Post by Liz Miller

I’m excited to share that the article “Forging the Future: Reconfiguring Value Chains Through Circular Economy Meta-Organizing” that I co-authored with Samuli Patala and Jukka-Pekka Ovaska has been published as part of Organization & Environment's special issue “Organizational Transformations towards a Circular Economy.” Our article studies two innovative, publicly funded circular textile meta-organizations (convening organizations that have other organizations as members) in Finland, seeking to understand how they coordinate their member organizations to develop new circular value chains. Some key takeaways from the article: • By organizing around specific material inputs — in this case, used textiles and biomaterials like wood offcuts — rather than end products, meta-organizations can build new links across industries and sectors that lead to co-experimentation and the development of local circular value chains • When recruiting member organizations, meta-organizations should take both an open approach that makes space for diverse new members and the serendipity that comes with it, as well as a closed approach that targets specific organizations needed to build new value chains • On the policy side, we recommend that public funding programs for circular innovation leave room for experimentation rather than focusing solely on outcomes like export potential The article is available open access here: https://lnkd.in/g4ZMYA6w The full special issue is available here: https://lnkd.in/gXEeUfUh  A big thank you to special issue editors Nancy Bocken, Jonatan Pinkse, Paavo Ritala, and Nicole Darnall for publishing our paper, and to Organization & Environment editors-in-chief Mike Russo, Minna Halme, and Stefan Schaltegger. An extra special thank you to Minna and the rest of the FINIX sustainable textile systems team for the opportunity to carry out this project. Thank you as well to EGOS 2023 “Meta-organizations and Sustainability Transitions” sub-theme conveners Frank de Bakker, Heloise Berkowitz, and Sanne Bor, our commentator Alexa Böckel, and the rest of the sub-theme participants for the valuable early feedback. I’m also very grateful to the Innovation North brain trust for sharing insights and resources that helped shape the later edits. #circulareconomy #circularvaluechain #circularbusiness #textiles #innovation #ecosystems #sustainability #sustainableinnovation