capacity of their local suppliers to understand and meet the specifications of what is needed at the scale that is needed.
Large companies may know the ‘How’ but they don’t know sufficient ‘Who’s who can deliver and SMEs play important roles as Who in the wider ecosystem.
Also, SMEs have certain advantages in participating in the circular economy.
They are smaller, with less baggage, smaller minimum order requirements, owner-driven and thus more agile and can cater to more customisation.
Characteristics that are advantageous to navigate the fast-moving developments of the climate situation and the circular economy developments where no single solution is really established.
This is something that larger companies would be unable to do on their own as the costs in time, effort and manpower to specialise in so many aspects of circularity and sustainability become unberable.
Being able to spread out the costs and risks while getting better performance would help accelerate implementation of climate and sustainability strategies.
Could you share some insights into Circular Business Association’s future plans for expanding its ecosystem and establishing partnerships to further accelerate the transition to a profitable circular economy?
Moving forward, we plan to expanding our ecosystem by:
1. Communicating our ecosystem domain visions and inviting participation.
These are domains where we already see the pains and can envision the types of providers to involve.
It may not be the most comprehensive but that’s where talents have the space to evolve it.
Currently, we have three taskforce projects that are building up ecosystem domains at the moment: one on carbon markets and circular economy, one on communications, marketing and engagement, and one on expanding remanufacturing in ASEAN through regulatory engagement.
Through these taskforces, so long as there is a provider who may have solutions that can enable those domains, we will reach out to, share the vision, see if they gel with our values and approach.
If they do, then we will invite them to participate in the taskforce, develop monetisation strategies with them for existing solutions, co-promote their solutions and add-on to their business matching efforts.
2. Having the actual deals.
This is actually a follow through from the first point.
To keep the relationship going, having the actual deals will be a key part of it.
Apart from knowing more pain points of end clients whom we could business match, the association will work with providers to develop cross -referrals, bulk discounts, partner discounts arrangements with the aims of increasing the volume of uptake, generating revenues to keep the relationship healthy and progressing.
How to meet more end clients with pains?
We will continue with our joint talks and speaking opportunities to let people now we exist and encourage them to send us any problem they have with delivering their sustainability or climate agenda.
3. Empowering the tribe.
Training, insight talks, panel discussions, information sharing, circular contemplation interviews with businesses already in circular economy as well as the circular catch up for comradeship development are things we will continue to undertake and participate in.
The more they understand the circular economy, climate and sustainability content, the more they can participate effectively.
In addition, we will be working to systemise some services to our members so that we can solve their common pains more effectively.
4. Growing our referral programme.
The association has set up a C-Linkers! referral programme to tap into individuals who love to share information and create mutual benefit.
C-Linkers! essentially help us to gather the talents, resources and clients with pains by sharing about the association and encouraging them to get in touch.
In return, if there is a financial transaction, we reward the C-Linker! with a sales agent referral fee and the person who brought in this C-Linker is also rewarded as a small token of appreciation.
The more C-Linkers! we put out there, the more we will be able to expand the ecosystem faster.
5. Focus on mutually profitable relationships first.
Growing the ecosystem needs focus as we won’t be able to work with every single player.
The association will therefore concentrate on relationships are mutually profitable first, be it monetary or non-monetary in nature, in order to work with those who are highly motivated to see it through first.
Our Chairperson, Lijin Chin will be talking more about this at the Collaboration Corner of Reset Connect London at 1430 on 27 June at ExCEL Centre London.
Please join her there if you are in London.
If you are not, please follow our LinkedIn Page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/circular-business-association/ for highlights from that session.
Learn more about Circular Business Association here.