Business case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Societal Services

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

Producing and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use

Designing products to resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life.

Design for physical durability

Water system refers to the water supply network for storing and supplying water for use by the community.

One of the greatest challenges of a city is to provide its inhabitants with safe, clean water from a limited fresh water supply. Improving the city’s water infrastructure efficiency, such as minimising leakages, reduces the strain put on the limited supply, which in turn, helps to ensure inhabitants gain access to clean and affordable water.

The water infrastructure of a city typically consists of components such as surface water diversions, wells, pumps, transmission pipes and canals, treatment and storage facilities, and distribution network elements (Burian et al.). Options for improving the efficiency of the system include investing in water loss reduction systems, creating and following a regular maintenance program, and better matching water supply and demand (Global Water Partnership).

Cities can improve the efficiency of their water system infrastructure by conducting a water audit, in which all water flows are traced and losses in the system are identified to map where the most efficiency improvements can be gained. Alongside this, asset management can be used to create a short-term and long-term strategy of investing in new equipment, refurbishing existing equipment and developing maintenance programmes to ensure infrastructure is as efficient as possible, and leaks are minimised. Such management programmes create financial transparency amongst all stakeholders and provide useful long-term planning for larger infrastructure changes (US EPA)

💧 Water Systems

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

Impacts

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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

Thematic Areas

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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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  Économisez jusqu’à 70% d’eau.        



  à Prilly, aux ateliers protégés de La Cordée.        



  Enterrez-le, remplissez-le, et c’est bon !                                                    L’olla XS s’adapte parfaitement à vos petits pots. Avec sa longue tige, il lui suffit d’un infime espace pour qu’il intègre vos pots.          Avec une hauteur de 22 cm, les racines de vos plantes viennent chercher l’eau en profondeur, ce qui est idéal pour leur développement !          En pot ou jardinière, il est notre olla le plus passe-partout! Sans prendre beaucoup de place, il peut détendre une ou plusieurs plantes.          Prêt à s’occuper de plusieurs plantes à la fois avec un diamètre d’irrigation allant jusqu’à 40 cm, il irrigue en profondeur pour la meilleure pousse qui soit !              Parfait pour votre jardin potager, nos grands ollas s’installent facilement en pleine terre. Ils sont idéaux pour votre jardin, potager, arbustes et bien d’autres !          Grâce à ce pack, vous faites un premier pas dans le monde des ollas! Cette sélection vous permet d’irriguer toutes les plantes que ce soit en intérieur ou en extérieur.            Parfait pour votre jardin potager, nos grands ollas s’installent facilement en pleine terre. Ils sont idéaux pour votre jardin, potager, arbustes et bien d’autres !          Grâce à ce pack, vous faites un premier pas dans le monde des ollas! Cette sélection vous permet d’irriguer toutes les plantes que ce soit en intérieur ou en extérieur.          Idéaux pour un appartement ou une maison sans jardin, nos petits ollas s’adaptent à vos plus petits pots, jardinières, plantes d’intérieurs, herbes aromatiques et bien d’autres !         Découvrir l'ensemble des produits               Le Nid, Chemin du 23 Août 5, 1205 Genève
Chez mamie, Rue des Rois 17, 1204 Genève
Schilliger, Route de Base 1228 Plan-les-Ouates (GE)   Comme une fleur, Rue des Moulins 29 2000 Neuchâtel   Schilliger, Route du Bois 1753 Matran (FR)
Alterrapy, Rue de la Paix 65                 Le Nid, Chemin du 23 Août 5, 1205 Genève
Chez mamie, Rue des Rois 17, 1204 Genève
Schilliger, Route de Base 1228 Plan-les-Ouates (GE)   Comme une fleur, Rue des Moulins 29 2000 Neuchâtel   Schilliger, Route du Bois 1753 Matran (FR)
Alterrapy, Rue de la Paix 65         Nous sommes deux étudiants de l’Université de Lausanne unis depuis de longues années par notre passion commune d’entreprendre. Wepot a débuté ici, sur ces bancs de l’Unil, motivé par une inquiétude grandissante face à notre gestion des ressources primaires et essentielles telle que l’eau. Après une année de développement, nous nous lançons avec de grandes ambitions et l’espoir avoué d’améliorer, un jour peut-être, le quotidien de milliers de personnes !   



         



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



         



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  



          

Saint-Sulpice

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Swiss start up developing an ancestral irrigation techique to save water.

Wepot

<p>Wepot, founded in 2018, innovates around an ecological and ancestral irrigation system. It saves up to 70% of water and makes plants autonomous. The company's objective stems from a simple observation: we must change our relationship with water.&nbsp;By participating in the development of this efficient irrigation technique, it hopes to help the world reduce and improve the consumption of its most valuable resource.</p><p>It also attaches great importance to supporting the local economy and choose its partners based on the idea of ​​a short production chain.</p>