Power of the Circular Community Unleashed

In Germany, we have not yet fully grasped the global power of the circular economy and still associate it with the “old” waste management system. But the “green dot” has not been enough for a long time.

Internationally, we can already see the power of the Circular Economy, how many large and powerful organizations have already completely switched to this circular path.

• The EU’s Green Deal describes the Circular Economy as a way to achieve the goals and makes this binding in the future – initially for large companies. The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan translates this again into concrete measures. The EU taxonomy, which has been heavily in the media recently, aims to motivate the financial world to finance certain issues more than others. The Circular Economy is also explicitly named within the EU taxonomy.
  
• The Ellen Mac-Arthur Foundation is raising awareness of the Circular Economy worldwide, with the support of many corporations.
  
• Software companies are creating the information technology requirements to make circularity measurable in addition to greenhouse gas reductions
  
• the product design philosophy Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough has already succeeded in ensuring that approximately 10,000 circular products are designed and produced according to certified circular standards.

From this it can be deduced that this strong trend exists and that we in the SME sector are not only doing nothing wrong if we “surf this trend”. But that we would be doing everything wrong if we ignore it! nice is the stepping stone and the ticket for this important train.

It won’t work all by itself.

That’s why we at nice have picked up on a second very strong trend to make the Circular Economy useful and fruitful for our member companies, our society, the environment and for all of our futures: cooperation. According to futurologist Matthias Horx, cooperation and moderation is one of the main social trends in industrialized Western nations. Among the Millenials, Generation Z, we see a shift towards cooperation instead of competition. Toward inclusion instead of “the winner takes it all.” Towards sustainability and togetherness instead of monopolizing and exclusionary behavior, which we still partly take for granted as a factor of economic activity. And in part, of course, we still have to accept, which is why we need all the more urgently the strength through community to successfully implement change. However, cooperation does not mean giving in to the supposedly stronger, but being successful together! By means of team play, trust in one’s own strength and the resulting competitive advantages.