Youth Board

B&Q’s partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

B&Q is proud to be a founding partner to the Ellen MacArthur Foundations, whose mission is to inspire a new generation to rethink the future. B&Q has a long history with Dame Ellen from her sailing days, and when she retired from professional sailing to establish the Foundation, B&Q understood its importance and was eager to get involved.

Our involvement with the Foundation stems from the fact that we understand that the time is coming when it will no longer make economic sense for ‘business as usual’ to continue and the circular economy principles being shared by the Foundation (sometimes called a “closed-loop” business model) will thrive.

Of course, we’re already looking into these opportunities, but we’re also aware that our efforts can be constrained by current ways of working and legislative and financial practicalities. To help us fully understand the opportunities provided by a closed-loop business model, some of our staff are undertaking a postgraduate certificate launched in October 2011 by the Foundation in partnership with Bradford University.

We came up with the idea of the Youth Board together with the Foundation to help bring a fresh perspective to the business challenges we are facing. For an overview of the Foundation’s work and to find out more about the principles behind the circular economy watch this short film clip or read their macro-economic report.