How does one work on a circular economy project within Simbial?
From offcuts that become resources to reverse supply chains: how the 4-phase method applies to circularity, what team is needed, and where your journey begins.
The typical circular project
A manufacturing company wants to reduce waste and disposal costs; a brand wants a product line designed to last; a territory wants to activate symbiosis among its businesses. The method does not change: ex-ante targets (tonnes diverted from landfill, percentage of recycled input, waste per unit), then the 4 phases — mapping flows, designing the intervention, implementing it, measuring the result against the target. Circularity adds its own ingredient: almost always the project involves multiple stakeholders, and negotiation is part of the work.
The team you need
The Impact Circular Economy Specialist as the expert in flows and strategies; the Impact Designer when intervening on the product; the Impact Process Engineer when processes are involved; the Impact Project Manager to keep actors and timelines together; the Impact Controller to validate rates and tonnages — in a sector full of loose numbers, their signature carries twice the weight.
What you learn by doing
Mapping material flows that no one had ever counted. Finding the point where the incentive gets stuck — and unblocking it. Talking with production, procurement, sales, and suppliers, who all see the same flow from four different angles. Using AI to digest process data and explore scenarios, while keeping design choices and negotiations in your own hands. And measuring with the numerical rigour that the sector demands.
Because circularity builds systems thinkers
Those who work in the circular economy develop the most sought-after perspective in the transition economy: seeing the connections — between design and end of life, between waste here and need there, between one actor's incentive and the system's behaviour. It is a skill that matters in every sector, because every sector is a system that someone needs to know how to read.
The first step
If systems puzzles appeal to you: the Impact Circular Economy Specialist role is waiting — shared foundations, a simulated project, assessment, field. If you run a business: start with a map of your material and waste flows; that is almost always where the first project is hiding — and often a saving you didn't know you had.
Frequently asked questions
What roles work together on a circular project?
Impact Circular Economy Specialist on flows and strategies, Impact Designer and Impact Process Engineer when products and processes are involved, Impact Project Manager on coordination, Impact Controller on numbers validation.
Where does a company that wants to become more circular start?
From a map of its own material and waste flows: what comes in, what goes out, what gets discarded and how much it costs. The first project — and often a saving — is almost always hiding right there.
Does circularity only concern manufacturing companies?
No: it concerns anyone who manages matter — retail, food service, construction, events, offices. The scale changes, not the logic: reduce, extend lifespan, put back into circulation, measure.