Next Agents
1. How do you work with the circular economy today?
At Next Agents, we have developed a 90 days action plan to help businesses know where to start with circular innovation, where to go, and how to get there (fast). As innovation experts and facilitators, we provide answers and directions and get our clients equipped for their sustainability journey. Our process follows a sustainability innovation assessment based on the ISO 56000 standard, foresight analysis and an innovation prioritisation process. We are the affiliate for the Nordics for Rapid Learning Cycles (RLC), an agile management approach that we use for implementing circular innovation. We are thought leaders in our fields with more than 70 years of combined experience. We have also brought our expertise to academia and industry events for years.
2. Why do you become a member of Cradlenet?
To drive change, we need to work together. We want to stay in touch with other circularity leaders, experts, co-opetitors and aspiring change-makers to share viewpoints, experiences and support. We value peer-to-peer communities, exchange of knowledge and matchmaking.
3. Do you have any circular initiatives that you are particularly proud of?
Based on our years of field experience working with innovation, we have developed a 90 days program as a standardised approach for sustainable change in business organisations. We are proud to transform our expertise in assessment, foresight and innovation prioritisation into a contained, science-based framework that provides measurable guidance for circular change.
Among recent projects, we are proud of the circular service innovation for Ogoori, a Norwegian company offering ocean plastic in a MaaS (Material as a Service) model. Additionally, we bring work experience from several sustainability-based innovation projects for brands such as Stockholm Resilience Center, Patagonia Europe, among others.
4. Have you encountered any particular challenge that more people struggle with? What lessons has the challenge led to?
The innovation process is already challenging for many businesses, and focusing on circular innovation may be even more complicated. Without the right approach, ‘sustainability’ projects are often chosen randomly and fail below profitable expectations. On the other hand, each business has its unique sustainability value potential to leverage, often yet to be discovered. We call it the Holy Grail - an opportunity that brings both sustainability and business value. Sadly, we often see sustainability innovation decisions randomly chosen based on opinion rather than knowledge.
