“It feels like we were meant to meet each other!” – It’s not a hazard if you felt that way during the launch of The Circular Society Network London during London Climate Action Week back in June.
For more than a year now, I’ve been hunting down new profiles that could potentially match your needs and open your minds to start building together, a Circular Society with inspiring leaders and experts in the key industries of our economy. Online and in-person across London.
Keep reading to discover what’s happening in London, our latest updates and be inspired by these new profiles I’ve met and learned from between May and June, from city farmers to the Mayor of London and the president of COP26.
Food, Retail, Energy, Construction, Materials, Fashion, Tech and Finance & Investment, Education, Infrastructure, Transportation and Mobility, and more, I’ve been covering all key sectors to better understand their challenges, their innovations and the synergies and interconnections between these sectors so we can find inspiration to create new circular markets together, that benefit our Planet, our People, and our Economy.
Part 1 – Reinforcing nature, food and biodiversity in our cities
Did you know that London counts dozens of city farms?
With chickens, cows, donkeys, sheep and community gardens, these city farms are all across the city, all sizes, enabling local social gatherings, easy access to food, education activities for all ages, and better air quality in our city.
I began my city farm tour with Kentish Town City Farm, the oldest city farm in London (50 years old).
The chickens welcomed me as soon as I passed the entrance, making me feel reconnected with nature right away!
There, I discussed with their team about the future role city farms can play in our transition. We may host an event there in the future! Let me know if you’d be keen to spend a day there of half a day, to do some community activities together!
Meeting the wholesaler of OCADO and Food Brands in Camden
I was very excited to learn more about the Food & Drink Sector and meet the people shaping the future of food distribution in our cities. But also about the process, the challenges and the opportunities of getting a food product onto one of the major supermarkets’ shelves.
So I booked a ticket to join the Bread & Jam community during a networking session in Camden, London. There, I got the chance to spread awareness about sustainability in the food & drink/manufacturing sectors and met the founder of one of the main wholesalers of OCADO.
He gave a presentation to food brands with interesting tips to get their products on supermarkets’ shelves or catalogues and shared with us his fascinating entrepreneurial journey. A great presentation. I managed to get in touch with him since and he replied positively saying he couldn’t make it for our launch event but is interested in participating in one of our future matchmaking events…
There, I also met one of our new members, Lili, founder of Bardo, a healthy snack brand born in Eastern Europe and now preparing its distribution in the UK.
With her expertise in cereals, food manufacturing and interest in the hemp sector, she will be able to share her challenges and successes in these topics, whilst also learning new tips from you all to become always more sustainable and why not create new opportunities around food distribution systems with you, to bring refill systems & food directly to the end consumer and facilitate mass adoption of the circular economy!
