Currently Closed: registration for a new round will open in 2024.
Circular Business Challenge
Make your physical product more circular and sustainable in 7 days.
7 topics in 7 days. Get one challenge daily. Data-driven method, backed by science.
Access 50+ short videos, hands-on worksheets and Instagram templates for community engagement.
Next round starts: Monday, November 28, 2022
The way we do business destroys the planet
Extensive waste and ocean pollution
We need to design products better to reduce the waste outputs of your materials.
Carbon emissions
We need to create an awareness of the collective carbon emissions of products and set active goals to reduce them.
Ecosystem collapse
We need to reduce the impact on our ecosystems by finding solutions for unsustainable materials, exessive waste outputs and high energy consumption.
Resource depletion
We need to discover alternative materials to use less finit resources and opt in for renewable and biodegradable resources.
You want to do something
but you don’t know how
Your physical product can be a catalyst for positive change
Design for positive impacts
Designing for positive impact from a new and clear understanding of impacts and possibilities.
Explore circular design strategies
Get to know different design strategies to create a product that creates less negative externalities.
Identify circular business models
Set a clear mission and vision for circularity and identify business cases for change.
Improve your sourcing and procurement
Understand these impacts and focus efforts on improvement where it matters.
Create a practical action plan
Set goals to make improvements in your product by exploring your product impact.
Reduce carbon emissions
Understand where the carbon emissions occur and become able to target action on the largest emission items.
Reduce carbon emissions with circular design
This course is for you:
Makers &
Designers
You’re a maker or designer in a sustainability-oriented organization ready to get trained to make your business operations more circular.
Entrepreneurs &
Startups
You’re a business owner of an SME looking for ways to obtain circular expertise and transform your company in a sustainable and circular way.
Young professionals &
Students
You’re part of a new generation of changemakers looking for ways to build your career in a sustainable and circular way from the onset.
Circular design: start with creating impact today.
Do you also want to launch a circular product? Avoid the most common beginner mistakes and develop a good strategy. This Circular Business Challenge helps you with the first steps for your product. From waste to circular business models – This program covers the basics in (re)designing your product to empower your development, one day at a time.
Circular Business Challenge trailer
Become a circular leader with your product
Challenge Contents
Day 1: Materials
The first step in (re)designing circular products is looking at the materials that are the building blocks of your product. Identify the materials used in your product, their quantities and sources, to ultimately identify opportunities for more sustainable alternatives.
Day 2: Waste
Waste is a design flaw, meaning a poorly designed product creates more waste than necessary. Create awareness of your total waste production during the lifetime of your product and set clear goals to decrease your waste outputs.
Day 3: Packaging
Packaging items often consist of different materials and elements that pollute the environment in many ways. Alternative materials, bio-based packaging solutions and those that can be recycled are valid solutions to overcome those negative impacts. Learn how you can opt in for better packaging solutions that stress the environment less.
Day 4: Transport
Shipping, trucking and flying the raw materials, components as well as your product can result in a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Learn where the greatest impacts are for your product and what can be done to improve.
Day 5: Energy
Most of the negative impacts are related to energy use: local pollution, acidification of the oceans, carbon emissions as well as resource depletion. Identify the embedded energy in your product using our step-by-step worksheet and find out where energy use can be reduced or changed to renewable, low-carbon sources.
Day 6: Circular Design
In search of circular design, there are numerous valuable strategies to reduce negative impacts before, during and after the use of your product. Learn to apply different strategies and identify which strategy is suited best for (re)designing your circular product.
Day 7: Circular Business Models
A product can be very circular, but it won’t be able to achieve its full potential unless it meets the needs of your customers at a viable price. Without a business model, your product will not facilitate sustainable growth or propel your circular mission forward. Familiarize yourself with the most common circular business models with the help of our worksheets and videos.
Your results after course completion
Measurable impact
You’ll receive tools and methods for circular indicators to evaluate circular impact.
Save time
You spend less time gathering knowledge, because the information is presented to you in a clear and step-by-step manner.
Practical action plan
Concrete materials you can use immediately to inform your design process, communication purposes, and strategic choices.
Circular Engine has guided Omrin in the realization of the new strategy and in particular the route to a distinctive circular proposition.
Developing a circular vision, defining our circular waste processing concept and determining the relevant communities were important pillars of her work.
Nicole is a smart young woman with a clear vision of a circular economy, a healthy portion of critical thinking and the competences to make the right connections. I highly recommend working with Circular Engine.
Through her knowledge, network, and supportive leadership, Nicole has helped many of my projects gain the traction and important insight into circular economies that they needed to grow.
Nicole helped turn our MIT Energy Hackathon event into a replicable model used by other top-tier institutions.
She also helped my international environmental restoration organizations, Beyond Coral and CHARM, gain the necessary traction through her university and United Nations platforms.
Without question, Nicole’s guidance and support have been a great benefit to my organizational mission and I would highly recommend working with Circular Engine.
Nicole means a lot to OG Clean Fuels. She’s led our strategy process for Public Affairs and is pushing hard on the data-side for getting equal policy treatment of all sustainable fuels: a critical requirement to make the circular economy feasible and affordable.
Nicole is very knowledgeable, investigates topics in detail, and presents the findings in a creative and clear way. For example, we now have an interactive dashboard for sustainable road transport. How cool is that?! Lastly, she helped to set up a new department, and provided training and support for our new employees.
Early Bird Discount
The regular investment for this program is €149 (excl. VAT).
We offer a one-time discount of €100 for Early Birds and Fab Fest Bali participants.
Sign up before October 22, 2022. The first round starts on November 28, 2022.
You don’t want to miss this opportunity.
About the instructor
Nicole Bakker is a (bio)materials researcher at MIT, design engineer of regenerative systems, author, maker, public speaker and entrepreneur.
With a strong interdisciplinary background in engineering, design and business, Nicole is well equipped with tools to help you solve complex problems related to climate change and the circular economy.
At Harvard University, she developed and characterized bio-based building materials. Prior to this, Nicole published a design manual on integrating solar panels in historical buildings and worked on earthquake-resistant structural retrofitting of existing buildings.
She envisioned Circular Engine as a catalyst for positive change, offering courses, workshops and hackathons to help (aspiring) entrepreneurs, designers, makers and engineers create sustainable products and business strategies in the circular economy.
Nicole Bakker
Circular economy expert, Harvard-trained design engineer, MIT materials scientist and author. Founder of Circular Engine.
NINA BITTNER
MSc. Sustainable Entrepreneurship
About the social challenge
Nina Bittner is a sustainability enthusiast, change maker, aspiring academic, and young entrepreneur. She joined the team of Circular Engine to put her knowledge and skills for sustainable strategy, business models for change, and the circular economy into action by supporting businesses and organizations in their ambition to transition toward a more sustainable, circular, and just future.
Within the framework of this Circular Business Challenge Nina will empower you to create waves of change throughout your community, by offering you daily Instagram templates in order to facilitate the social sharing component of this 7-day journey with Circular Engine.
Gain insight in the sustainable performance of your product
Bonus features
7 fillable PDF worksheets
Guiding you through the seven different topics of materials, waste, packaging, transport, energy, circular design and circular business models.
50+ explanatory short videos
Expert insights from circular economy expert Nicole Bakker on how to (re)design a circular product.
Daily Instagram templates
Supporting you in sharing your progress with your Instagram community and followers in stories and posts.
Ready for take-off? 🚀
Participating in the 7-day Circular Business Challenge, you are taking your business to the next level and tackle the seven topics one a day. You identify new opportunities that allow your product to be more circular. This gives you more peace of mind, so you can (re)launch your circular product with confidence and enthusiasm.
This is what you get:
4 weeks of access to 7 comprehensive modules with various video and text lessons.
You get access to all modules and interactive content via the online learning environment.
And all bonus features including a hands-on workbooks, Instagram templates, a certificate upon completion & discounts on further courses.
Still in doubt?
We designed the 7-Day Circular Business Challenge to give entrepreneurs and professionals a flying start in the circular economy. Below are a few reasons that may be an objection for you to start – with solutions.
I don't know if I can create circular product myself
No worries! We take you through the process in a step-by-step way, so that you are guaranteed to have workable documents. You can ask all your questions via e-mail or Instagram.
I don't have time to make my product more circular
Our advice: don’t do it alone! Involve teammates and colleagues in this. By taking action now, you are ahead of the regulations and your competition. In our experience it costs organizations much more time if they have to create a circular products at the last minute.
I believe this course is pricey
With guidance of Circular Engine, entrepreneurs have been awarded various subsidies, won competitions and tenders. The amounts vary from EUR 300,000 to EUR 1.5 million. As a result, some of them created a solid stream of income for the next 10 years. In short: you will earn back this investment.
By bundling our effective methods and offering them in course form, we can help more entrepreneurs at the same time and offer you the knowledge in a more affordable way than in our 1:1 consultancy trajectories.
I don't have a product yet
We recommend you to start with a tangible product in mind. However, through this program you’ll gain plenty of inspiration.
Did you know that circularity is expected to generate trillions of dollars for the economy by 2030?
Companies that successfully respond to this not only reduce their footprint, but also have their turnover increase exponentially.
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FAQ
When does the program start?
The first day of the challenge is on Monday, October 24, 2022.
For how long do I maintain access?
You get 4 weeks access to the course content.
What if I can’t attend the challenge in the dedicated week?
No worries! You will have access to the course platform for 4 weeks.
Is this course something for me?
You’re the only one who can decide!
Will I get a certificate after completion?
Yes, when you submit your worksheets, we can evaluate your progress and grant you a certificate upon successful completion of the 7-day Challenge.
Ready to get started?
This is your only chance with €100 discount.