Collaboration is key for circular economy success
A new report released by the Victorian Government’s Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre (CEBIC) highlights the importance and value of collaboration in driving successful circular economy outcomes. It emphasises that achieving Victoria’s ambitious circular economy goals will not be possible without wide-reaching and effective partnerships at all levels.
What Works for Collaboration in a Circular Economy details the tangible and practical ways businesses working together can help achieve our target of net zero emissions by 2045 by:
- accelerating Victoria’s transition to a circular economy
- boosting productivity
- future-proofing our economy as we cut waste to landfill and reduce emissions.
The report includes collaborative insights, a practical guide to circular collaboration and 8 inspiring case studies from businesses that have gone circular and seen the benefits. This will assist Victorian businesses embarking on their own circular journeys and ultimately support Victoria’s transition to a circular economy.
The successful collaboration and partnerships theme aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 17 on the need to build effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships.
Building partnerships
Vijeesh Sathyanesan is the founder of ConnectOne Club, which created Circular Farms, a new online platform funded by CEBIC’s Circular Economy Business Support Fund. It connects farmers with produce buyers to help minimise food waste (up to 40% of farm produce never leaves the gate). It also works closely with Food and Fibre Gippsland, whose goal is to connect farmers to buyers and improve farmers’ circularity practices.
To engage with the Gippsland community of food producers from Circular Farms’ base in Sydney, Vijeesh worked closely with Food and Fibre Gippsland to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. He travelled to Gippsland regularly and met farmers at events and workshops to discuss implementing circular economy initiatives in the region, and to hear directly what challenges the region was facing in terms of food waste.
'From day one, our main focus was on building more collaboration in communities, connecting different dots in the system.'
Transitioning to a circular economy
No sector can create change alone. CEBIC is part of Sustainability Victoria, which brings together Victoria’s experts and innovators across sectors – from academia to government to industry – to help accelerate Victorian businesses on their path to sustainability. Through reports like 'What Works', Sustainability Victoria is helping to drive Victoria’s transition to a circular economy by connecting our state with global best practice.
In Australia, transitioning to a circular economy could rescue more than $324 million worth of resources that could be used by the manufacturing, construction and agricultural sectors (Source: Finding treasure in our trash. report 2019, Ernst and Young) Just a 5% improvement in materials efficiency could boost the Victorian economy by $6.4 billion (Source: Headline economic value for waste and materials efficiency in Australia report 2017, Centre for International Economics). None of this will be possible without effective collaboration.