Why a school for circular innovation?
- How can almost everything seem possible, yet the world so often makes no sense?
- How can humanity hold such vast knowledge and capability, yet persist in harming its environment and communities?
- What lies at the root of these questions?
- How can we shift people’s perceptions in a more fundamental way to help address today’s social and environmental challenges?
“Co-design circular processes and products during our training in the artisan space. Discover how an environmentally and socially conscious mindset emerges, rather than being imposed. You don’t leave our trainings with a checklist to solve the problems. You leave it with a compass.”
Hypothesis
- What makes us, humans, different from machines is that we have the capacity to care.
- Our thoughts and behaviour often follow the path of least resistance—the comfort algorithm—where efficiency is mistaken for effectiveness and deeper sensory engagement is often left behind.
- Technologies that expand our capabilities often reinforce this bias: they create an illusion of connection while in practice disconnecting us from questions of meaning and care, and paradoxically intensifying the harm to the ecological systems we rely on.
- We increasingly rely on the rapid, efficient, yet also sterile senses of sight and sound, while neglecting the earthy senses of smell, touch, and taste.
- These earthy senses are deeply related to our emotions, care and – unconscious – behaviour. Without emphasising their role in our daily lives, we risk drifting toward a sterile “machine” kind of mindset, one that is less connected to the environment we eventually depend on.
“Reintegrating our more earthy senses —smell, touch, and taste— to promote consciousness and meaningful ideas may be an overlooked opportunity.”
How to change perceptions – Our methods?
“Embracing complexity, paving the way for emergence”
Invite people into the artisan space—a space that nurtures experimentation, curiosity, and sensory engagement. Here, participants learn to navigate complexity and unlearn the “linear” habits that often block the discovery of hidden, low-hanging opportunities. Our aim is to unlock the creative potential within every individual and foster a more circular mindset that restores balance with both environment and society. We explore the roots and conditions from which a circular, environmentally friendly mindset can naturally emerge, rather than being imposed.
Challenge 1: Reconnect with Your Senses
Co-develop with us a food recipe by engaging all your senses. Use food as a playful and effective way to explore connections with your body, your community, and your environment.
Challenge 2: Connect the hidden dots, become a circular matchmaker
Co-design circular recipes. Learn to prevent (food) waste by uncovering hidden relationships and repurposing “waste” by linking unexpected elements (ingredients, people, ideas) together. Engage, connect, care—and experience how small actions can lead to meaningful change.
Challenge 3: Redesign Your Perceptions. Bridge Your Actions to Other Places
Learn to apply new, creative thought patterns to other domains through analogy, discovering how diverse challenges often share solutions grounded in common principles. This approach reshapes how we think, act, and relate to one another, and—beyond food—provides tools for change and transformation in any context.
“Experience the creative journey—from raw materials to a tangible product. Discover how preventing food waste not only supports better nutrition but also helps connect the dots, inspires, and promotes meaningful stories.”
What does our training involve?
“Bridging traditional craft with today’s challenges”
- Transformation is naturally embedded in the artisanal process, and we invite participants to join us on this transformational learning journey.
- The artisanal space naturally embeds ancestral knowledge, community, science, and hands-on skills—in both the place and the process.
- Our living lab explores how food links sensory experiences to the broader societal challenges we face.
- Our training offers an opportunity to meet people from different fields, work together, and share knowledge and experiences in an informal setting.
What You Learn?
“Obtain skills to lead, inspire, innovate and promote meaningful change”
- Embodied Understanding – Integrate touch, smell, and taste through hands-on practice to (re)connect with your intuition, foster creativity, sharpen your perception, and reintegrate often-overlooked common-sense practices into actions
- Bridging Through Patterns – Use analogies to uncover shared patterns and transfer potential environmentally friendly solutions to other domains
- Navigating Complexity – Find clarity and build confidence to navigate less predictable conditions, leaving with better questions, not set answers.
- Genuine Leadership – Act with greater care, courage, and presence, rather than relying on safe, predictable linear solutions
1-Day Program
Experimentation: A hands-on program where participants explore circular recipe design, experiment with “waste,” and engage all their senses to spark fresh insights.
- Get to know our method, philosophy and each other
- Introduction to the artisanal space: its vibe, methods, and skills
- Cook and bake with us a circular product and learn how we developed it
- Challenge 1 & 2: Re-engage your senses and experience our process in action—from ingredient, waste products, ideas to experimentation and final product
- Participate in a circular challenge we’re currently working on
- Enjoy a flavourful lunch together with us
- Personalise with us your potential multi-day extended follow-up program
“You don’t get final answers—you learn to ask better questions.”
2-Day Program
Still fermenting, stay tuned…