The Circular Coffee Break

Jaakko Nauha was the first interview guest of The Circular Coffee Break back in early 2023. Almost three years later, he returns as the final interview guest of the podcast, now as CEO of Tracegrow.

In this conversation, we look at what has changed since those early days and what building a circular business looks like once initial ideas meet market realities. We discuss Tracegrow’s expansion from recycled battery-based fertiliz...

Circular economy has been discussed for more than a decade, yet for most companies it remains fragmented, difficult to scale, and hard to explain to investors and decision-makers. While pilots and innovations abound, the lack of a shared framework has made it challenging to turn circular ambition into business strategy.

In this episode of Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf sits down with Filipe Camaño Garcia, Lead, Global ...

In this Christmas special of the Circular Coffee Break, Michael Hanf explores what the holiday season looks like through the lens of circularity. From gift wrapping and waste, to circular design and community traditions, the episode reflects on how small, thoughtful choices can reduce pressure and add meaning to Christmas.

Featuring short perspectives from TOMRA, Circular&Co, and WWF Germany, this episode shows how circular ...

In this episode of the Circular Coffee Break, Michael Hanf speaks with Costas Papaikonomou, co-founder of Una Terra, a 200-million-euro early growth venture capital fund investing in solutions that accelerate the shift to a more circular and regenerative economy. Costas brings more than twenty-five years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, innovation consulting, and entrepreneurship. He has helped global consumer goods com...

In this special Circular Coffee Break episode recorded live at Slush 2025 in Helsinki, host Michael Hanf explores how circular innovation is moving from vision to implementation across Europe. While circularity was not a headline theme this year, it was noticeably more present, reflected in the founders shaping new solutions in energy storage, materials, electronics, chemistry, agriculture, and even space.

Across seven conversat...

Circularity is accelerating, and the 2025 Circular Valley Forum in Wuppertal offered a vivid snapshot of how fast the transition is unfolding. The event brought together leaders from industry, science, public institutions, startups and civil society. The atmosphere was buzzing with energy, ideas and a shared determination to turn circular concepts into real action.

In this special episode of the Circular Coffee Break Podcast, we...

In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf speaks with Kate Reimann, Founder and CEO of Rogue Wave Toys, about how a single day at the beach led to a breakthrough in sustainable design.

When a wave swept her children’s plastic toys out to sea, Kate decided to rethink what play could look like in a world drowning in plastic. The result was Rogue Wave Toys, a company creating durable, compostable beach toys ma...

In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf sits down with Allison Jordan, Executive Director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) and Vice President of Environmental Affairs at the Wine Institute.

For more than two decades, Allison has helped turn California into a global model for sustainable winegrowing. Today, over 2,600 vineyards and wineries, representing more than 90 percent of the...

Recorded live at the European Biogas Conference during European Biomethane Week 2025, this special episode of The Circular Coffee Break explores how biogas and biomethane are driving Europe’s transition to a truly circular economy.

Biomethane connects energy, waste management, and nutrient recovery — turning residues into clean energy and valuable resources. In this episode, policymakers, researchers, financiers, and innovators ...

What does it take to design products that turn today’s waste into tomorrow’s resource? In this episode of the Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf sits down with Dan Dicker, Founder and CEO of Circular&Co., to explore how circular design principles can move from idea to practice.

Dan began his career as a designer at Dyson, where he experienced the thrill of blue sky innovation. Yet when he proposed using recycled materi...

For this special CCB on the Road edition, the Circular Coffee Break team packed the microphones and joined Impact Day 2025 in Tallinn — Northern Europe’s largest sustainability and impact event.

Across two days of lively discussions, we sat down with innovators, policy leaders, and changemakers who are redefining how circularity, finance, and leadership come together to build a more sustainable world.

Each conversation explor...

The CCB Podcast is partnering with the Circular Valley Forum 2025, which takes place on November 14th in Wuppertal under the theme “Partnerships for a Circular Economy.”

In this teaser, Michael speaks with Carsten Gerhardt, founder of Circular Valley and Chairman of the Circular Valley Foundation. He shares what makes the Forum a unique platform for collaboration and what participants can look forward to at this year’s event.

Polyester and nylon dominate the textile industry because they are affordable, durable, and versatile. But these same materials are also among the leading sources of microplastic pollution worldwide, from the clothes we wear to the carpets beneath our feet. Addressing this challenge is complex, but innovation is beginning to provide new answers.

In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf is joined by Andrea ...

What does it really take to design for circularity? And how do we balance ambition with the messy realities of business and innovation?

In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf sits down with Joe Iles, Circular Design Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to explore the evolving role of design in driving the transition towards a circular economy. Joe has been with the Foundation since 2011 and ...

What happens when a 130-year-old food company decides to turn its waste into value? In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, we sit down with Juhani Sibakov, Head of Innovation at Fazer Bakery Finland, and Katariina Rommi, Senior Manager at Fazer Lab, to uncover how Fazer is reimagining food waste—and turning surplus bread into a circular innovation success story.

At the heart of the discussion is Fazer’s latest creation: B...

What does it take to move circular economy from concept to commercial reality?

In this episode of The Circular Coffee Break, host Michael Hanf sits down with Kalle Saarimaa, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at NG Nordic, to explore how circularity is being scaled across industrial and municipal systems. With decades of experience across the Nordic waste, recycling, and circular solutions space, including seni...

How far have Nordic companies really come on their circular journey?

In this episode, Michel Bajuk (Cradlenet, Nordic Circular Hotspot) and Marcus Linder (RISE) unpack key insights from the Nordic Circular Economy Outlook 2024. From strategy gaps to measurable impact, we explore the first data-driven snapshot of how publicly listed Nordic firms are progressing on circularity and where they need to go next.