Catherine Weetman talks to Barry O’Kane about software, one of the key enablers for circular economy solutions.

Barry O’Kane founded HappyPorch, a software engineering specialist and consultancy (and now a certified B Corp) in 2015. Catherine met Barry a few years ago when he asked her to help him find examples of software that was supporting circular economy strategies. Barry interviewed a few of those companies for Happy Porch Radio, and has featured many more software-related circular businesses on his podcast.

Barry outlines the trends he’s seeing, as businesses and developers start to build software solutions to support circular economy business models and recovery systems. Barry explains the importance of context-specific solutions, and outlines some of the software related barriers that are making it difficult for bigger businesses to adopt circular systems and processes.

He also explains how software can help you get a much better understanding of the current system, and what the possibilities might be.

They discuss the potential uses of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, including visual Machine Learning, and about blockchain, and Barry shares his lessons learned from seeing businesses trying to get started with circular solutions.

Barry talks about infrastructure software, which in this context means software to help business organizations perform basic tasks such as business transactions, supply chain management, workforce management and other internal services and processes.

Podcast host Catherine Weetman is a circular economy business advisor, workshop facilitator, speaker and writer.  Her award-winning book: A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business includes lots of practical examples and tips on getting started.  Catherine founded Rethink Global in 2013, to help businesses use circular, sustainable approaches to build a better business (and a better world).

Stay in touch for free insights and updates… 

Read on for a summary of the podcast and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.

 Don’t forget, you can subscribe to the podcast series on iTunes, Google Podcasts, PlayerFM, Spotify, TuneIn, or search for “circular economy” in your favourite podcast app.  Stay in touch to get free insights and updates, direct to your inbox…

You can also use our interactive, searchable podcast index to find episodes by sector, by region or by circular strategy. Plus, there is now a regular Circular Economy Podcast newsletter, so you get the latest episode show notes, links and transcript delivered to your inbox on Sunday morning, each fortnight. The newsletter includes a link to the episode page on our website, with an audio player. You can subscribe by clicking this link to update your preferences.

• A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business – buy from any good bookseller, or direct from the publisher Kogan Page, which ships worldwide (free shipping to UK and US) and you can use discount code CIRCL20 to get 20% off. It’s available in paperback, ebook and Kindle. If you buy it from online sources, make sure you choose the new edition with an orange cover!
  
• Sign up to get the podcast player and shownotes for each new episode emailed to your inbox
  
• Happy Porch: https://www.happyporch.com/
  
• Happy Porch Radio – focusing on circular economy software solutions https://happyporchradio.com/
  Barry O’Kane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryokane/
  
• Tom Harper – Unusual Rigging – episode 3 https://www.rethinkglobal.info/tom-harper-circular-asset-management/
  
• Reath https://reath.id/ and Happy Porch Radio https://happyporchradio.com/season-5/episodes/e19-building-digital-infrastructure-circular-economy-claire-rampen-emily-rogers/
  

Barry says: I founded HappyPorch (now a certified B Corp) in 2015.

HappyPorch is a software engineering specialist and consultancy. We work with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, turning technology into action. Together with our clients and partners, we develop concepts into solutions that impact people’s lives, their business and the planet for the better.

The company also embodies two other values that are important to me: we’ve been fully remote and distributed since the beginning and we operate a radically transparent and open culture. That has allowed us to build an incredibly talented, aligned and inspiring team. It is humbling and an honour to be part of it.

Outside work I travel a lot and enjoy good whiskey and outdoor adventures. I’m also a charity trustee.

Click here to open the transcript…

Want to find out more about the circular economy?

If you’d like to learn more about the circular economy and how it could help your business, why not listen to Episode 1, or read our guide: What is the Circular Economy? 

To go deeper, you could buy Catherine’s book, A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business. This comprehensive guide uses a bottom-up, practical approach, and includes hundreds of real examples from around the world, to help you really ‘get’ the circular economy.  Even better, you’ll be inspired with ideas to make your own business more competitive, resilient and sustainable. 

Please let us know what you think of the podcast – and we’d love it if you could leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever you find your podcasts.  Or send us an email…

Thanks to Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, otherwise known as the brilliant, inventive and generous folk duo, O’Hooley & Tidow for allowing me to use the instrumentals from the live version of Summat’s Brewin’ as music for the podcast. You can find the whole track (inspired by the Copper Family song “Oh Good Ale”) on their album, also called Summat’s Brewin’.  Or, follow them on Twitter.

5th February 2023


Circular economy


Packaging


plastics


recycling

IT’S EPISODE 97, and today we’ll be talking about plastics, a familiar circular economy topic, from someone with a someone with a less familiar background… Alice Mah is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, in the UK, and she’ll help us unpick the propaganda about plastics and their role in a circular economy I came across Alice’s work…

22nd January 2023


Circular economy


consumer durables


design


materials


recycling


reuse

Nick Oettinger is Founder and CEO of The Furniture Recycling Group (TFR Group) in the UK. Nick has 12 years’ experience in recycling and waste management. He was previously Managing Director of a specialist construction company before moving into the waste and recycling sector, where he spent five years as an improvement consultant and nine years in product recycling. The…

8th January 2023


Circular economy


recycling


reuse


social value


technology

Simone Andersson is Chief Commercial Officer at WEEE Centre, a Kenyan social enterprise that’s been expanding safe e-waste management and circular solutions across East Africa, since 2012. Simone’s background is in communication and sustainability action around waste and water management, and before joining the WEEE Centre she was at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), where she led innovative developmental projects…

18th December 2022


Circular economy


materials


risk

David Peck, Associate Professor at TU Delft, explains why we need to know more about critical raw materials – what they are used in, and how we might navigate the future challenges they present. David Peck is Associate Professor, Climate Design & Sustainability, Circular Built Environment and Critical Materials, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, at Delft University of…

4th December 2022


Circular economy


Packaging


recycling


social value

Guglielmo Mazzà is an environmental engineer and social entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of ReFuse, a social enterprise based in Beirut [Lebanon] that offers community-based solid waste management services. Guglielmo worked in development initiatives and humanitarian response in the field of water, sanitation, hygiene and financial inclusion, across Europe and Africa. His passion is combining equitable access to resources…