For marketing and sales professionals, understanding the principles and potential of CE is becoming a competitive advantage. It equips you to meet customer expectations, tell powerful brand stories, and shape the way products and services are designed, delivered, and valued.

Here are the top five reasons why now is the time to invest in Circular Economy skills:

1. Meet the market where it’s going

Consumer expectations are changing. Research shows a growing preference for brands that demonstrate environmental and social responsibility. CE isn’t just a sustainability strategy – it’s a growth opportunity for future-fit brands. Marketing and Sales professionals who understand circular models are better equipped to build meaningful, long-term customer relationships. 

2. Turn sustainability into a sales advantage

Sales teams that understand circular value propositions (like product-as-a-service or buy-back guarantees) can build trust, differentiate more clearly, and close more deals – especially in B2B environments where total cost of ownership and risk reduction matter. 

3. Leverage new customer data from circular models

CE business models (e.g. subscriptions, product returns, maintenance programs) generate ongoing customer data – not just one-off transactions. This unlocks new insights into product usage, service pain points, and unmet needs, offering a competitive edge in both marketing and sales strategy. 

4. Strengthen brand resilience in volatile markets

Circular strategies help reduce dependence on virgin materials and volatile supply chains. For sales and marketing, this means more consistent product availability, more transparent messaging, and a stronger value story in times of uncertainty. 

5. Be the voice of circular transformation

Marketing and sales functions are uniquely placed to tell the story of circular transition – to customers, partners, and internal stakeholders. By owning this narrative, professionals can elevate their role from executors to strategic changemakers within their organisations. 

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In today’s rapidly changing world, businesses are under increasing pressure to become more sustainable, efficient, and innovative. The circular economy offers a powerful solution – shifting away from the traditional “take, make, waste” model towards one that keeps resources in use for longer, reduces waste, and creates long-term value. For businesses, this isn’t just good for the planet; it’s good for competitiveness and growth. That’s why Circular Economy courses for business are becoming a must-have in 2025.

Explore our Circular Economy Courses

Why Businesses Can’t Afford to Wait

Governments, investors, and consumers are demanding more action on sustainability. Policies like the UN Sustainable Development Goals and net-zero targets are reshaping how industries operate. Meanwhile, leading organisations are already using circular economy strategies to cut costs, open up new revenue streams, and future-proof their operations.

Businesses that fail to adapt risk falling behind. Those who embrace circularity stand to gain.

Learn more from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the global leader in circular economy research and innovation.

Circular Economy Courses for Business: Your Pathways to Action

At the University of Exeter Centre for Circular Economy, we’ve developed three online programmes designed to help professionals and organisations apply circular principles directly to their work:

1. Circular Economy Masterclass (6 weeks)

For individuals and organisations seeking a comprehensive understanding of implementing the circular economy. Build a strong foundation, explore case studies, and learn how to integrate circularity into strategy, design, and operations.

Find out more

2. Deep Dive: Procurement & Supply (4 weeks)

Designed for procurement and supply chain leaders, this course explores how to reimagine sourcing, logistics, and supplier relationships to unlock circular value.

Discover the Deep Dive

3. Deep Dive: Marketing & Sales (4 weeks)

Perfect for marketers and sales professionals, this course helps you reshape value propositions, engage customers in new ways, and design messaging aligned with sustainability.

Explore the Marketing & Sales Course

Why Choose Exeter?

• Globally recognised expertise in circular economy research and practice
• Practical, business-focused content designed for immediate application
• Flexible online delivery for busy professionals
• Access to a powerful global network of like-minded innovators

Ready to Act?

2025 is the year to embed circular economy thinking into your business. These courses are your opportunity to get ahead, learn from experts, and drive real impact.

Our Circular Economy Courses

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In this article, we explore why circular economy capability is becoming essential for B Corps and B Corp‑aspiring businesses, how it supports certification and long-term resilience, and why investing in skills and education is a critical step in moving from ambition to action.

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While the environmental conversation around moving usually focuses on the carbon emissions associated with transport logistics—the fuel burned by container ships and cargo planes—there is a more insidious, tangible environmental cost that is often overlooked. We rarely calculate how the act of uprooting a life and replanting it elsewhere contributes to linear consumption patterns and significantly impacts international waste flows. 

A household move is a critical friction point in the lifecycle of products. It is a moment when the perceived value of goods often clashes with the logistical reality of transporting them. From a circular economy perspective, international relocation represents a massive “leakage” event, where tons of functional, durable goods fall out of the economic loop and into the waste stream, only to be replaced by new virgin materials in the destination country. Addressing this requires moving beyond seeing relocation merely as a logistical challenge and viewing it instead as a material flow problem that demands circular solutions.

Strategies for a Circular Relocation

To align household mobility with circular-economy principles, movers benefit from shifting away from one-way disposal habits and toward practices that keep materials in use for longer. The process starts well before departure. With enough lead time, individuals can sell or donate furniture, appliances, and household goods through local digital marketplaces instead of discarding them at the last moment. This approach keeps items circulating in the community and reduces the overall footprint of the move.

During planning, many people also explore sustainable ways to relocate abroad, especially when they want an eco-friendly international move built around smart packing and conscious resource use. Packing and decluttering with care—such as separating items for donation, recycling, or reuse—reduces the shipment weight and limits unnecessary waste. Additionally, choosing eco-friendly moving supplies, including biodegradable materials and reusable containers, supports a lower-impact transition.

Once settled in the destination country, shifting from ownership to access-based solutions can further reduce waste. Furniture and appliance rental programs, including emerging Product-as-a-Service models, offer flexible furnishing options for expats who may not want to purchase items they will later discard.

Finally, selecting a green moving company strengthens the sustainability profile of the relocation. Providers who prioritize consolidated shipping, fuel-efficient logistics, and reusable packing systems help decrease emissions and resource consumption across international routes.

The Linear Trap: Why We “Dump and Run”

The driving force behind relocation waste is often a regrettable economic disconnect. It is frequently cheaper and undeniably more convenient to discard high-quality items in the origin country and repurchase them in the destination country than it is to pack, insure, and ship them. This economic reality encourages a “dump and run” mentality that is antithetical to material reusability and other principles of a circular economy.

When a family moves intercontinentally, durable goods—washing machines, sofas, heavy wooden furniture, and varied appliances—often end their functional life prematurely. They aren’t broken; they are simply inconvenient. This premature disposal creates a sudden injection of discarded materials that complicates existing international waste flows, overburdening local municipal waste systems that may not be equipped to handle a sudden influx of bulky goods.

Furthermore, the psychological allure of “starting fresh” in a new country drives significant demand for new products upon arrival. That stimulates linear production cycles, often encouraging the purchase of “fast furniture” and temporary household goods meant to fill an immediate need rather than last a lifetime. The result is a dual-sided environmental impact: the unnecessary creation of waste at origin and the stimulation of resource-intensive virgin production at the destination.

The Packaging Problem: A Global Waste Tide

Beyond the items being moved, the movement itself generates an enormous volume of auxiliary waste. That isn’t something you should ignore — the logistics of protecting household goods during a volatile sea or air voyage rely heavily on single-use materials. We see mountains of virgin cardboard, kilometers of plastic bubble wrap, Styrofoam peanuts, and plastic shrink wrap used for a single journey and then immediately discarded.

Unlike industrial shipping, which utilizes standardized containers, household goods vary wildly in shape and fragility, leading to excessive, non-standardized packaging. Once the boxes are unpacked in the new country, this packaging material becomes immediate cross-border waste. Packaging generated in London ends up burdening the recycling or landfill infrastructure of Sydney or New York. This phenomenon adds a distinct, high-volume layer to international waste flows that is difficult to manage because it is highly distributed at the household level rather than concentrated in industrial zones.

Systemic Solutions: Policy and Industry Standards

While individual choices matter, systemic change is necessary to truly close the loop on relocation waste. We need policy interventions that incentivize retention over replacement.

One promising avenue is the development of Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for furniture and appliances. If an item carries a verifiable digital history of its materials, repairability, and origin, it becomes easier to value it correctly for resale across borders or prove its worth to customs officials, reducing the incentive to dump it due to bureaucratic friction.

Furthermore, the logistics industry needs to move toward the standardization of reusable packaging for household goods. Similar to how standard shipping containers revolutionized global trade, the development of universal, durable, reusable shipping crates for household items—which circulate globally rather than becoming waste after one use—would be a game-changer. That requires industry-wide cooperation to create a reverse logistics network, shifting the paradigm from linear consumption to circular systems that redefine international waste flows.

Household Moves Can Influence International Waste Flows

A household move is a significant disruption in material flows. Currently, that disruption inevitably leads to waste generation on a massive scale, reinforcing a linear “take-make-dispose” model that the planet can no longer afford. By recognizing relocation as a critical node in the circular economy, we can begin to design out waste. 

Through a combination of better individual planning, the adoption of access-over-ownership models, and systemic industry changes in packaging and logistics, we can ensure that moving our lives doesn’t mean leaving a legacy of trash behind, ultimately curbing the destructive volume of international waste flows.

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So, what exactly is a circular business model? And why does it matter?

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I’ve sat in countless strategy meetings where sustainability is discussed, but only ever as a risk, a target, or a tick-box. Don’t get me wrong: these conversations are necessary. But they’re nowhere near enough.

The post Why circular economy skills are becoming essential and what most businesses are getting wrong appeared first on Exeter Centre for Circular Economy.

These teams have enormous influence over how products are designed, made, moved, and eventually recovered. That makes circular procurement one of the most powerful tools for future-proofing a business.  

What Do We Mean by Circular Procurement? 

Traditional procurement is largely focused on buying the right goods and services at the right price, quality, and time. It’s about enabling the business to function efficiently and profitably. 

 Circular procurement goes a step further. It looks at the entire lifecycle of what’s being bought and asks: 

• Can this product be repaired, reused, or remanufactured? 

• Is it designed to last? 

• Will it generate waste, or help avoid it? 

• What happens to it at the end of use? 

 Instead of buying based on short-term value, circular procurement focuses on long-term outcomes – economic, environmental, and social. 

Why it Matters More than Ever 

The risks facing global supply chains are increasing: 

• Resource scarcity and price volatility 

• Disruptions due to climate impacts or geopolitical events 

• Stricter regulations on human rights, due diligence, and emissions 

• Pressure from customers and investors for credible sustainability action 

Circular procurement helps organisations build resilience. It does this by shortening supply loops, finding value in what would previously have been waste, and improving supplier relationships by focusing on outcomes rather than just cost. 

As regulations like the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive come into play, understanding your extended supply chain, how and where goods are made, is no longer optional. Procurement teams are being asked not just to buy well, but to buy responsibly. 

Procurement and Supply Chain: At the Heart of Circular Change 

While procurement and supply chain management (SCM) have often been seen as separate functions, they are deeply interconnected. Procurement brings in the materials and services that feed the supply chain. SCM ensures they move efficiently from supplier to customer. 

Profitability Meets Purpose 

It’s important to recognise that this isn’t just about compliance or environmental good intentions. Circular procurement can directly support profitability. Procurement decisions typically influence between 40% and 80% of an organisation’s spending. That means they can shape how money is spent and how value is created or lost. 

Circular models like product-as-a-service, shared ownership, and remanufacturing open new cost structures and revenue streams. Procurement teams are ideally placed to identify these opportunities and negotiate outcomes that align business goals with sustainability targets. 

In Summary

Circular procurement isn’t a bolt-on to your current role, it’s an evolution of it. For procurement and supply chain professionals, this is a moment of transformation. The same skills you’ve always used; analysis, negotiation, relationship-building, cost control, are now being applied to bigger goals: reducing waste, increasing resilience, creating shared value. 

Take the Next Step: Deepen Your Expertise

Thanks for reading “Why Circular Procurement is Key to Future-Proofing your Supply Chain”. If you’re ready to turn insight into action, join our Circular Economy Deep Dive: Procurement and Supply course.

This 4-week online programme is designed specifically for procurement and supply chain professionals who want to lead change within their organisations. You’ll gain:

• Strategic tools and frameworks to embed circularity in sourcing and supplier decisions

• Practical insights on lifecycle thinking, risk mitigation, and innovation

• Peer-reviewed resources developed in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

• A circular procurement toolkit ready to use in your day-to-day role

Find out more

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If you want to make your supply chain more future-ready, and more future-proof, this is the time to get involved.

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