World's first circular economy MBA student graduates
Gin Tidridge is the first person to complete a circular economy MBA at the University of Bradford, and other higher education institutions are beginning to integrate circular economy concepts in their curricula.
Today’s economic conditions require a change in perspective to look beyond the current “take, make and dispose” model. How is higher education helping the next generation of business leaders to develop the innovative, systems thinking approaches needed to address today’s rapidly changing business context?
Last week saw Gin Tidridge, sustainability specialist at B&Q, become the first person to complete an MBA in Innovation, Enterprise and Circular Economy at the University of Bradford, the first MBA programme in the world to provide business professionals with the essentials on the circular economy framework.
Gin studied for three years on the fully online course, before being awarded the MBA. She said “It was an honour to achieve a UK and global first. Circular economy – innovation aimed at keeping resources in use for as long as possible and then recovering and regenerating products and materials – is integral to B&Q’s ethos and work.”
Gin’s final management project on her MBA was closely linked to B&Q’s parent company Kingfisher’s exploration into whether a supply chain can be described as “closed loop”. She examined various methodologies to assess circularity and found a solution that would work for B&Q’s wide range of products. Her work will help the business to become more innovative in the way it develops products, services and supply chains in the future.
Read the full article online at www.theguardian.com