What's Involved
Interactive learning opportunities with circular economy experts and industry leaders
An innovation competition for students and alumni to find scalable, circular solutions for problems on or near campus*
Developing the competencies and in-demand skills for this emerging economy
*Students and alumni of participating universities are welcome to register as individuals to participate and learn from our programme toolkit, workshops and webinars, even if they do not intend to join a team for the competition.
Timeline
October 13
SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR INNOVATION COMPETITION
To enter the competition, student teams must complete the competition submission form by this date.
September 21
PROGRAMME REGISTRATION CLOSES
Students and recent alumni of the participating universities (aged 18+) must submit the programme registration form by this date.
September 22 - October 6
PROGRAMME CONTENT DELIVERY
Registered participants will receive invitations to attend our circular innovation workshops and webinars, and gain access to programme materials.
October 17 - 24
PITCH PREPARATION WEEK
The shortlisted teams will receive support in crafting their pitch for the competition finals event.
August 22 - September 21
PROGRAMME REGISTRATION OPENS
Participating universities promote the programme on campus to students, alumni, faculty and staff.
October 13 - 17
SHORTLISTING OF SUBMISSIONS
Participating universities and the Circular Cities Asia team will review the submissions and shortlist 10 teams to pitch at the competition finals event.
October 17
SHORTLISTED TEAMS ANNOUNCED
We will announce the shortlisted teams and email them with next steps to prepare for the competition finals event.
October 26
INNOVATION COMPETITION FINALS EVENT
The finalists pitch their circular ideas to the jury, and by the end of the virtual event the winners of the boot camp prize will be announced!
Innovation Competition Prizes
Innovation Boot Camp run by ClimateLaunchpad trainer, Shiva Susarla
For the top 3 teams chosen by the judges + wild card teams
Topics covered in this intensive Boot Camp include: circular economy innovation, customer discovery and validation, market sizing and segmentation, unique value proposition, business financials, and circular business impact.
Co-incubation with RENERGii and CCAsia, plus seed funding
For selected teams (who participated in the Boot Camp)
RENERGii will provide 3 months of virtual incubation support for two teams and help with refining their business model, design and development of a minimal viable product (MVP), networking and partnership-building, and investment readiness.
Each team will receive $2000 USD of seed funding during the incubation.
Participating Universities
Bataan Peninsula State University, Philippines
Central Philippine University, Philippines
University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines
Adamson University, Philippines
Ateneo de Naga University, Philippines
Ateneo de Manila University, Phillippines
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Vietnam
Academy of Policy and Development, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance, Vietnam
Vietnamese-German University, Vietnam
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam
*We are no longer accepting universities into the Sept-Oct cohort.
If you're interested in bringing this programme to your university next year, please get in touch.
We’ll introduce you to our approach to circularity in the urban context — combining circular economy principles, lean innovation, design thinking, and systems thinking to foster new ideas and solutions that reimagine university campuses and communities as ecologically sustainable, highly liveable and resilient ecosystems.
Programme Sessions
Introducing the Circular Economy & CCAsia’s Innovation Framework
by Shiva Susarla (Founder of RENERGii and CCAsia), Roleen Sevillena (Programme Manager at CCAsia) & Titus Loh (Programme Manager - Circularity at SecondMuse)
SEPT 22, 2022
3-4pm ICT / 4-5pm PHT
This webinar will provide participants with an introduction to the circular economy and outline why innovation is a key component to help accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Circular Cities Asia team will give an overview of CCAsia’s framework for circular innovation and guest speaker, Titus Loh, will highlight the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship in this space and also share some examples of circular businesses in Southeast Asia.
Circular Innovation Workshop 1: Problem Identification
by Shiva Susarla (Founder of RENERGii and CCAsia), Tram Nguyen (Project Manager for Vietnam at WasteAid) & Niels Nable (Head of Sustainability Reporting and Partnerships at MERALCO)
SEPT 26, 2022
3-5pm ICT / 4-6pm PHT
The Problem Identification workshop focuses on uncovering and investigating waste challenges that exist on or near university campuses. We’ll guide participants through the process of identifying problems worth solving within their local context, using a lean and life cycle approach. The guest speakers, Niels Nable and Tram Nguyen, will also give an overview of the waste landscape in the Philippines and Vietnam and discuss some opportunities that exist for innovative intervention and entrepreneurship in their respective countries.
Value Proposition Canvas
by Vittorio Lepre (Former Venture Partner at RENERGii)
AVAILABLE WEEK OF SEPT 26, 2022
*pre-recorded webinar*
In this Value Proposition Canvas video, you’ll learn ways to identify the pains of your customer/user, their major “jobs to be done”, and what they’ll gain from having their problem solved. Vittorio will provide insight into how you can build a valuable offering that creates gains for your customers/users while also relieving their pain points.
Circular Innovation Workshop 2: Ideation
by Shiva Susarla (Founder of CCAsia and RENERGii), Roleen Sevillena (Programme Manager at CCAsia) & Team CEnnovations (past Circular Campus Programme incubatees)
OCT 4, 2022
3-5pm ICT / 4-6pm PHT
The Ideation workshop focuses on the ‘what if’ or ‘what could be the future’. Participants will take all of the inspiration and knowledge they gained from the problem discovery phase, and come up with a circular business idea that could help solve the resource waste problem they identified. The Circular Cities Asia team will share some circular design strategies and discuss circular business models. The guest speakers from team CEnnovators will then share their circular innovation journey, from problem identification to ideation and where they are now after completing a 3-month incubation.
Fireside Chat: Opportunities for Circular Innovation
Brenda Valerio (Philippines Country Lead at New Energy Nexus) & Kim Lê (Co-Founder and CEO of CL2B)
OCT 6, 2022
3-4pm ICT / 4-5pm PHT
This event will give participants the opportunity to hear from experts in the circular economy and cleantech space. The speakers will give insights into their careers and the current innovation landscape in their country. Participants will also hear more about the opportunities for young people in cleantech and circular innovation, along with some tips and advice on what makes a good application and pitch for our open innovation competition.
Business Model Canvas
by Vittorio Lepre (Former Venture Partner at RENERGii)
AVAILABLE WEEK OF OCT 3, 2022
*pre-recorded webinar*
In this Business Model Canvas video, you’ll learn about each building block of the canvas and the process of mapping out your business model. Vittorio will walk you through the right questions to ask when putting together the canvas and the importance of keeping it as a living document.
Circular Innovation Competition Finals Event
Hosted by Circular Cities Asia
OCT 26, 2022
3-5:30pm ICT / 4-6:30pm PHT
The teams shortlisted for the finals will pitch their circular ideas and have a live Q&A session with the jury. By the end of the virtual event winners of the boot camp prize will be announced!
Meet the Speakers & Facilitators
Shiva Susarla
RENERGii Asia / RENERGii Ventures
Shiva is the Founder of CCAsia and RENERGii, a venture studio and innovation firm. He has a deep passion for building and scaling ideas through urban circular economy principles and lean innovation. Shiva is also an Edmund Hillary Fellow and ClimateLaunchpad trainer. with over 11 years of experience in cleantech, circular economy innovation and investments.
Tram Nguyen
WasteAid
Tram is a Project Manager in Vietnam for WasteAid, with a background in sanitary engineering and environmental management. Her study and career pathway has focused on waste water and solid waste management, in different research institutions and the private sector. Before joining WasteAid, her latest positions were at various resorts on remote islands in Vietnam as an Environment Manager, where she spent most of the time dealing with solid waste management because of the lack of waste management facilities there.
Niels Nable
MERALCO / Sari-cycling
Niels is a young corporate sustainability leader who has produced multi-awarded ESG reports for the Manila Electric Company (Meralco)—the Philippines' oldest and largest electric utility (current market cap: USD 7 billion)—where he currently serves as Head of Sustainability Reporting and Partnerships. He co-led the company's first org-wide GHG emissions accounting initiative and the formation of the company's board-level sustainability committee. Niels also founded Sari-cycling, a nonprofit that delivers waste management solutions to low-income communities in Pasig City, Philippines, with the help of local government units, environmental organizations, and private enterprises.
Brenda Valerio
New Energy Nexus Philippines
Brenda is the Philippines Country Lead for New Energy Nexus, a global non-profit organization that supports energy entrepreneurs. Brenda leads the initiatives to support clean energy innovators and entrepreneurs and works with different organizations and stakeholders in the energy and innovation ecosystem. She also heads the organizations’ digital education efforts, which aims to vastly accelerate the strengthening of the pipeline of energy enterprises across the globe. Brenda has been in the entrepreneur-support sector for over 7 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship and a MBA degree from the Philippines.
Roleen Sevillena
Circular Cities Asia
Roleen's work is currently focused on learning experience design. As the Programme Manager at Circular Cities Asia, she leads the orgranisation's flagship initiative, the Circular Campus Programme, which bridges theory and practice and encourage participants to take action for positive environmental and social change. Roleen's past experiences as an environmental educator have been within the tourism industry, public sector and with non-profit organisations.
Titus Loh
SecondMuse
Titus is the Program Manager, Circularity at SecondMuse for The Incubation Network, where his work focuses on driving innovative solutions for ocean plastic pollution mitigation and the advancement of a more circular economy across South and Southeast Asia. Prior to SecondMuse, Titus practised both top-down and bottom-up approaches to environmental challenges through his experience as a project manager of environmental and sustainability work within the private sector and, most recently, as an Environmental Analyst for the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia. Titus holds an M.Eng.Sc and a B.Eng (Environmental) from the University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Team CEnnovators
Spare Square
Angelika Detalla, Miles Ipanag, Joy Galindo and Princess Ellevera are students from The University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP). The team was one of the winners of the April 2022 Circular Campus Programme competition, and they went on to co-incubated with their university, Circular Cities Asia and RENERGii. The circular business idea they're currently developing is an e-commerce app where large scale construction companies can sell their waste materials to small scale construction companies and others in the craft and artisan industry to use as raw materials.
Kim Lê
CL2B
Having an Economic background from the UK with experiences in CSR of manufacturing, supply chain; Kim has been a circular economy activist proactively making action to boost CE transition in Southeast Asia. In CL2B, Kim works closely with intergovernmental agencies, national and local governments, as well as brands and manufacturers in Asia, she brings her insight understanding of opportunities and challenges faced by many of the countries in the region with respect to waste.
Organiser
Sponsors
Programme Designers:
Suzanna Pomeroy, Platform Director
Roleen Sevillena, Programme Manager
University Partners
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