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Rethink 

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Business case

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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How do you clothe your baby while avoiding piles of vests and playsuits that your child has outgrown within weeks? For more and more new parents, the answer is simple: rent.Families who seek an environmentally friendly alternative to fast fashion pay a monthly subscription to companies offering ethical-branded, age-appropriate clothes and receive new outfits in the post. The clothes, washed, ironed and ready to be worn again, are sent back when the child has outgrown them, with another bundle arriving soon after. The hire fee covers stains and lost items.Eve Kekeh, founder of baby-clothing rental company Bundlee, which launched in January 2018, has seen “a huge spike” in customers since May this year. She said: “There’s more of a conversation around sustainable clothes. Parents are assessing their own wardrobes and that’s trickling down into kids’ clothes too.”Parents don’t want to constantly go shopping for baby clothes and then deal with the mountains that have been outgrownEmma Gillespie, Belles and BabesEmma Gillespie of hire company Belles and Babes said it was definitely a growing trend. “People are rejecting fast fashion. Parents don’t want to constantly go shopping for baby clothes and then deal with the mountains of items that have been outgrown.”Sustainability is now at the centre of the fashion agenda. The online secondhand market is booming, and renting clothes has gone high-end, with Vogue last week hailing “chic” rental apps.“We’re very aware that having a baby is not good for your carbon footprint,” said Hannah Jones-Walters, 32, from Yorkshire, who has an 11-month-old daughter and signed up for her first rented bundle while pregnant. She pays £24 a month for 15 pieces of organic clothing. “We assumed it would be basic things, but it’s lovely clothes. They’re well-tailored to the season and high quality.”Some people are willing to spend more to be sustainable, but renting can actually save money. In Germany, companies such as Räubersachen allow parents to rent individual items such as winter coats and sleeping bags, which can become particularly pricey when used for only a short time.“Wool clothes are expensive, so it’s better to borrow,” said Kasia Reszel, who has a year-old son. “That way, I don’t spend as much and he can have different jumpers every few months.”Reszel, who works fulltime as a teacher in Berlin, said that although parent groups, for example on Facebook, enabled her to buy secondhand or make money from selling baby clothes, she did not have the time to relist items. “I don’t want to invest in things I won’t have time to sell later,” she said, “and I don’t plan on having any more babies, so what’s the point in keeping them?” In today’s ever-smaller living spaces, keeping old clothes is often not an option. “I live in a small flat and I don’t have space to be sentimental,” said Jones-Walter. “I’d love to keep them and look back in 30 years but we don’t have room to do that.”

United Kingdom

Bundlee

<p>Bundlee is a subscription based business for organic babywear &amp; maternity wear. They offer a monthly subscription, where parents can get child clothing items from companies offering ethical-branded, age-appropriate clothes and receive those new outfits by the post. The clothes, washed, ironed and ready to be worn again, are sent back when the child has outgrown them, with another bundle arriving soon after. The hire fee covers stains and lost items.</p>