Deform to Form: A Circularity Conversation with Tiphaine Pham of ICM Falk Foundation

TIPHAINE PHAM: A very relevant and innovative approach for solving our focus issues is the circular economy framework; within this, we’re concentrating on the upstream side – a novel, holistic and burgeoning subsector revolving around prevention. Dealing with recycling – the downstream side – requires a lot of financial and human resources. We need to design things, services and businesses in a more efficient and thoughtful way in order to remove or reuse waste right from the beginning – this is how our focus on upstream innovation came about, building on the work of the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, and where circular based design plays a crucial role.

ICM currently has three pillars of work in Vietnam. Firstly, the Knowledge Hub, which concentrates content and knowledge around circular innovation, upstream innovation, innovative waste reduction and entrepreneurship. The second pillar is the Circularity Ecosystem: developing awareness to build capacity and show students what the circular economy means and how public and private Vietnamese stakeholders can innovate using the circularity mindset. The third area is called the Upstream Venture Lab, with which we try to support young innovators through grants, development of Minimum Viable Product, and networking support.

On a macro level, Vietnam’s really eager to transition towards circular economy and use it as a framework for a more resilient economy. There’s actually an upcoming Vietnam Circular Economy Hub designed and launched by the UNDP. The government has a clear interest in this since they know that climate change is affecting Vietnam terribly, and the circular economy could help with preservation/mitigation efforts in this area. 

But how does that trickle down to on-the-ground projects? We see a lot of potential innovation with raw materials – such as coffee grounds, rice straws, grass straws, sugarcane waste, etc. – though these are still not well-seen and well-understood by the general public. 

The ‘upstream’ sector in Vietnam is still very nascent. Innovative ideas die before they even get a chance to become commercialised and attain healthy financial growth. While we do see some innovation projects going to international competitions, unfortunately that’s as far as we see things go here. 

For more mature circularity ventures, I think the key missing ingredient is creative/alternative sources of funding. There are many ways of getting capital nowadays, and the Foundation aims to become a new type of venture capital for environmental impact ventures, specifically ‘venture philanthropy’. You see a lot of venture capitalists and traditional bank funds that support tech start-ups, but impact ventures aren’t that well-understood in Vietnam yet. There are organisations whose sole focus is to solve climate-change issues, and they’re willing to hear ideas from those needing support. 

2021 has been when we started funding small projects, following some strategic programme planning in 2020. This year we’ve funded four main projects, with another currently under review linked to research. These projects are mainly to do with our support work for the Circularity Ecosystem, and three of them are related to young entrepreneurs. We also support ventures that are more mature, or early-stage start-ups. Not only providing grants, we also want to invest in future talents, innovation and especially entrepreneurship.

First up is Vũ Hoàng Anh, whom our fellow organiser Behalf introduced to us. He designs products for premium customers, and will talk about eco-design through a product designer’s angle, explaining how to source better materials, how to be more responsible in the design process, and how one should understand ethical labour. 

The second speaker is Lindsay Nutley from QLM Group, a company that designs and manufactures labels and packaging. He’ll talk about how to approach circular design from an industry perspective and make it work on larger scales. In contrast, Vũ Hoàng Anh focuses on the market’s niche sections, so by inviting two such speakers we can show the range of applications of circular design, and in turn how the respective design processes differ. 

The third speaker comes from  ICM’s grantee network: Dr. Kasia Weina from Evergreen Labs, a social venture builder focusing on sustainable agriculture and waste management. They work with low-value plastics – things that normally end up in landfills or get burned – and have managed to implement a solution in Danang and Hoi An to recycle those plastics into parts that can be used/reused  infinitely. Dr. Weina will help the audience understand how we could close the loop in material flows, how we could think differently from a system-wide perspective in order to make our processes more circular. 

We’ve invited these speakers – a designer, a manufacturer and an impact entrepreneur – because together they embody perfectly the concept of circular design: design that’s long-lasting, innovative and beautiful to look at, but also responsible from a production and end-of-life viewpoint. All three speakers work with core principles of circularity, and through their conversations we’re going to see how those principles are  interconnected. 

Through this event we want to initiate the conversation and see if we can kickstart a type of circularity community in HCMC and connect different stakeholders – for instance, students, designers or start-ups – so they can make products together. It’s an aim we have with Giang Nguyễn from Behalf Studio that’s still at an early stage.

Extremely difficult, because cheap products are not long-lasting, and if they’re not long-lasting they get disposed of mindlessly. For instance, how would you dispose of a table made of  MDF or cheap metal? You either sell it cheap or it ends up as a dump, you don’t really know what happens afterwards.

The question of how to become more circular is already very difficult for Vietnamese consumers to answer, and even more so for designers. They should understand where they’re sourcing products from, or whether the manufacturing process is environmentally-responsible. If there’s waste resulting from their production, where does it go? Is it affecting workers’ health? Is it energy-efficient? And then, how do you ensure  consumers will make good use of your products for a long time? 

A designer alone won’t find the answers, so there needs to be a system-level change in thinking, and different stakeholders need to work together to make all pieces of the puzzle fit.  There’s also always the overlaying question of how much a circular product’s going to cost, and this is where I think our panellists will have very good discussions on.

For ICM as a foundation and a support organisation, a good circular product is something that could always compete efficiently with a traditional product, in terms of functionality or ease of use, and especially cost, but would provide the added value of clear positive environmental impact.

I’m a big fan of refilling – taking container with you when doing takeaway, for instance. I’ve tried this around my neighbourhood and actually vendors are very enthusiastic about (re)filling – the local phở or coffee people know me by name because I always have my container with me when buying from them. But this type of refill business isn’t easily accessible yet – that’s something we’re definitely trying to solve with local entrepreneurs.

Currently we’re active in HCMC and Hanoi where a lot of leading universities and support organisations are implementing programmes about circularity or environmental impacts, and these are where actual solutions are currently found. Nevertheless, good ideas also come from other places – we’re not opposed to helping those out, along with co-impact partners and funders interested and passionate about solving the climate crisis through local-centric solutions.