Nearly 300 entrants from 45 countries competed for recognition of their circular economy achievements and innovations
The World Economic Forum and the Forum of Young Global Leaders, in collaboration with Accenture (NYSE:ACN), awarded The Circulars at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made notable contributions to the circular economy. Accenture sees the circular economy as a way to harness innovative and disruptive technologies to move beyond the linear models of take, make, waste. Circular models emphasize decoupling scarce or harmful natural resources from growth and jobs, and delivering value to consumers and citizens in the global economy.
The Circulars fourth annual awards ceremony showcased advances from the private and public sectors as well as civil society that drive innovation and growth while reducing dependence on scarce natural resources.
The seven Circulars were awarded as follows:
The Fortune Award for Circular Economy Leadership: Frans van Houten, CEO, Philips, for leading the transformation of Philips into a circular company by shifting its business model, moving from selling equipment alone to providing solutions to customers, and sharing risk for results through long-term partnerships. Franz is also co-chair of the World Economic Forum Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy and he strongly advocates the circular business and industry opportunity, and challenges organizations to operationalize these principles to deliver tangible impact.
The Accenture Strategy Award for Circular Economy Multinational: IKEA, for working with a circular model in all aspects of their company's operations. From developing products and their supply chain, sourcing and mapping material in their business, implementing circular design principles, and adapting their model to meet their customers' demands.
The Young Global Leaders Award for Circular Economy SME (Small to Medium Size Enterprise): Apto Solutions, for providing a wide range of services to help companies close the loop on electronic waste, including lifecycle asset management, responsible IT recycling, facility and data center consolidations, cloud migrations, repair and refurbishing, total device management solutions (TDM), as well as logistics, technology decommissioning and project management services.
The Award for Circular Economy Public Sector: Sitra, for playing a key role in accelerating circular economy, and leading the building of the ground-breaking Circular Economy Road Map for Finland 2016-2025, which incorporated circular economy education across 1,500 elementary schools and 50 high schools. Sitra also created the concept for and hosted the first World Circular Economy Forum in 2017, co-organized together with partners including the Nordic Council of Ministers, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, European Commission, UN Environment, and other very important partners.
The CNBC Award for Circular Economy Investor: ABN AMRO Bank NV, for being at the forefront of circular finance, and using their circular experts and relationship managers to work together in agile teams to understand and enable financing of new business models emerging from the principles of the circular economy.
The Ecolab Award for Circular Economy Digital Disruptor: AMP Robotics, for successfully developing a new kind of sorting technology for recycling facilities: Cortex robot. The Cortex can automate the separation of waste with practically no retrofit or change to existing operations. Cortex robots are powered by Neuron, the artificial intelligence that perceives material in the dirty, commingled conditions found in facilities today.
The Dell Circular Economy People's Choice Award: Banyan Nation, is India's first vertically integrated recycling company, using data intelligence to integrate a largely informal supply chain to maximize plastics recovery and reuse. To date, Banyan has recycled more than seven million pounds of plastics and integrated more than 2000 informal sector waste workers in their value chain.
"Across the globe we continue to face the need to create growth, jobs and a thriving global economy within the boundaries of sustainable development. This is why The Circulars are more timely than ever with an aim of identifying the organizations and individuals leading this movement through innovation, growth and competitiveness," said Peter Lacy, senior managing director, Accenture Strategy. "Accenture is pleased to play a key role in identifying these organizations and individuals by recognizing those who are using disruptive technologies and business models to address some of the most pressing challenges our world is facing and at the same time turning them into real opportunity."
This year The Circulars attracted 296 entries from 45 countries. The judging panel was drawn from the Young Global Leader community of the World Economic Forum and leading experts across business and civil society. In addition to Accenture Strategy, The Circulars are sponsored by Dell and Ecolab, with CNBC and Fortune Magazine engaged as media partners.
"As advancements in the circular economy continue to disrupt old-school ideologies, The Circulars lead the way in identifying those transformational businesses and individuals who through digital connectivity, industrial design and progressive concepts have contributed in a significant and positive way to the environment and to economic growth," said Antonia Gawal, Head of Circular Economy Initiative, World Economic Forum. "The Circulars remain an important initiative of the World Economic Forum and the Forum of Young Global Leaders to celebrate such trailblazing innovation and impact."
About Accenture
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Accenture Strategy operates at the intersection of business and technology. We bring together our capabilities in business, technology, operations and function strategy to help our clients envision and execute industry-specific strategies that support enterprise wide transformation. Our focus on issues related to digital disruption, competitiveness, global operating models, talent and leadership help drive both efficiencies and growth. For more information, follow @AccentureStrat or visit www.accenture.com/strategy
About the Forum of Young Global Leaders
Established in 2004 by Professor Klaus Schwab, The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world's most extraordinary young leaders who dedicate a part of their time to jointly address global challenges and who are committed to devote part of their knowledge and energy to collectively work towards a better future. Together the Young Global Leaders work to discover innovative solutions to today's most pressing problems through various initiatives and workstreams, as well as catalyzing the next generation of leaders. Find out more at: http://www.weforum.org/community/forum-young-global-leaders
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