This year, I am taking on a new challenge, which also gives me the occasion to reflect on my journey so far.
I discovered the circular economy while working at Accenture, late 2014. At the time, I had no idea it would play such a central role in my career. That is, until I joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2016, to develop insights that support some of our largest corporate partners in understanding the opportunity of a circular economy for their industries. Then in 2018, I initiated and built Make Fashion Circular, rallying dozens of companies from across the fashion industry to accelerate its circular transformation. We launched exciting programmes like the Jeans Redesign, a book - Circular Design for Fashion, and reports including Circular Business Models for Fashion. After 5+ epic years, I felt that the conversations in the industry had changed significantly - moving away from macro questions about the opportunity of a circular economy, to practical ones around what companies could do to capture it. This led me to join BPCM, one of the first fashion and lifestyle PR agencies to move into sustainability, to support them in venturing into sustainability consulting, complementing their sustainability communications offerings.
Across these experiences, I have had the pleasure of meeting incredible people, taking part in impactful projects and learning a lot! I also deeply enjoyed building new programmes and developing thought leadership. So it feels quite natural that my next challenge is to build something from scratch.
This year, I am launching Swanstant, an intelligence and advisory firm. My aspiration is to continue developing actionable thought leadership to drive progress towards a thriving net zero economy, while supporting industry pioneers in bringing those roadmaps to life. I will continue to publish this newsletter and find additional ways to make it a worthwhile read.
I am extremely grateful to already be working with fantastic clients on thought leadership and impact strategies, and look forward to the new opportunities 2024 will bring!