At a recent NextCorps lunch & learn, founders and manufacturers gathered to explore a powerful idea: circular economy principles aren’t just good for the planet—they’re a source of real competitive advantage.
The session was led by Israa Ameen Thiab, a pollution prevention specialist at the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) and a doctoral candidate in sustainability at RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability. With more than 15 years of experience spanning environmental impact, supply chains, and the social dimensions of business, Israa offered a practical, financially grounded framework for thinking differently about products, materials, and business models.
Her message was clear: done right, circularity reduces costs, increases customer value, and builds resilience.
From linear to circular: Rethinking value
Most businesses still operate within a linear economy: take, make, break, dispose. We extract resources, manufacture products, use them briefly, and then throw them away, often while they still hold unused value.
The circular economy (CE) flips that model. Instead of focusing only on production and sales, circular systems ask deeper questions.
Why do customers buy products in the first place? What emotional or functional needs are being fulfilled? And what happens to that product—and its residual value—after use?
As Israa explained, we often discard products not because they’re fully used up, but because of replacement cycles, convenience, or changing preferences. That gap between “end of use” and “end of value” is where circular opportunities live.
Three principles of a circular economy
Israa grounded the conversation in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s definition of a circular economy as one that is restorative and regenerative by design, keeping products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times.
She outlined three core principles that founders can adopt to improve their impact and competitive edge, which apply not just to products but to business models themselves.
1. Design out waste and pollution
Up to 90% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage. Waste isn’t accidental—it’s often designed in. Companies like Fairphone show another path by designing phones with modular, easily replaceable components, dramatically extending product life and reducing e-waste.
2. Keep products and materials in flow at their highest value
The goal isn’t just recycling, but preserving embedded labor, energy, and materials. Caterpillar’s remanufactured engines, for example, deliver like-new performance at 50-60% of the cost, proving that circular models can outperform linear ones on price and quality.
3. Regenerate natural systems
For biological materials, circularity means returning nutrients safely to the biosphere. Ecovative’s mushroom-based packaging, grown from agricultural waste and fully compostable, is a compelling example of regeneration by design.
The Butterfly Diagram: Where value is preserved
The Butterfly Diagram helps visualize how circular strategies preserve value. Tighter loops—such as maintenance, repair, reuse, and remanufacturing—retain far more value than recycling or disposal. The further a product travels from its original form, the more value is lost.
As Israa put it bluntly, “If we keep throwing away manmade products, we’re going to live in a WALL-E world.”
Why circularity makes financial sense
The financial case for circular economy models is already strong and growing. Globally, the circular economy market reached an estimated $150B in 2024, with circular transactions such as resale, rental, and refurbished goods totaling $340B in 2022 and projected to double in 2026.
A Bain & World Economic Forum survey of 420 global manufacturing leaders found that 97% of companies implementing circular solutions are motivated by more than sustainability—including profitability, resilience, and customer retention. Seventy percent expect a circular economy boom by 2027.
Real-world results back this up. Interface has saved more than $450M through waste reduction, energy efficiency, and carpet tile take-back programs. Patagonia’s Worn Wear program proves that encouraging customers to buy less can actually increase loyalty and lifetime value, generating roughly $1M annually in resale value while strengthening brand trust.
Circular strategies at every stage, at every size
Crucially, Israa emphasized, you don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to capture circular value. Startups and established manufacturers face different realities, but both can benefit.
For startups, circularity is an advantage from day one. With no legacy systems to undo, designing for repair, reuse, or product-as-a-service models is far cheaper than retrofitting later. Retaining ownership of high-value products enables recovery at end-of-life, while partnerships and digital platforms make take-back, sharing, and rental models more accessible than ever.
For established manufacturers, circularity often involves process optimization and collaboration. Industrial symbiosis—where one company’s waste becomes another’s input—and closed-loop recovery systems can unlock value at scale, as seen in places like Denmark’s Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park.
During the session, Israa underscored that adopting circular strategies works best as a phased effort rather than a single leap. Companies should start by understanding their current product and material flows, explore multiple circular pathways, and evaluate financial implications before committing to major changes. The goal isn’t perfection, but progress—starting with quick wins and building toward longer-term transformation.
From insight to action
With “right-to-repair” regulations gaining momentum and markets like the EU raising the bar, circular design is quickly becoming a requirement, not a nice-to-have. For New York–based companies, NYSP2I offers assessments, technical guidance, and funding support to help offset project costs and reduce risk.
At NextCorps, we’re excited to incorporate these circular economy principles into our Manufacturing Accelerator curriculum, because building competitive, resilient companies means designing for value that lasts.
Join us at a future lunch & learn. Subscribe to the NextCorps newsletter for monthly workshops and events with industry experts.