Waste to Wealth (PDF)

Peter Lacy is Global Managing Director of Sustainability Services at Accenture and a member of the Accenture Strategy leadership team. He is an adviser to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and governments, CEOs and boards around the world. He is a business fellow at Oxford University, a WEF Young Global Leader and co-founder of 'The Circulars', the first worldwide circular economy award for business innovation. He is a regular contributor to publications such as the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Business Week, The Guardian and China Daily.

Jakob Rutqvist is a manager in Accenture's Strategy and Sustainability practice and is part of its Nordic sustainability leadership team. Before Accenture he worked as a lobbyist on innovation, climate and energy and has engaged big multinationals as well as governments and institutions like the UN, World Bank, World Economic Forum and EU Parliament. He is an alumni of Clinton Global Initiative, One Young World and Harvard University. Jakob has written for Fast Company and Fortune.

'As Waste to Wealth shows with case studies of leading companies across industries, the circular economy model works increasingly well for our customers and for us. You have to shed your old habits and put in the initial effort to change, but it makes so much sense. We can engineer products for a longer usage, we can recoup the residual value once the economic life is over. The customer is foremost interested in the benefit of our products, so why not only sell them the benefit as a service, while we retain ownership and operate the technology. And what about you?'

- Frans van Houten, CEO, Royal Philips

'Circular economy, circular responsibility, circular advantage. So simple, yet so powerful. This book is a practical contribution to future-proof your business models in an increasingly resource-constrained world. Not hard to see that in the age of transparency, citizens of this world will demand this from all companies seeking a license to operate. Time to get on with it.'

- Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever

'We need to face it: in order to make our economic system really sustainable, it is inevitable that we redesign it. This book shows the steps we can make. We will need to switch from a Linear to a Circular Economy. This means much more than recycling. The Circular Economy is about new ways of creating value via innovation and new business models.'

- Feike Sijbesma, CEO, Royal DSM

'Waste to Wealth captures the spirit of one of today's most significant business trends: the circular economy. Lacy and Rutqvist approach the topic in a straightforward and practical manner, underlining that the linear take-make-waste model is (or should be) on its way towards extinction. They clearly set out the need to unleash the true value and potential of materials, whether in their beginning-of-life, utilization, or end-of-initial-life phases. This approach has also inspired our work in the Carlsberg Circular Community, and I believe