Interview with Joe Murphy

Q: What is the CE100 Business Network?

A: It’s the entry point for companies who are intrigued by the circular economy. About half of the members are big businesses and the rest are made up of small businesses, universities, government, NGOs and other stakeholders. It is a framework for value creation, providing insight, education, networking and prototyping of new business models, where groups work on collaborative projects: at the moment about 75% of members are involved in 13 projects, which go on for six to 12 months.

Q: How important is reman to the network?

A: There is a cascaded approach to the circular economy, with sharing, re-use, reman, component harvesting and recycling. Reman has a big part to play at the component and product level and the mobility sector is ahead in reman. Renault have a reman plant in France which in 2013 was the most profitable site across their whole portfolio. The airline industry remans a large number of components. Reman is one of the core pillars of the circular economy.

Q: How can reman firms get involved with you?

A: CE100 is a formal programme of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and we are constantly open to new businesses joining. In a more informal capacity, there is a lot of content which people can access. We have an online magazine, Circulate, and we are always looking for examples of people applying circular economy thinking in their businesses. The Foundation is not-for-profit: we want to be a reference point for all good practice.

Get in touch? Send an email to joe.murphy@ellenmacarthurfoundation.org