Materialising Circularity

Prompted by insights from our making and manufacturing community, Make Works Scotland invite discussion about the drivers for and actions required to realise a transition to meaningful and impactful circular models.

Within our growing and shared knowledge of the circular economy, we will explore what we need to learn and importantly unlearn, action and practice, evidence and reflect on to intentionally design and realise restorative and regenerative practices, processes, systems and business models. With contributors we will:

• highlight what influences, blocks, challenges, enables and supports transition
• consider the scope of evidence and feedback that informs and demonstrates a commitment to continuous change
• identify opportunities for value creation and taking creative approaches
• recognise the benefits of circularity and appetite for circular business models

Make Works Scotland is one of five global libraries for local manufacturing in the growing Make Works network, started in Scotland in 2014. With our community of 150+ makers, fabricators, manufacturers, material suppliers and workshop facilities in Scotland, we are keen to understand the potential for nourishing and evidencing a collective and supported transition to circular.

Contributors:

• The Edinburgh Tool Library is a library which lends tools instead of books. They've recently spent time developing a carbon saving calculator, allowing their members to understand the carbon footprint reduction they make by sharing tools instead of buying.
• Caro Overy is an Edinburgh based Musician and Sustainability Professional. In her role with Creative Carbon Scotland, she supports cultural organisations with carbon management. Drawing on her recent development project Climate Friendly Culture, she will approach the discussion by considering how carbon management and culture fit together and how this relationship can support circularity.
• Nat Hunter is a designer, educator and coach. As co-director of Design at the RSA she co-founded The Great Recovery, a pioneering project that created a framework for designers to understand how to design for a circular economy. She is a member of the Fab City Collective and Distributed Design, developing new manufacturing possibilities, alternative business models and design practices for ambitious and hopeful futures and has recently co-authored the Design Council's Beyond Net Zero, A Systemic Design Approach report .
• Kalopsia Collective, a registered social enterprise based in Leith, are a textile product manufacturer supplying clients with ethical and sustainable accessories and apparel from their standardised product collection Assemble, itself a circular manufacturing model. They recently participated on the RSA / Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Rethink Fashion: a learning journey.

Make Works is part of Distributed Design, an exchange platform and networking hub for the European maker movement, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Design by Viola Madau. Image Edinburgh Tool Library.