Ecotopia Summer School: a place for new ideas on circular economy

The ECOTOPIA Summer School took place at SEB LU at the beginning of July. Running from 3–7 July, the event brought together about 50 international students from all over the world with the same goal: to talk about the importance of the circular economy and thinking and developing business ideas on how to bring it to life.

The students first learned about sustainable economy and the challenges it brings to marketing and business. They had an amazing opportunity to visit the Circular Lab of KNOF in Krško, Slovenia, and discuss how the circular business challenge fits into the bigger picture.

Working in groups, on the last day of the summer school the students presented the ideas and business models they had generated during the week. The main topics of presentations were REthink, REuse. REduce and REcycle. Besides the obvious pollution problems the world is facing, future circular businesses are also dealing with financial challenges, they pointed out. Not only are the costs of production in Europe high, but competitors with wasteful production processes are still performing strongly with their low prices.

Going into local production was naturally the main idea, as it brings benefits to the social and physical environment by creating new jobs and at the same time reducing transportation. In the generation of aspiring students there was also a great deal of emphasis on using mobile apps to offer discounts, making the experience easier for new consumers in order to encourage them to go green.

There were some brilliant new ideas on how to achieve a circular economy: getting back to returning bottles, offering juice refill stations, offering the option to rent average-priced clothing, and an interesting suggestion to sell t-shirts while also providing repair services for the shirts, if necessary. Students also raised the important issue of marketing and the importance of bringing the circular economy closer to consumers.

After the group presentation there was lively debate among students, which is an indicator of a genuine interest on the topic as well as curiosity about how to bring business ideas to life.

Danica Tajčman, EFnews

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