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From niche to necessity: the circular economy's strategic moment
Trade wars, resource shortages, and the AI-driven scramble for critical minerals are exposing the fragility of our current economy. And for businesses still operating on a linear model, the vulnerabilities are becoming impossible to ignore. The global economy isn’t just being disrupted, it’s being restructured.
In this episode, Seb is joined by Julia Binder, Professor of Transformation at IMD Business School, and Manuel Braun, entrepreneur and co-author of The Circular Business Revolution, to explore why circularity has moved from the sustainability agenda to the boardroom.
They discuss:
Why today's disruptions are structural, not episodic, and what that means for supply chains
How the circular economy offers a direct answer to resource dependency and geopolitical risk
The shift from an impact case to a business case, and how to have that conversation with your CFO
What companies like Hilti are doing differently, and what executives can act on tomorrow
Mentioned in this episode:
IMD circular value creation courses for leaders: https://www.imd.org/sustainability/cvce/creating-value-circular-economy/
Material Advantage: How circular strategies drive business value: https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/innovation/material-advantage-how-circular-strategies-drive-business-value/
Circular Business Revolution book: https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/books/the-circular-business-revolution/
Startup landscape: https://www.circular-republic.org/insights/circular-startup-landscape-2026
00:00 - 01:07 Intro
01:07 - 05:23 How is the world changing, and what's next?
05:23 - 08:15 How is this reflected in the digital world?
08:15 - 11:02 Does the linear economy lend itself to globalisation?
11:02 - 14:46 Were we ever in a globalised economy?
14:46 - 18:02 Moving from an impact case to a business case
18:02 - 23:36 The competitive advantage of circularity
23:36 - 27:57 What can organisations start doing differently?
27:57 - 28:50 Outro
#podcast #geopolitics #criticalminerals
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Thank you for watching this video. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an international charity whose mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.
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