
IKEA, the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), and innovative start-up Agri-Grub, will be sharing how sustainability could help SMEs save money, boost productivity and become more resilient after COVID19 at a free webinar organised by Opportunity Peterborough in October.
The event will help SMEs get more value from their resources, and even find new uses for waste streams through the concept of circular economy. The circular economy aims to move society away from the ‘take-make-dispose’ model — where raw materials are collected, transformed into products, and discarded as waste — into one where resources are used for as long as possible and productive uses are found for waste streams.
This event is being run by the Circular Peterborough team at Opportunity Peterborough which runs the city’s circular economy programme in partnership with Peterborough City Council. The team works with businesses of all sizes, but in response to COVID-19 recovery, the workshop will be for SMEs.
Delegates will hear from businesses in the area who have benefitted from adopting circular principles, and some of the commercial opportunities for waste streams:
- Start-up, Agri-Grub, which is turning AM FRESH’s waste fruit into protein and pest control
- IKEA is reusing, repurposing, and recovering materials.
- the National Institute of Agricultural Botany will also discuss how plant resources could provide renewable materials to businesses across all sectors to reduce the use of plastic and non-biodegradable materials.
There will also be time for delegates to discuss how their businesses could use circular economy principles, and the opportunities and barriers they may face. The Circular Peterborough team will use the feedback to adapt city level strategies and to tailor long term one-to-one business support for delegates.
Tom Hennessy, chief executive of Opportunity Peterborough said, “COVID-19 created huge disruption across supply chains, and has really tested business’ resilience. We want to rebuild the economy quickly, but we also want to keep this growth sustainable. With the circular economy, we can help businesses improve their operations while also protecting our environment.
“Any SME is welcome to attend, whether they’re new to the circular economy concept, already planning to make changes, or are looking for extra inspiration on their circular journey.”
The webinar will run 10.30am-12.00pm online on 14 October 2020. Delegates will receive a link directly. For event and registration details visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/going-circular-how-sustainability-can-boost-business-growth-after-covid19-tickets-121711017931
As one of the UK’s top Smart Cities, we’re delighted to be part of the UK government’s stand at the 2019 Smart City Summit and Expo in Taipei this week (26 – 29 March 2019).

Peterborough is among the UK’s top 5 fastest growing cities and we’re a hotbed of innovation with one of the highest business start-up rates in the country.
Our Future Peterborough team is dedicated to making sure our city works as efficiently as possible for businesses and residents. The Smart City Leadership Programme and Circular Economy initiatives are internationally respected for how they’ve improved Peterborough’s economic resilience and sustainability. We want to share what we’ve learnt with other cities and regions around the world to develop more best practice examples and support more cities on their smart city and circular economy journeys.
Peterborough’s impact:
- Delivers a DFID-funded Smart City Leadership Programme for the Indian city of Amaravati and for the state of Madhya Pradesh
- Played a lead role in the development of British Standards Institute’s (BSI) suite of Smart City Standards
- Chair of the BSI’s Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee (SDS/2)
- A founder member of the Cities Standards Institute
- Attends the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smart Cities
- A member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Cities Network
- The team has presented at over 50 international conferences and continues to acquire local, national and international media coverage peaking with the ‘World Smart City Award’ in 2015
A few of our achievements:
We’d love to tell you more about doing business in Peterborough and our Smart City and circular economy programmes.
Come and find us on stand i114.
Downloads (with Mandarin translation):
Peterborough, UK – home to a thriving Digital & Creative Sector
About the Future Peterborough programme
Supporting Smart Cities in Taiwan
For more information about Peterborough, please visit investinpeterborough.co.uk
Opportunity Peterborough (OP) and Peterborough City Council (PCC) held a conference on 24 January 2019 to bring together practitioners in the fields of Circular Economy (CE) and Future Cities (FC), to share ideas and experience and develop the business case for circular, sustainable cities. This was an event to inspire those working in or adopting circular economy to help them learn, share, network and collaborate and develop future pathways to successful implementation. The event will strongly link to follow up events to be run by the University Centre Peterborough (UCP) in June 2019 focused on the practically based research and development on the topic. UCP’s transition to become a fully-fledged University will include a unique focus on the Circular Economy. The combined impact will reinforce the city’s position as leading the way on Circular City thinking and development.
The conference itself considered the complex topic considering two connected themes through an overarching narrative of best practice and business case development alongside the co-creation of collaborative next steps. It showcased Peterborough’s significant progress in CE and FC and how the city plans to build on this in the future in collaboration with others. The conference will also consider CE in the context of how small to medium size businesses can build innovative solutions through collaboration and will bring learning from the European Investment Partnership (EIP) Small Giants imitative to inform this element.
The event featured inspiring speakers to challenge and excite the delegates and to drive future collaborations to accelerate national and international progress towards a circular future. The presentations themselves were supplemented with interactive Q&A sessions, networking and focused workshops to ensure that all attendees gained valuable learning.
Finally, the sessions was filmed so the learning can be accessed via the Future Peterborough websites beyond the event itself and insight. Keep a lookout on this page for our video!
Conference Themes
The conference focused on two connected themes under the banner “Future Circular Cities – Making It Real”:-
A – Practical Approaches to City Scale Circular Economy — putting CE it into practice at a city scale.
B – Developing the business case, from theory to implementation including the EIP Small Giants collaboration, scale up and Industrial Strategy relevance.
We look forward to updating you with outcomes of the event and the progress of circular economy initiatives in Peterborough. To find out more about our circular city project please email: circular@opportunitypeterborough.co.uk
This short (2 minute) video explains how Peterborough DNA came about and what the programme aims to achieve: