Meet our experts! Today: Dora Caria!
Our startups are, of course, experts for the circular economy. Nevertheless, they could also profit from exchange with other experts. That's what we are offering our Green Alley Award finalists in our so-called expert sessions! In these sessions, #circulareconomy as well as #startup experts provide hands-on advice and the startups will get the possibility to enlarge their network and to profit from knowledge of other experienced professionals.
Dora Caria works for H2 Compliance, a Landbell Group company, and is Head of Circular Economy Engineering Solutions. Her expertise encompasses regulatory compliance within the chemical and environmental sectors as well as product take-back solutions, quality, audit and compliance scheme engineering. Read her interview to learn more about her and about the key challenges she sees for the circular economy in Europe.
What is your professional background and how will it help you to be a startup advisor for the Green Alley Award finalists?
My current field of work is focused on the design, implementation, and improvement of global take-back solutions for end-of-life devices and packaging. This current expertise is built on previous roles more related to supply chain performance monitoring, audits, and quality management.
I hope that the Green Alley Award finalists can benefit from my professional background. I may challenge them on how well thought out their products or service solutions are in terms of the end-of-life management and how much dedication and effort was put into the due diligence of their own supply chain (in terms of sustainability and social responsibility).
Most of the things you have to consider when starting a business, you don’t learn in any school. So, generally speaking, in what way could entrepreneurs profit from mentors or advisors like you?
I think we can bring together the creative ideas of the entrepreneurs with the current needs the customers are confronted with on a daily basis (circular economy strategies, challenges and needs). This serves to narrow the gap between a great idea and its potential practical application.
When founding a startup one can have the perfect idea and the best conditions but still fail to be successful. As execution is key, what are you as an expert looking for in an entrepreneur, his team and his business idea?
In short terms this is what I expect from a startup:
An entrepreneur with inspiration, passion and flexibility, a team with a shared passion and the capability to achieve results, and a business idea that aims at solving tangible circular economy problems.
The Green Alley Award is all about circular startups. In your opinion, which are the key challenges for a circular economy in Europe?
Transforming an economic model is always challenging, and therefore there are various aspects to tackle on the transition from a linear to a circular economy. I want to highlight a particular one, which, in my opinion, will be notably challenging for the EU: the legislation and regulation adaptation to the circular economy in order to promote truly circular solutions. Unfortunately, current waste regulations prevent circular initiatives:
For instance, using by-products of a production process as an input for product development is difficult, because such resources are classified as waste and its usage requires specific licenses, taxes and additional bureaucracy. Another example is provided by accountancy rules that are tailored to the linear model that depreciates assets and materials instead of maintaining the value of reused or remanufactured ones.
If you had the chance to start your own business, what kind of startup would it be?
It would be related to the circular economy, of course!
Most probably either a cost-effective and small-scale technology solution to recover Critical Raw Materials from e-waste and/or batteries. I could also imagine working on a digital solution to provide end-users with full upstream and downstream supply chain transparency with regard to materials used.