Circular Coffee Break for Leaders, Innovators, and Practitioners
Feb 4, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
After three years and over eighty conversations, The Circular Coffee Break comes to a close. This final solo episode is not a recap but a reflection on why the podcast existed, what was learned, and…
Michael HanfHost
Back in 2023, circularity still felt like something many organizations were trying to figure out on their own.
At the time, strategies were being published, targets announced, and pilots launched.
What was often missing was space to talk about how decisions were actually made inside companies, institutions, and organizations.
The idea of the coffee break mattered to me, not as something informal or superficial, but as a moment to slow the conversation down, to think out loud, to explore trade-offs, uncertainty and constraints, rather than presenting circularity as a linear journey from problem to solution.
The technologies exist, the models are known and the data is actually improving.
The harder challenges sit in governance, incentives, organizational boundaries and decision-making.
Again and again, guests spoke about misaligned objectives, fragmented responsibilities, and short-term pressures that made long-term circular strategies difficult to sustain.
It depends on many stakeholders playing different but critical roles across value chains, sectors, and institutions.
Back in 2023, circularity still felt like something many organizations were trying to figure out on their own.
At the time, strategies were being published, targets announced, and pilots launched.
What was often missing was space to talk about how decisions were actually made inside companies, institutions, and organizations.
The idea of the coffee break mattered to me, not as something informal or superficial, but as a moment to slow the conversation down, to think out loud, to explore trade-offs, uncertainty and constraints, rather than presenting circularity as a linear journey from problem to solution.
The technologies exist, the models are known and the data is actually improving.
The harder challenges sit in governance, incentives, organizational boundaries and decision-making.
Again and again, guests spoke about misaligned objectives, fragmented responsibilities, and short-term pressures that made long-term circular strategies difficult to sustain.
It depends on many stakeholders playing different but critical roles across value chains, sectors, and institutions.
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