Circular Economy for Small Business

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Educating entrepreneurs about the circular economy and providing them with resources to minimize their environmental impact while succeeding economically. The WNY Sustainable Business Roundtable partnered with IC Success to develop and deliver the programming. Funding was provided by the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I). 

Project Goal & Objectives

This program enhanced WNY-area entrepreneurs’ understanding of the circular economy, educated them about pollution prevention strategies, and equiped them with the tools and resources needed to implement those strategies into their business model.

 

  • Two educational programming events focused on principles of a circular economy for small businesses, an introduction to life cycle analysis (LCA), and strategies for implementing a circular economy business model.
  • Educational materials for entrepreneurs to use during and after the program to understand and identify sources of pollution within their business, optimize their contribution to the circular economy, understand the LCAs most material to their business, and implement sucessful and sustainable operational strategies.
  • Completed a barrier analysis to understand the unique barriers faces by small businesses, particularly historically underserved early-state entrepreneurs.

Project Results

CIRCULAR ECONOMY BASICS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

BEST PRACTICES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC CIRCULAR ECONOMY PRACTICES

GETTING STARTED WITH THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY – WORKSHEET

CIRCULAR ECONOMY ACTION STRATEGY – WORKSHEET

Funding & Partners

Funding

Partners

Funding provided by the Environmental Protection Fund as administered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Any opinions, findings, and/or interpretations of data contained herein are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions, interpretations or policy of Rochester Institute of Technology and its NYS Pollution Prevention Institute or the State.

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