The team share some of their favourite Welsh circular economy examples in the buildup to the Circular Economy Hotspot.
This year, Wales is hosting the Circular Economy Hotspot, an international event which celebrates the progress being made in establishing circular economies. Far beyond the work of ARCS and Swansea University, there are amazing examples of innovation towards circularity to be found across Wales. In anticipation of the event on the 7-9th October, the team are sharing some of their favourite examples from across Wales.
Han — PLANED
In my opinion, one of the best things about circularity in Wales is the push to regenerate communities. I can’t resist mentioning the important work of Câr Y Môr, but today I’m going to talk about PLANED, Partnerships for Local Action and Networks for Enterprise and Development. Established in 2002, PLANED has evolved from 30 years of work on rural regeneration and support for community-led development. They focus on delivering projects with significant community value, often supported by direct investment from locals to purchase and redevelop historic buildings or establish other sustainable projects. Purchased properties are developed into mixed-use buildings – including businesses, cultural centres or housing – bringing much-needed investment and jobs back to the area. Buildings are saved by the community, for use by the community, to support the community.
A notable example (and a pub I visited last weekend…) is the Crymych Arms in Pembrokeshire, where the community successfully raised over £200,000 to help secure the purchase of the building. The pub opened to visitors in May this year.
Max — Grafmarine
I think Grafmarine is a great example of circular innovation, their story demonstrates how you can spot an opportunity in the incoming legislation and use circular design and business to develop and scale new technologies in low-risk ways.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) started developing strategies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from international shipping in 2018, making these mandatory measures in 2023. Recognizing that the fleets of many international shipping companies would not meet these new requirements, Grafmarine developed a modular solar panel system, which could be retrofitted to existing boats to help cut fuel usage and the associated emissions (particularly when boats are in hotel mode).
We worked with Grafmarine on several aspects of their product as part of Circular Revolution, including optimizing the panel design and investigating ways to extend the life of the panels, whilst making sure they don’t become problematic at the end of life. However, the circular business model is key to this example. Grafmarine adopted an Energy Service Company (ESCO) model, where the company provides the equipment for free and then makes money through Shared or Guaranteed Savings. By reducing the baseline costs for the customer, the company is incentivized to make sure products are as durable and efficient as possible in order to maximize the return on the savings. This is allowing them to scale this disruptive technology by reducing the risk for the companies adopting it and providing an operational environment for Grafmarine to continually test and improve their products.
Myhrden — GreenWave
As someone with a strong beard-to-bald ratio, my favourite example is maybe a little biased. The example I have chosen is GreenWave, a small hairdresser based in Haverfordwest with one of the most innovative uses for the hair they cut. They collect the hair and felt it into mats, which can then be used to soak up oil in oil spills — it’s a great low-tech way to create something useful out of waste. The mats are scientifically proven to be more effective than similar petroleum-based products, proving that we can always look to nature to find solutions to our problems. This video explains more.