Small Business And The Circular Economy: SMBs Key to Sustainability
A circular economy encourages businesses to design products and systems where nothing goes to waste.
If you have been asking yourself this new kind of question of late: How can I grow my business without hurting the world around me? The circular economy might be the best business move you haven't made yet.
This article will help small business owners understand why sustainability matters, what you can do about it, and how it can help your business grow.
What Is a Circular Economy?
In simple terms, the circular economy is a way of doing business that avoids waste. Instead of the usual pattern where products are made, used, and thrown away, a circular economy encourages businesses to design products and systems where nothing goes to waste.
Materials are reused, repaired, or turned into something new. Waste becomes a resource. Products are made to last, and businesses think about the full life of everything they produce—from beginning to end.
It might sound like a concept for big corporations, but in reality, small businesses are often in a better position to act. Why? Because they are more flexible, closer to their communities, and often more in touch with their customers' values. All around the world, small businesses are already making the shift to circular thinking—and seeing real results. For example:
These are not large corporations. They are companies run by regular people who decided to do business in a different way. Their actions are improving lives and building stronger, more trusted brands.
More from AllBusiness:
Why Small Businesses Should Care About Sustainability
I know most small business owners are already stretched. I mean, you are focused on making sales, paying employees, keeping your customers happy, improving your products and services, and much more. Thinking about sustainability might feel like a luxury you can't afford. But then, going 'green' is an investment and a strategic advantage you should not avoid.
When you reduce waste, you reduce expenses. When you offer eco-friendly products, you attract customers who care about the environment. When you show that you are thoughtful about your impact, you build trust—and trust leads to loyalty.
More and more customers are asking questions about the products they buy: Where did this come from? Who made it? What happens to it when I am done with it? If your business can answer those questions in a positive and honest way, you will stand out. Today's customers are increasingly aware of how their choices affect the world. They want to support businesses that care about people and the planet. By embracing circular practices, you can build stronger relationships with your customers and stand out in crowded markets.
How You Can Join the Circular Economy
So, you do not need to be perfect, and you do not need to change everything at once. What matters is that you take the first step.
Here are a few simple things you can consider:
If you are not sure where to begin, just start small. One good decision can lead to another. A small compost bin behind a bakery. A simple repair service for a product. A decision to use packaging that can be recycled. These small steps can lead to a bigger impact over time.
This Is Your Time
As we look at the future of business, sustainability has become the way of thinking. A new way of growing; a new way of leading. If you are reading this, it means you care. You want to grow your business the right way. You want to be proud of the work you do.
So let this be your moment. Take a step toward sustainability. Look at your operations. Ask new questions. Find new solutions. Talk to your customers. Talk to your team. See what you can do together. The world is changing, and you have a chance to lead in that change.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
28 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Hottest Industries Of 2035
While many of us let technology happen to us, the fact is that we are not mere passengers on a timeline. We can be, and are, builders of it. The next wave is forming across computing, biology, aerospace, logistics, and culture. The winners will be those who commit capital, talent, and national intent now. The rest will read about it later. In this article, I want to share with you my views on ten potential game changing industries of the future. So, here we go: 1) Next-gen computers leave the von Neumann lane New stacks are coming. Quantum, neuromorphic, and algorithmic platforms built around generative models will not "accelerate" legacy apps. They will enable new classes of simulation, search, and control. Think cryptography re-written. Drug discovery measured in months. Climate tooling that guides action rather than reporting doom. The lesson from every platform shift still applies. Those who own compute, data, and deployment pipelines set the rules. Keep in mind, though, that Quantum Computers are not going to replace conventional, or classical, computers. They can be faster at certain types of tasks, but they are not general purpose replacements. One of the most promising applications for QC may be materials simulations. Will the Nvidia of the future be a neuromorphic company? The way to think about Neuromorphic systems is that they could spark the next Deep Learning like revolution. Just as big GPUs from companies like Nvidia gave us the current AI book, neuromorphic systems can deliver lots of progress in a promising new neural network architecture called spiking neural networks. These may work more like the human brain and may deliver lower power consumption and greater robustness to adversarial attacks. 2) Space becomes a middle-class experience Reusable heavy-lift is crushing launch costs, and orbital logistics are industrializing. There are more than a hundred satellite launch vehicle (SLV) companies in operation all over the world. From Germany's Isar Aerospace, to Austin's Firefly. Many of these companies will not make it, but enough of them will so that launch capacity will soon be available in excess. There will be so much of it, in fact, that we'll be able to justify the use of SLV capacity for fun. Space tourism will follow the same curve as every breakthrough transport technology. Not overnight. Then suddenly routine. The long game is not the selfie at apogee. It is the hotel in space. The supply chain and the on-orbit factory, and the nation that can surge capability above the Kármán line. 3) Medicine gets personal, at the code level Gene editing is out of the lab and into the clinic. Regulators have already cleared first-of-kind genetic treatments for inherited blood disease. Next comes programmable protein design and whole-patient therapies with real-time monitoring and AI guidance. Technologies like these will allow us to "manage" disease less, and cure it outright, more. 4) Spatial Computing & BCI: Programmable reality Apple joined the fray with an initial offering that didn't do too well. But they have validated the opportunity that exists along the enterprise path. I am convinced others will follow. Spatial computing is graduating from demos to real work. I've personally seen how a slew of industrial companies are already trying to use VR/AR headsets to improve training and in-context assistance for key maintenance and manufacturing tasks. Thanks to science fiction, movies and the glimpses of compelling content we've experienced ourselves, the endpoint of "The Metaverse" is obvious. We will hold board meetings, perform maintenance, and train workforces inside persistent, shared environments that feel native. Brain-computer interfaces add a new input layer for accessibility first, then performance. Invasive methods are acceptable when the alternatives are more dire, but to gain mainstream adoption BCI technology will have to deliver low latency and high resolution with non-invasive sensors. 5) Cities become farms Over this past century, as population ballooned, so much land came under cultivation that many of us wondered whether the trend was sustainable. Carbon sequestration performed naturally by large rainforests was threatened as trees were cleared to make room for crops. All of this was done in the name of food security. But what if we don't need as much land to produce far more agricultural output? What if food security becomes an urban service? Vertical farms will handle a meaningful slice of leafy greens, berries, and herbs inside metro areas. All of this is now beginning to get built out at industrial scale. Dubai's Bustanica shows the model at seven-figure annual output with far less water. Expect wide-spread AI-orchestrated environments, electrified logistics, and crop portfolios tuned to local demand and price stability. 6) The sky turns into a managed highway Urban air mobility is moving from render to route map. United and Archer named O'Hare to Vertiport Chicago as an initial corridor. The FAA is rumoured to be relaxing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) rules soon. Many aviation authorities across East Asia and the Middle East are leaning in to a safe but more liberal regulatory regime. Certification progress continues at pace, and the traffic system for autonomous flight is taking shape through aviation-grade software platforms. The public consciousness is still all about "flying cars," but the drone revolution is about far more. Millions of autonomous aircraft safely integrated into the sky, at the same time. Logistics. Medicine. Safety. Security. Better citizen empowerment. Improved resource management. More effective urban regulatory enforcement. The applications are a mile long and can all drive the saving of time, the enablement of density, and ultimately improve national competitiveness. 7) Water moves from scarcity story to solvable problem Regions that embraced desalination at scale show that fresh water can indeed become a far more renewable resource than we previously thought possible. Ground water consumption in heavily populated areas, and national disagreements over waterways can create water stress. Water stress that can become an existential worry. But to solve this, we will soon pair at scale, next-gen reverse osmosis with renewables, recover energy inside the plant, then add atmospheric harvesting and advanced purification at the edge. The largest membrane facilities now output city-scale volumes. With a population of about 20 million residents, Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world. It is now investing in a new desalination plant that will deliver drinking water to millions. Adoption was fastest in the Gulf, but now is spreading beyond. 8) Entertainment outgrows venue physics We will produce, tour, and attend without the bottlenecks of stage and stadium. Holographic and fully immersive shows will anchor new districts built for digital spectacle. Riyadh's Mukaab is a preview of how architecture, optics, and compute fuse into a new format. Artists perform once. Millions attend synchronously across continents. This holds the promise of changing the economics and technology of entertainment. All the while, bringing culture-scale immersive experiences to people all over the world. 9) Organs on demand Xenotransplant milestones and bioprinted tissues point to a different future for transplantation. In due time, the queue will give way to manufacturing and matching. Early cases are here, pioneered by companies like Cellink and Aspect biosystems, and the toolchain is improving fast. There is an opportunity to invest in scaffolds, cell sources, and the automation that makes quality repeatable. Lives obviously depend on it. 10) Robots become colleagues Humanoids and bio-inspired machines are leaving the lab and earning paychecks. Apptronik's Apollo is in automotive trials. Figure is piloting with BMW. Agility's Digit is hauling totes in live warehouses under commercial agreements. And Argon Mechatronics is producing robots which have the ability to manufacture with great prevision. The pattern is clear. Start with dull and repetitive. Add perception, dexterity, and tool use. Then scale. This is an augmentation story, and despite how it is often presented, not primarily a mechanism to eliminate jobs. There are many brutal, unsafe, highly regulated jobs which these robots can perform to drive economic success. The outcomes of that success can be reinvested in creating entirely new industries for humans to continue to contribute to. This, after all, has been the story of human progress. The Takeaways The industries I've highlighted above are not niche verticals, though some of them are just starting to take off now and may seem to be. Most of these will be technologies in mass use and of global importance. Many of them, such as non-von Neumann computing, aerial autonomy, water and environmental tech will be critical to national capability. Sovereign supply chains and local industry will matter. Partnerships, as always, will be a definite accelerant but a high degree of critical capability should probably be insourced given the winds of change currently sweeping across the landscape of geopolitics. In a nutshell, here's a four-point playbook for national and commercial leaders looking to prepare for 2035: Own infrastructure. Compute, energy, water, and airspace integration are critical capabilities. Back applied research. Fund teams that ship into regulated, mission-critical contexts. Pilot in the real world. One route, one plant, one line. Then replicate. Create & enable builders. Policy matters. So do people who can weld, code, and certify. Nation states need to invest in the development of engineering talent, while companies develop the right org structures to pair humans with machines to build tomorrow's cybernetic enterprise. The future belongs to those who build it, not those who forecast it. If you want a map of success for 2035, study the technologies we've covered. Then, find who is building and shipping early capabilities in 2025. Then, as a team member, as a government enabler, or as an investor, join them.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
AMD's billionaire CEO says AI is overwhelming right now—but she disagrees with former Google exec who predicts the tech will be a job-killer
AMD CEO Lisa Su doesn't believe AI is out to cause massive job losses, but admits anxiety around the technology's innovation is a natural feeling. 'That's the point,' she said after being pointed out that tech is driving people up the wall. As fellow tech leaders like Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman express similar positive attitudes about AI's future, others warn against overhyping a 'golden era.' Keeping pace with AI can feel like an endless race. Every week brings a new unicorn, a new product, and a fresh set of CEO prophecies about how the technology will reshape work. But according to Lisa Su, CEO of the nearly $300 billion semiconductor company AMD, there's no need to get bogged down—it's all part of the innovation process. 'I think that's the point,' Su told Wired when asked about AI's dizzying pace. 'When technology is good enough, you don't have to think about it. Today, you still have to think…' The internet followed a similar trajectory. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it took a conscious effort to use technology and be more productive. Now, it's almost second nature and woven seamlessly into everyday life. That's why the 55-year-old argued that the newest technology—AI—should not be judged by what it is today but by where it's headed. AMD's CEO would even 'bet on humanity being OK' While some leaders—like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Ford CEO Jim Farley—warn that AI could hollow out Gen Z's entry-level jobs, Su remains unconvinced. 'I don't believe in these cases where you're not going to need lots and lots of people,' Su said. 'Because in the end, people are the judge of what truth is. We're still hiring more and more engineers, because they're the final arbiters of our engineering.' For now, AI mostly clears away mundane tasks. It will become 'great,' in Su's view, when it starts cracking real, hard problems—such as meaningful advances in healthcare, not just productivity tweaks. Will humanity be able to keep up? Su pointed out to Wired that the same fear was expressed during the industrial revolution—and the world managed to adapt. 'I don't know. I would bet on humanity being OK.' Fortune reached out to AMD for comment. Tech leaders are divided on how AI will impact the workforce—and the world While the pace of AI can feel like it's headed down a doomsday scenario, the likes of 'The Terminator,' Su isn't alone in leveling that the world isn't in peril. In fact, Su's distant relative—and fellow chips competitor—Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is bullish that humanity will always come up with new ideas and the world will keep turning. 'I don't know why AI companies are trying to scare us. We should advance the technology safely just as we advance cars safely. … But scaring people goes too far,' Huang said to Axios. Moreover, OpenAI Sam Altman expressed last week that being a young person today must feel like you're the 'luckiest kid in all of history,' considering the new era that AI will bring to the world. However, this hope for a 'golden era' of humanity is more fiction than fact, according to Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google X. Promises that AI will create more new jobs is '100% crap,' he said—and CEOs themselves may need to watch their back. 'CEOs are celebrating that they can now get rid of people and have productivity gains and cost reductions because AI can do that job. The one thing they don't think of is AI will replace them too,' Gawdat said on The Diary of a CEO podcast. 'AGI is going to be better at everything than humans, including being a CEO. You really have to imagine that there will be a time where most incompetent CEOs will be replaced.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gilbane hires 20-year industry veteran for new growth role
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane has created a new role focused on long-term growth strategy and tapped a two-decade professional to fill that spot. The firm named Veronique Bourgier as its inaugural chief growth and strategy officer, according to an Aug. 7 news release. Bourgier will work across Gilbane's subsidiaries, including Gilbane Building Co. and Gilbane Development Co., to identify emerging market opportunities and foster innovation, according to the release. Bourgier brings over 20 years of global experience, including 13 years in the U.S., in strategic planning, business transformation and innovation across the environmental, energy and infrastructure sectors. In her new role, she will be responsible for shaping Gilbane's enterprise-wide growth initiatives and accelerating organic and inorganic growth, the latter of which can include mergers and acquisitions.. Previously, she was the chief growth officer at Boston-based Veolia North America, an environmental services and resource management firm, according to her LinkedIn. With the appointment, Gilbane is doubling down on its commitment to innovation and long-term planning as an end-to-end solutions provider across the built environment, according to the company. The news comes as Gilbane touts the $7.7 billion in revenue it generated in 2024, along with the 40 public-private partnerships it has delivered or is managing worth a total of $4.4 billion, per the release. Large projects Gilbane has recently topped out include Indiana University Health's $4.3 billion downtown Indianapolis hospital alongside hometown builder F.A. Wilhelm and the $2.1 billion Buffalo Bills Stadium in Orchard Park, New York via its joint venture with New York City-based Turner Construction. Recommended Reading Gilbane, F.A. Wilhelm top out $4.3B Indianapolis hospital Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
