Speakers and Cases

In the upcoming Circular Design HOW TO? webinar we will dive into the topic of Circular Textiles. The session is held in cooperation and as part of the 10th anniversary of the German Ecodesign Award.


Jan Gimkiewicz - Challenges of the Textile Industry & “Quality and Lifetime of Textiles"
Jan studied social and political sciences in Oldenburg and Berlin. Since 2018, he has been working as a research assistant at the German Environment Agency in the section of sustainable consumption. Currently he conducts a study on the topic of the longevity and useful life of clothing.


Kerli Kant-Hvass - There’s no circularity in isolation – the values and needs of a new business model
Kerli is an internationally recognized expert in sustainable business innovation and circular economy and has experience from private, public, non-profit sectors and academia in Denmark, US and Estonia. Among others, she developed circularity at fashion corporation BESTSELLER.
She holds an Industrial PhD in Social Sciences from Copenhagen Business School where she conducted action research in business model innovation for circular economy within fashion with several industry stakeholders.
Kerli is a Co-Founder of an independent systems thinking advisory company REVALUATE that facilitates circular economy transition and advises organizations in the wide areas of strategic sustainability development and circular business innovation.


Ina Budde - The road to circular.fashion
Ina is a forward thinking designer and co-founder and CEO of ‚circular.fashion’ a sustainable change agency for product and system innovation for a circular economy. The company offers a Circular Design Software, Workshops and Circular Product Checks to enable fashion brands to construct fully recyclable garments, which can be directed to the most suitable recycler by help of the circularity.ID and its connected recycling partner network - so that the products of today become the resources of tomorrow.
In 2017 Ina was winner of the German Ecodesign Award in the Young Talents category.

Speakers and Cases

In this HOW TO? session we took a closer look at three circular design tools in practice - the EcoDesign Learning Factory, Audit, and Sprint, which were developed by the EcoDesign Circle international project team. These tools offer methods and guidelines in becoming a circular design practitioner.



Ronja Scholz - Designers’ feedback to the EcoDesign Learning Factory
ECODESIGN LEARNING FACTORY - is a training programme for developing innovative products and services. The practical approach focuses on bringing forward the circular economy opportunities by emphasizing design thinking and life cycle thinking.

Ronja is a circular design expert and researcher in the field of environmental and reliability engineering at the Fraunhofer IZM. In her current position she is focusing on how service design methods can foster and increase circularity by creating value and profit for all stakeholders. At this HOW TO? session Ronja reflected the designer’s feedback to the Learning Factory methodology and how they are implementing it in their work.



Harri Moora - EcoDesign Audit in practice
ECODESIGN AUDIT - is a diagnostic tool for enterprises and public organisations to assess their ecodesign capabilities and performances and to identify possible circular design opportunities / approaches. A next step after the Audit assessment can be the Ecodesign Sprint.

Harri specialised in environmental policy and management tools related to sustainable consumption and production (EMS, EPE, LCA, ecodesign). Harri is also working on waste management related issues. Harri Moora has worked for SEI Tallinn since 1998, first as a researcher, and since 2001 as a programme director of the Environmental Management Programme.



Zeynep Falay von Flittner & Juha Kronqvist - EcoDesign Sprint and Circularity in Service Design Practices
ECODESIGN SPRINT - is a three-day training and acceleration programme in the circular economy for SMEs and design agencies. The primary goal is to provide the participants with in-depth knowledge on the possibilities and business models of the circular economy. Another goal is to develop the business of SMEs and create more sustainable products and services for them.

Zeynep has 20 years of international experience as a design consultant, helping organisations to become more customer centric and improve their Customer Experience. Last couple of years she has been focusing on how to support and accelerate sustainability transitions by combining human centric design, systems thinking and transition design.

Juha is one of the pioneering service designers in Finland. His strength lies in creating innovative service concepts based on deep understanding of customers, their needs and everyday lives. As a Principal Designer at the strategic design agency Hellon, he creates new methods and approaches for solving societal and business problems of his clients.





Tapani Jokinen moderated this session.
He is a strategic- & circular design consultant and is working as a Design contractor in Fraunhofer IZM, Berlin.

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Speakers and Cases

Päivi Tahkokallio and Vera Winthagen - New European Bauhaus (NEB)
Päivi Tahkokallio, BEDA President (BEDA is one of the official partners of NEB), and Vera Vinthagen, who is one of the key persons in the Commission’s NEB team, gave insightes about the NEB. We discussed with them what NEB is and means in the context of circular economy and circular design.

Päivi Tahkokallio is Founder and CEO of Tahkokallio Design+, a design thinking and strategic design agency from Lapland, Finland. Päivi, with her track record on strategic and social design has been called the mother of Arctic Design, a design approach to support sustainable development of the Arctic.

Vera Winthagen is an industrial designer by training and a policy analyst. She works in the European Commission’s New European Bauhaus Team. She has previously worked as the chief design officer of the City of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Kinge Gardien - Future packaging
Kinge Gardien told about an exciting case study on future packaging by the example of Paboco. She explained what were the learning points from the circular design perspective and how did this apply to the broader context of the home.

Kinge Gardien is a problem-solver working within the triangle of circular economy, design and anthropology. Kinge has previously worked at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Circle Economy, and is now working on the future of packaging together with the team at design agency Grow .


Dan Mikkin moderated the session.
He is a highly experienced Estonian designer & Design Manager.

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Speakers and Cases

Peter Post - Adressing the customer's role in a circular economy
Peter Post, UX-Designer and Managing Director of German Digital Agency Scholz & Volkmer presented a conceptual study of a digital circular experience on the example of how bicycle owners can be digitally supported in making the usage cycle long and preserving the value of the bikes.
Design for the Circular Economy mainly focusses on product-design, materials and processes. However, also the customer will have a pivotal role in making the circular economy work. Circular Experience design therefor focusses on the users, to help them with their new roles and tasks.

Chris Sherwin - Reboot innovation
Chris is a Director at world class Sustainable Innovation and Design consultancy, reboot innovation, helping companies and organisations get ideas and innovation for a better more sustainable world. He has 25+ years of experience that have helped create several world-first and worlds greenest project working in several world leading organisations.
He believes that sustainability is the defining innovation challenge, and opportunity, of this generation.

Specialties: Sustainability-driven: design, marketing, innovation processes, innovation management, product development, creativity, workshop design and facilitation, NPD


Markus Vihma moderated the session.
He is an Estonian circular business advisor.

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Speakers and Cases

Ida Urmas' project: Lidl’s Cradle to Cradle Pilot Project for Textiles
Ida discussed her role as a circular designer in Lidl’s Cradle to Cradle Pilot Project for Textiles. The project consisted of 16 running certification collections including products such as pyjamas, casual wear, house shoes and bedwear. She was using Cradle to Cradle as a framework for product development and researching circular materials, processes and partnerships to produce clean and safe garments for the biosphere and for the mass market. New innovation was also developed during the project: World’s first biodegredable printing paste in C2C gold level.

Ida works at Ethica Ltd, Finland.

Dan Mikkin‘s project: A circular strategy development for a large textile manufacturer (NDA)
Dan talked about how they mapped the existing sustainable practices in a large textile manufacturing company in Estonia. Some sustainability responsibilities, intentions, and standards were already in place but a comprehensive and measured vision was to be developed. He used a circular model as a guide for the company and he will share with us what it took to get it established. The reality is not a full circle yet but the 360 goal is in everybody’s sight now.

Dan works as a service designer at BrandManual, Estonia.


Markus Vihma moderated the session.
He is an Estonian circular business advisor.

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Speakers and Cases

Marilu Valente’s project: Nepenthes bottle
"Inspired by nature where there is no waste, Nepenthes is a reusable bottle for products like shampoo or shower gels. Named after a unique tropical flower, its curvy design means its cap-less and hangable. It is made with bio-based plastic and can be easily recycled. Nepenthes opens at the base meaning it's easy to clean, refill and use. Eliminating the messy clutter of plastic bottles, Nepenthes lets you enjoy a zero-waste lifestyle!"

Harri Moora‘s project: Material flow analysis for industrial upcycling in Bangladeshi & Indian textile factories
"To make upcycling possible on the industrial level it is paramout to understand the material flows and the waste generated. Upcycling design is based on the parameters of existing material and has to fit the production system to make scalable designs."


Markus Vihma moderated the session.
He is an Estonian circular business advisor.

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