Circular Economy

The Circular Economy is:  

  • an economic system planned to reuse materials in subsequent production cycles, thereby minimising waste;

  • a strategic driver of industrial innovation for new investments able to strengthen companies’ competitiveness;

  • an accelerator factor of ESG goals.

     

Why invest in the Circular Economy now  

  • Improve the competitive positioning of small and large corporates;

  • Anticipate consumer choices and regulatory decisions;

  • Make safer resources supply and more stable prices in each supply chain,

  • Get the best conditions thanks to our dedicated credit plafond.

     

The 6 winning moves of the Circular Economy  

The Circular Economy is the new economic paradigm that aims to preserve the value of products and services over time, and to decouple business and local area economic growth from the consumption of non-renewable natural resources.

How to protect one's business:

  • Use renewable energy or resources for activities;

  • Produce or purchase reusable or recycled materials;

  • Design products to extend their lifecycle and allow the recycle, reuse and sale of each component;

  • Adopt innovative technologies that enable Circular Economy models;

  • Optimise resource consumption in the production cycle, making the most of waste and reducing business costs,

  • Create "reverse logistics" programmes to recycle products from the market, regenerate them and reintroduce them to the market.

     

Depletion of natural resources and the exponential increase of demand  

The current economic model based on extraction, production, use and waste generates a huge increase in costs and a loss of value that are no longer sustainable from an economic and environmental point of view. The expected scenario by 2050 requires a change of strategy today. The circular economy is the winning choice for today's and tomorrow's investments.

Watch the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center video on Circular Economy.

 

+ 2.3 billion people1
Increase in the number of people who will live on the planet in 2050. As a consequence there will be a 70% increase in food production to be sustained with only 20% of remaining arable land.

1:21  ratio
For every euro spent on food production, we pay 2 euro for health care and environmental impacts.

500 billion euro2
Value lost every year due to the failure to recycle and reuse of clothes. And every second a truck loaded with textile waste ends up in landfills.

200 billion dollars3
Savings related to the production and use of plastic by 2040 thanks to the application of the Circular Economy principles, in addition to: 

  • Reducing the annual volume of plastic that ends up in the oceans by 80%;

  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25%;

  • Creating 700,000 jobs.

     

The Circular Economy for Intesa Sanpaolo  

  • In 2018, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, in partnership with Cariplo Factory, founded the Circular Economy Lab in Milan: a laboratory designed to facilitate the meeting between supply and demand for circular innovation and to spread its culture. Discover more on the Circular Economy Lab.

  • Forvalue, a Tinexta Group company that works in partnership with the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, and provides non-financial solutions to support the Circular Economy. Find out more on Forvalue. 

  • Intesa Sanpaolo and Intesa Sanpaolo Formazione, through the Skills4ESG platform, offer an extensive range of online courses and advanced managerial training courses on ESG topics, some of which allow to gain an insight into the impacts and opportunities generated by Circular Economy. Read more about Skills4ESG.

Intesa Sanpaolo is Global Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the leading international player in terms of dissemination and promotion of the Circular Economy.  

 

1 SOURCE: Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Cities and Circular Economy For Food 2019.

2 SOURCE: Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Make Fashion, Circular 2017.

3 SOURCE: Breaking the Plastic Wave, PCT, partner Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2020.

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