On Nov. 24, the Acceleration Event took place in Den Bosch. During this event, the results of the Circular Cotton Cascade project were presented and a visual final product was launched.
The day started with a speech of Sanne, who told how she got inspired for the Circular Cotton Cascade project. Sanne: “I wanted to look at how we can leave a positive footprint instead of a negative footprint. How can we look at multiple value creation and make farming an integral part of that? Circular economics was the inspiration to do things differently. We wanted to leave a positive impact and restore communities.”
Karen Janssen further explained that the Cotton Cascade Project organized four work packages, where issues were taken up. The results of the work sessions were presented by the partners during the Acceleration Event.
Jacomine Ravensbergen, chair of the Executive Board, talked about what this project means to Avans. “The Circular Cotton Cascade project is a good example of how we see practical research: at the request of people who matter. People and farmers in India get their product in a good way that involves fair pricing.This is done together with companies that have good intentions and also like to work on this.Nice that we can continue this and that Avans is also one of the partners.Also for our students this is a great example of how to do things differently.” Jacomine then launched the final product of the Circular Cotton Cascade: a digital interactive book that you can see on the Cotton Cascade website. You can find this digital book on our homepage.
The rest of the day was filled with presentations by the partners. Before each presentation, a video* was shown visualizing a process of the chain.Then the partners presented the results of their work packages:Sanne van den Dungen, Anna Schilizzi and Michiel Dekkers told about the issues focused on fiber, Marco Verkooijen and Kees Timmersmans about data transparency within the chain, Niels Sprong and Anton Luiken about impact indicators and Karen, Robin Pereboom and Thalia van Mensvoort about collaborative value models.After each presentation, the audience was asked to contribute ideas to further build on inspiring ideas.
In between, lector Godelieve Spaas of the professorship Economy in Common gave her keynote speech in which she gave the audience the following message: fall out of your role, do something together, don’t run away from problems. This is how we can contribute to an economy where people live better, with each other in harmony. An inspiring speech, which Karen then complemented nicely. “Textile production one of the most unsustainable models. The transaction is based on a system with unfair prices and invisible margins. It is time to consider this system and there is a movement underway that we as BWNO stand for: working with people in harmony to improve wellbeing. To do that, we need each other. You need to experience each other’s motives and processes, not just interpret figures.”
Circular Cotton Cascade is ready for the next step! “We want to partner with Avans to buy cotton that shirts, workwear and towels are made from and convert it to reuse. Everything we do we share with the industry,” says Karen
The day ended beautifully with an impressive and beautiful poem by spoken word artist Ine Mols. She summed up the day in an artwork of words.