The impacts set in motion at this design stage can be profound. Dealing with the symptoms of a linear economy “end of pipe” and cleaning up downstream is often more costly, less effective and at times not possible at all. We can see this clearly today with the near-irreversible symptoms of the way we make and use plastic. Once it has arrived in landfills and oceans, it is difficult to clean it up.

On the other hand, building in circularity from the start can unlock safer or improved products and services, better relationships with customers, and resource and energy savings that benefit the bottom line. It’s through design that we can address the cause of today’s economic, social, and environmental challenges, rather than just treating the symptoms.

It should be clear by now that this has relevance far beyond the realm of the classical industrial designer. IDEO CEO Tim Brown has long maintained that “design is everywhere, inevitably everyone is a designer.” So this phase is crucial not just to one department but to the entire organisation, if they are setting their sights on a circular economy.

Without a focus on design, the circular economy will not happen. However, there’s a stalemate. Designers — and all those involved in the creation of new products and services — face competing demands. Even if they design with the circular economy in mind, their efforts can be overwhelmed by the linear systems in place today. Elsewhere in the system, businesses that recover products for repair or recycling, for example, need to have the processes or technology in place to handle what designers are sending their way. This disconnect hinders sincere efforts to move towards a circular economy.

This is where policymakers play a vital role. Policymakers are uniquely positioned to put in place enabling conditions that allow the whole value chain to transition towards a circular economy. With a systems view, they have the power to connect the upstream and downstream, and set optimal conditions for the overall system to work. Focusing policy measures on the design stage can reconcile economic, environmental and societal demands, creating and distributing the rewards of a better approach.

As well as designers coming up with new circular concepts, there needs to be corresponding ‘pull’ factors to align efforts. Designers need confidence that their latest creations will be handled in the right way further down the chain, whether that’s how items are collected or if they can be recirculated without regulatory hurdles. This may involve removing non-financial barriers to designing for the circular economy, such as definitions of waste that hinder trade and transport of products for remanufacturing, or imperfect information that prevents businesses engaging in repair, disassembly and refurbishment activities.

Users will also need to be nudged in the right direction. During this shift in our economy, even products and services designed for a circular economy could fall into more well-trodden linear pathways, such as improper disposal or underuse. In 2017 the Swedish government demonstrated an elegant example of how policymakers can set this direction. The amendment saw value-added tax, or VAT, reduced from 25 per cent to 12 per cent for repairing items like bicycles, clothes, household linen, leather goods, and shoes. Actions like this could have positive ripple effects throughout the economy. For a start, reduced VAT should make repairing items more affordable and appealing for customers. On top of that, designers are provided with an added incentive to design for this new arrangement, making their products more repairable.