Making a business case

Investing in a circular economy isn’t just about protecting the environment, it’s also good business

2021 isn’t an easy year – not for businesses, governments or people. We’re looking at a complex set of challenges as we build economies back and attempt to ‘reverse’ the damage done to the environment.

With less than 10 years to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the clock is ticking, and we need concerted action to fight climate change and make businesses more resilient for the current vulnerable environment.

At the heart of this recovery is the circular economy. We need to tackle economic issues and the climate crisis simultaneously. A circular economy isn’t just environment-friendly – it’s a multi-million dollar business opportunity and more businesses need to recognise that.

When waste is looped back into the supply chain in the form of new products, we’re extending its lifecycle – keeping it in the production system and out of the environment.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, adopting a circular economy approach across plastics, steel, aluminum, cement, and food can achieve a reduction of 9.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases by 2050. It also presents a unique market opportunity of close to $4.5 trillion by 2030.

In January this year, the UAE government approved the Circular Economy Policy for the next decade, which touches on four priority areas – green infrastructure, sustainable transportation, sustainable manufacturing, and sustainable food production and consumption. As the Minister of Climate Change pointed out, this is a call to action for all stakeholders across the board to consider how they can think and act in a more circular way to support this transition.

From ensuring the efficient use of natural resources, shifting to cleaner industrial production methods that involve the use of AI and 4IR technologies to adopting sustainable consumption and production patterns that reduce environmental stress, the private sector has an indispensable role to play in the process. But how does that translate for big players like us in the F&B sector – an industry which is looking at an opportunity of more than $30bn?

WE NEED TO BUILD A WORLD WHERE PLASTICS NEED NEVER BECOME WASTE

THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION

Forging a path to a circular economy requires collaboration across the ecosystem. The UAE is working towards a sustainable environment and infrastructure through new initiatives and KPIs to measure its targets. Similarly, late last year, energy ministers from the world’s leading economies backed Saudi Arabia’s circular carbon economy strategy. For companies that help shape culture, we need to inspire action. We need to go beyond lip service and think about the role we can play in realising these goals. That means partnering with governments to reduce, recycle and reinvent. It means investing in local resilience, local economies and local supply chains to advance recycling infrastructure. It means elevating public discourse on the importance of resilient food systems and sharing learnings across industries. It means calling for bold new actions and encouraging public policymakers, private stakeholders and development practitioners to improve policy coordination and practical collaboration. It means educating consumers, manufacturers and retailers on the role they can play in driving a circular economy.

DISRUPTIVE PLAYERS

Today, multinational organisations with decades of experience, complex supply chains and processes can struggle to keep pace with circular innovation. By contrast, entrepreneurs may have the disruptive solutions to solve these challenges, but lack the capital, resources or networks to put their plans into action. Connecting multinational actors with disruptive players can empower stakeholders across the value chain to create the kind of systems and positive incentives that drive real change.

INNOVATION

We need to build a world where plastics need never become waste. This means looking at increasing the recyclability of packaging, the use of recycled content in packaging, and recycling rates. Improving regional collection rates helps to increase the supply of recycled plastic and will further drive the demand for recycling facilities which are still limited in the region.

To increase the amount of recycled content in packaging, we need several pieces of the puzzle to fit together. Replacing virgin PET with recycled PET (rPET) is part of a closed loop recycling solution for beverage bottles, which minimises the carbon footprint. However, there simply isn’t enough recycled content in the supply chain today. The only way to make more is to drive higher recycling rates.

POLICY REFORMS

We need more governments in the region and across the world to adopt policies that allow for rPET in food and beverage packaging. We also need to invest in boosting recycling rates by forming new partnerships to help develop enhanced recycling technologies.

In line with national agendas, waste management infrastructure in several regional markets needs to be better equipped through collaboration with the private sector. The time is now to invest in the region’s waste management and recycling industries so that waste can be more effectively managed.

REINVENT PACKAGING

Where it is environmentally efficient, businesses need to consider alternative packaging materials to plastic – for example aluminum, plant-based and compostable or biodegradable packaging. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that converting 20 per cent of plastic packaging into reuse models is a $10bn business opportunity.

TRANSFORMING CONSUMPTION

Amid the unprecedented fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, the World Food Programme estimates that the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity around the world has doubled to nearly 270 million.

We need to create more products with ingredients that have been grown sustainably. This means employing regenerative farming practices, made in manufacturing facilities that are carbon- and water-neutral, packaged using materials that are 100 per cent recycled or renewable and transported via optimised transportation and logistics processes. For retailers, it means focusing on redistribution of unsold food and encouraging recycling for all materials. For consumers, it means preventing avoidable food waste through storage mechanisms and smart buying. They also need to recycle and sort their waste to minimise the amount of packaging and food cluttering landfills.

To really drive widespread change, the entire food value chain needs to be addressed to ensure we’re creating an inclusive, efficient, sustainable and nutritious system. It’s going to take everyone on earth making decisions that are good for them and the planet to help reverse the trajectory we’re currently on and build a sustainable global food system.