As a consequence of the industrial revolution, a strong increase of global living standards and digitization we have reached the point of being saturated and “at max capacity”.

Covid-19 has led to a steep spike of E-commerce businesses that came with irreversible overproduction, overconsumption of products and resulting in a gigantic increase of returns. The overwhelming and negative effects of the tremendous amounts of unnecessary returns has left businesses all over the world numb, not to mention the enormous environmental and financial cost that comes with this fast growing problem.

Governments are starting to recognize the need for effective sustainable business models, and are introducing measures such as banning single use plastics and shortening product return periods, while companies being pressured into action through laws and regulation.

Despite regulation and local initiatives it seems existing companies and brands are not adequately prepared nor designed to support circular economy principles leaving rigorous direct and practical measurements behind.

In order to bridge this gap a revolutionary cultural and technological transition needs to be embraced that aligns with triple bottom line principles and practices so that we can start to use, re-use and preserve what we already have.