EXCLUSIVE: Troubled economy needs shift to circular says Eurostar’s Peter Bragg

Shifting to a circular economy is the most effective concept for ensuring economic growth and reducing resource consumption, according to leading sustainability professionals Peter Bragg and Mike Barry.


In exclusive interviews with edie, Bragg, head of energy and environment for Eurostar and Barry, head of sustainable business at Marks & Spencers, both agreed that the circular economy will be the most important “green initiative” for ensuring the use of finite resources is minimised.

Bragg said: “I really like the concepts that are developing around a ‘sharing economy’, sharing products, goods and services to reduce resource consumption and waste.

“It has great potential in moving us away from a consumer driven economy to one based more on collaboration and re-use,” he said.

Also backing the movement, Barry said: “There are enormous benefits from shifting from a linear economy (make, use, dispose) to a circular one where waste is avoided, new material use is minimised and new social connections are made”.  

In May, research showed that the sharing economy is now valued at £330bn globally and £22.4bn in the UK.

The study conducted by Opinium on behalf of community movement group The People who Share demonstrates growing consumer appetite for more sustainable models of consumption through exchange and leasing mechanisms.

Read the full interviews ‘In conversation with Eurostar’s Peter Bragg’ and ‘In conversation with M&S’ Mike Barry and Adam Elman’

Leigh Stringer

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