Resilience and creativity in top 10 skills in 2025

Hi everyone,

In 2032, learning the key principles of the Circular Economy in school from the earliest age is a common thing - whether you prepare to become a business designer, an engineer or a cultural exhibitions curator.

I know that in your time in 2022 it was still pretty rare to learn things like resilience, biodiversity or systems thinking in school. Of course, there were already a few emerging pioneers among higher education institutions who created departments and classes dedicated to the Circular Economy, especially as it was growing in popularity. However, almost no one thought of how to embed these topics across the educational experience.

Yet, many studies and publications at the time highlighted an increasing demand from students and companies for sustainability topics to become central to education providers' curricula. The World Economic Forum identified "Complex Problem Solving", "Creativity" and "Resilience" among the 10 top skills of 2025, cooperation became essential in teachers' methodologies and game-based learning was proved to accelerate progress in circular business model innovation.

In 2032 circularity and systems thinking are no longer mere options we can pick and choose in our classes, but the transversal fundamentals of any class:

in biology class, we learn about biomimicry from the great Janine Benyus,
in litterature class, we analyze dystopian novels which have been alerting us on the looming catastrophes, like Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake,
in economics we spend a lot of time studying the evolution of consumption behaviours and the limits of growth, on the basis of the Meadows' report and using the Circular Canvas,
in technologies, we learn to create things only from what is already available and with a low-tech approach.

Back in 2020, some of my father's colleagues gave a great webinar about this topic. If you didn't watch it yet, it's never too late 😉

Enjoy your reading,
Joséphine from 2032

How to prepare students for a complex and versatile world?

The need and urgency for truly disruptive innovations, transformation in the business world and across society has never been greater. The changes required are radical and require questioning our mental models, our belief systems. But how do we make this shift possible?

Education should be a big part of the solution.

Rather than perpetuating the siloed approach whereby CSR, sustainable management or Circular Economy come as separate and optional matters to complement core modules, there is an urgency to bring the systems thinking approach in the way we build education programmes.

In our latest blog post Fabrice Sorin, Circulab Academy Manager, shares his thoughts and advice on how to teach students in the face of a complex and versatile future.

There is no need to be an expert to teach Circular Economy to your students.

And as we really want to help all the educators on this journey, we offer you 3 hours of free reusable educational content to start with!
Our course “Teach the Circular Economy” provides you with:

👉 a summary of the Circular Economy concept, its origins, characteristics, principles and main schools of thoughts

👉 a case study using one of Circulab’s tool, the Circular Canvas

👉 a micro-economic Circular Design exercise

TELL ME HOW YOU COOK AND I’LL TELL YOU WHAT DESIGNER YOU ARE.
The European Commission estimates that over 80% of all product-related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product. Justine Laurent, Circulab’s managing director, spoke at ChangeNOW to share her recommendations on how to make these impacts positive. Watch the session “Impactful by Design” on replay.

WILL YOU PASS THE STRESS TEST?
COVID-19, resource scarcity, cost volatility, cyber attacks… In our century, companies face major issues impacting their everyday operations and posing a threat to their survival. In preparation for the launch of a new course which will allow the participants to learn how to improve the resilience of any company, we are organising a series of demos of Circulab’s Business Resilience Game which tests any company’s capacity to adapt and transform its business.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY TRAININGS
Just like other education professionals around the world, our Circulab Academy is already busy preparing for the 2022/2023 school season. We have a few novelties in store that we can’t wait to present to the world 😉 In the meantime, have a look at our regular courses “Master Circular Design”, “Design with Biomimicry” and “Design Circular Business Models” available in English and in French, to start off your back-to-school (and back-to-office) September on the right foot.

And if you are looking for engaging content for your summer vacation, that would allow you to revise your notions of the circular economy and get inspired by the opportunities it brings, sign up now for our free 2-hour course “Activate the Circular Economy”.

What are the community members up to?

👍 New experts in Australia and in France
Two new agencies joined Circulab community. Clémence Dehaene et Virginie Delpeuc'h of LEAF, the first eco-design, up-cycling and waste recovery offer on the French market entirely dedicated to retail as part of the ELBA group, as well as Jennifer Philippe and Mike Twemlow of Edge Environment, sustainability consultacy headquarted in Sydney, have been certified to drive Circulab's method and tools in order to help their respective clients on their journey towards circularity.

🏆 The business of the year prize from the Chamber of Commerce Francophone of Vancouver was won by Colienne Regout's company Look4Loops at the prestigious Palme Bleue Gala. The prize recognizes Colienne's innovative approach to accompanying entrepreneurs towards the circular economy. Listen to Colienne's interview on Radio Canada about this recognition.

🌊 An international gathering for the ocean, by Nicolas Occhiminuti
For the third year in a row the Waves of Change Forum in Biarritz, France undertook the challenge of bridging local initiatives and international changemakers in the quest for shared environmental solutions. Basque and international startups, corporations, NGOs, investors, universities, and public sector organizations got together for two days in June with one common goal: developing sustainable solutions that respect and preserve natural resources and the biosphere.

🏫 A serious game for the Executive MBA at EDHEC, by Justine Laurent, Taco Snippen, Vincent Truyens, Philippe Drouillon and Adrien Vercaempst .
The half-day workshop allowed the EDHEC trainees to learn how to initiate the transformation of a harmful, degenerative and linear business model towards a more sustainable, responsible and regenerative one.

🎓 ESSEC's Global Circular Economy Chair
Community members celebrated the first year of existence of the Chair launched at the one of the top 3 French business schools with the sponsorship of L'Oréal, Essilor Luxottica and Bouygues Group. Circulab's Managing Director Justine Laurent is the main lecturer of the courses at the Chair, with five Circulab members (Marie-Anaïs Berline, Fakrou Akbaraly, Nicolas Occhiminuti, Anne-France Mariacher and Stéphanie Grandjean Mateos) coaching students working on the sponsors' circular economy projects with the help of Circulab tools.

🐍 A biomimicry game for local SMB leaders, by Joanna Henderson
The game hosted by Joanna in the Pyrenees region of France allowed 20 local small businesses to discover the super-powers of the nature, cooperate and get inspired to evolve their projects.

🏅 Les Halles de la Transition wins a prize from La Banque Postale
Chloé Cohen's project to open a third place dedicated to the environmental transition in Toulouse just got closer to its objective, as it was selected by La Banque Postale among all national projects on KissKissBankBank. Learn more about the project and support the initiative.