As part of the Sustainability Cycles, an insightful workshop entitled ‘Make it circular’ was organised on 8 May to offer companies an exploration into integrating circular economy principles into their business models.

This innovative game ‘Make it circular! A gamified introduction to circular business models in a corporate setting’ has been developed collaboratively by acatech - German Academy of Science and Engineering, WWF Germany, and the Johannes Kepler University Linz. In a series of interactive stages, the participants delved into the various steps of implementing the circular economy and explored its meaning and practical applications.  

Sabrina Kohn, Sustainability Advisor at the House of Sustainability, opened the session with a welcome note underscoring the importance of embracing circular economy practices in today's business landscape. Circular Economy represents one of the Sustainable Business Principles with the goal for companies to move to a circular use of resources. The House of Sustainability supports companies in terms of circularity with awareness-raising workshops and events, a specific training offer as well as support on financial aids for circular investments.

Facilitated by Seda Akinci, Stakeholder Relations Officer at acatech, the workshop started with a presentation of the game, providing attendees with a comprehensive understanding of its mechanics and objectives. From there, participants embarked on practical group exercises, applying the principles learned to real-world scenarios. The game used business model cards and a complementary moderation guide to enable companies to independently facilitate circular economy workshops and to implement their own approaches to business models for a comprehensive circular economy. Participants exchanged experiences from their respective companies, stimulating a broad sharing of good practices and challenges.

By the end of the workshop, the participants had new strategies and, with the game, a concrete guide for integrating the circular economy into their companies.

The game “Make it Circular” is designed to be used by any company interested in circularity. It provides the necessary keys to understanding and reflections to implement circular economy in a business model. The game is available online and can be downloaded free of charge: Make-it-circular.