Partners in Circular Economy Design and Strategy | Circularity — Circularity
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We are your
partner in
circular design
and strategy,
together shaping a
better way forward.

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Our mission as Circularity, is to radically redesign business for a more resilient and regenerative future.

 
 
 

As an impact-driven organisation, we act on a deep-rooted belief that environmental impact can be designed out.

Taking our inspiration from the natural world’s ability to move in diverse, systematic circular flows.

Where in nature, there is no waste.

Attempting this in reality for your business can be complex and often overwhelming.

Simply put, that’s why we are here.

We help you to work with nature, not against it and unlock new ways of doing business.

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We believe in a future where business works with nature, not against it.

What if everything we did, consumed and created, enriched the living systems we rely on – the land, water, air and the energy we all share?

We believe in a future where business works with nature, not against it.

Where regenerating both human and planetary systems becomes business as usual.

An economy measured by the health of our living systems – both human and planetary – to not only survive, but thrive. By designing the circular flows of materials, products and resources through our hands, homes, industries and cities where waste is designed out and carnon reaches drawdown. The time is now.

Where regenerating both human and planetary systems becomes business as usual.

Where innovation addresses the greatest challenges of our time, to improve the world around us.

We invest and incentivise innovation across the full system towards this future state. Worth up to $4.5 trillion dollars in wasted resources globally to address the 45% of emissions generated by how we produce and make products.

Where innovation addresses the greatest challenges of our time, to improve the world around us.

Where business models combined with technology enable us to produce and consume without waste.

Enabling products to become services and our materials flow through circular systems to enable recovery, reuse, repair and remanufacture.

Where business models combined with technology enable us to produce and consume without waste.

Where the value we create in the economy, aligns with the values we live by.

So that, ultimately - our businesses, households and communities thrive.

Where the value we create in the economy, aligns with the values we live by.

For a future that is circular by design.

For a future that is circular by design.
 
 

Our Journey.

Circularity was ‘created’ by our founder Louise Nash as part of a Master of Technological Futures from the AcademyX Institute.

Her Master’s was focused on understanding the environmental impact caused by everything we make, create, use and consume. Known as the linear economy, it uses the Earth's ecological resources and returns them as pollution.

She explored how businesses could unlock new ways of working that reduce their impact by regenerating, restoring and recirculating resources. To lighten their impact on the natural world. The Master’s program provided the scaffolding around how Louise might develop the tools, processes and approaches that would help businesses accelerate the shift from linear to circular ways of operating. She launched Circularity and the Circular by Design methods as key artefacts for her Masters.

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Circularity's journey -

By working directly with businesses to understand and validate the best ‘tools’ to unlock mindset, build capability and unearth solutions, we have been able to rapidly accelerate our impact and reach. For each new project we continually refine our approach, selecting what works best for each business, to increase our impact and the challenge we need to solve. From waste, emissions, apathy or sometimes just lack of awareness of the issues or even just finding the right solution for the job.

We have had the opportunity to contribute to reports such as Rethinking plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand, Hosting events at Techweek - working with clients like Cardrona, APL, launching a global waterless skincare brand and designing with biomaterials made by 4D printers with our friends at Scion... In 2020 we brought this body of work together to deliver XLabs, NZ’s first circular economy lab. Over a 9 week design sprint 17 businesses came together to develop solutions for the environmental challenges using circular principles through a te ao Māori world view.

This year we launched our podcast called The Redesign of Everything, so that we might share the work of the changemakers and the practitioners around the world to inspire others to do the same. In February next year, we are thrilled to be representing NZ at the World Expo in Dubai to share our NZ perspective on how we might tackle the global food waste challenge.

In 2021, we formed a strategic partnership with the Ministry for the Environment to bring XLabs back in 2021/22 - Aotearoa's circular economy lab where businesses can design solutions to an enviromental challenge facing their business. See XLabs.nz.

Find out more about our journey on our podcast here.

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Louise Nash
Founder and CEO of Circularity and XLabs circular innovation labs. The Redesign of Everything podcast. Co-author or Making Circularity Work

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Louise’s journey toward circular innovation began with a profound realisation: much of what she helped create in brand development became environmental waste. Determined to change this, she pivoted her career towards accelerating the circular economy, focusing on redesigning business for long-term resilience. Under her leadership, Circularity has built the capability of iver 25,000 individuals and delivered over 168 circular transformation strategies across packaging, textiles, transport, plastics food, timber, and water. These initiatives have the potential to recirculate 767,000 tonnes of resources and tap into a $4.5 trillion global circular economy opportunity. With over 20 years of experience in global strategic brand development, human-centered design thinking, and emerging disruptive technology, Louise has been recognised as a creative innovator and global speaker on circularity. Most recently, she was a finalist for the ‘Sustainable Superstar’ Award and received a commendation for XLabs for the ‘Going Circular’ Award at the 2023 Sustainable Business Network Awards, alongside an Economic Development Best Practice award.

She holds a Bachelor of Economics, a Master’s in Law, an IDEO Business Design and AI for Product Design certification, a Master’s of Tech Futures in Circular Economy, and the Sustainable Business Council’s Nature-Disclosure course. She has worked across government, business, and consumer goods in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Singapore.

Her philosophy is simple—work with nature, not against it. By embedding circular principles into business strategies, she is unlocking new value while solving environmental challenges. Today, Circularity is expanding globally, pioneering circular systems that redefine how industries operate for a regenerative future.

 
 
 

Samanatha Walmsley-Bartlett
Global Circularity Strategist, Co-author of Making Circularity Work

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Samantha is an award-winning Global Circularity Strategist with a passion for using systems thinking to connect solutions, mindsets, and action. She has deep knowledge of driving circularity and emissions targets across food systems and supply chains.

Previously, as Head of Sustainability – Global Grower & Supply Chain at Zespri International, Samantha led industry-wide initiatives to unlock carbon drawdown solutions for the circular bioeconomy. She facilitated unprecedented collaboration between grower and packhouse businesses at XLabs, resulting in the identification and validation of scalable business models for the first biochar produced to a carbon certified standard, tree planting and post-harvest decarbonisation. Samantha also played a key role in securing significant investment from global shipping partners for vessels and infrastructure supporting the decarbonisation of shipping routes.

In 2022, Samantha was awarded the 'Change Maker' title at the New Zealand Sustainable Business Awards. She holds a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Botany and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Management from the University of Otago, providing her with a deep understanding of ecosystems and the natural world.

At Circularity, she helps clients unlock practical, scalable solutions through collaboration, enabling bold action and lasting change. Samantha is co-author of Making Circularity Work, a series that shares real stories and practical strategies for scaling circular economy practices across industries.

 
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Our collaborators and community.

We are part of a growing community around the world that is shaping the economy towards regenerative outcomes.

We work openly with this global coalition of the willing, bringing together leading knowledge, insights and tools from across oceans, industries and expertise as and when our work benefits from it.

Our approach is inspired by the organisations, communities, and people who seek a better future and are working to make it possible. Taking learnings from those who have come before, and together, leading a better way forward.

Ma mua ka kite a muri, ma muri ka ora a mua. Those who lead give sight to those who follow. Those who follow give life to those who lead.


 
 
 
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Let’s design your way forward...

As our partners, you can be part of this global movement, this new narrative for innovation. Together, we’ll shape a better way forward that’s Circular by Design. Creating closed-loop systems, exploring circular business models, innovating with smarter materials, regenerative behaviours, and embedding solutions with technology — these are some of the proven methods we will use to tackle the challenges we face today. 

 
 
 
 
 

Media Coverage.

 
 
 
 

“Who are businesses really responsible to? Their customers? Shareholders? Employees? We would argue that it’s none of the above. Fundamentally, businesses are responsible for their resource base. Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers and no business”

Yvon Chouinard, Founder Patagonia.