Walk the Talk: Circular Economy in Practice

How to not only think about circular economy but also actively implement it was impressively demonstrated today by Vera Amtmann at the Retail and Marketing Practice Dialogue. Her startup, BeResilient, transforms coffee grounds – a biogenic waste material – into a valuable resource. Under the brand Beansaver, this is used to produce fertilizer, which is already available at Interspar, Starkl, and starting this year, also at Lagerhaus.

That 99% of the coffee bean ends up in the residual waste is probably unknown to many coffee drinkers. Even fewer realize that innovative products can be created from this waste. For companies collecting coffee grounds for Beansaver, the project makes sense not only from a sustainability perspective and as part of Corporate Social Responsibility, but also economically: disposal costs can be saved.

Vera Amtmann provided fascinating insights into the challenges and processes – from evaluating product ideas to listing them in retail, managing the complexity costs of expanding the product range, and financing the upcoming scale-up.