Design out waste
In Chrysalis, participants generate business ideas in the circular economy.
The Cantillon
Our approach: a financially and environmentally sustainable company from the first idea
What The Cantillon aims to make possible: financially and environmentally sustainable companies. The reason first, the method next, the programmes last.
What lasts is circular
Circularity is first a condition for business survival. Fewer resources, less business: any activity that depends on finite resources will have to become circular to last.
Yet the vast majority of companies still run on a linear model: extract, produce, discard. Each one needs transforming, reinventing or rebuilding. This is the largest reserve of innovation and new ventures there has ever been. The Cantillon is here to help you turn it into a profitable, autonomous and lasting company.
Moving from a linear model to a circular, lasting company takes a method. Here is ours.
How
Impact examined on five axes
Projects are examined on energy, materials, pollution, land take and social inequality. Our results are published on the Results page.
Cooperating with real customers
With Collider, projects are tested with real customers and build their own sales pipeline. A company has to prove itself in the market before it launches.
The catalogue shows how these principles apply, step by step, from Chrysalis to Catapult.
Initiative under construction
A side initiative: ReCan
Alongside the courses, we carry a long-term initiative. Its ambition: that one day, on every campus, a cooperative, circular department store run by entrepreneurs keeps objects and value in circulation instead of throwing them away. Each shop would specialise in one trade. The logo is the Cantillon C, its ring opening into a reuse loop.
The envisaged shops:
Event organisation
plans and runs the events held in the store
Logistics
moves and stores items between the shops
Permits
handles the paperwork and authorisations the store needs to operate
Collection
gathers items their owners no longer use
Marketing
makes the store and its shops known across the campus
Payment
takes payment for sales across all the shops
Refurbishing
restores used items so they can be used again
Repair
fixes broken items rather than replacing them
Sales
offers repaired, refurbished and reused items to the public
Recycling
routes what can no longer be used to the proper channel