Circular Economy Week
Designing for Change
Date: 01.01.2026
Circular Economy Week, hosted by https://relondon.gov.uk/, celebrates the people, projects and partnerships accelerating London’s transition to a low-carbon circular economy.
As part of this year’s programme, Designing for Change: Modularity, Materials and Circular Futures brought together CBRE Design Collective, Isomi, Surface Matter and Material Rescue for a discussion exploring how modularity, material intelligence and cross-industry collaboration can shape more adaptable and resilient spaces. With around 60 attendees from furniture, procurement, technology, real estate, design, manufacturing and government, the session focused on how circularity goes beyond waste reduction — creating long-term value through flexibility, reuse and better systems thinking.
Part of the 8th edition of #CEWeek25, the programme featured 74 events delivered by ReLondon with support from Mayor of London, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Sustainable Ventures and London & Partners, taking place ahead of COP30 alongside Circular Cities Week — a global movement spanning 12 cities worldwide.
“Services like takeback transform materials from products into long-term resources — shifting the industry from single-use to adaptive reuse. Data from reuse can be used to inform future design decisions to shape end-of-life potential. Reuse isn’t scalable without everyone being involved and agreeing. Developing systems to support the planet is much like Sequoia trees with shallow roots — they survive by spreading a network wide, sharing resources and knowledge.” — Rosie Rainbow, Material Rescue Panelist
