Closed Systems are Sexy: Designing Businesses of Enough

We’re living in a time where fast money has become like a badge of honour, presenting itself as the new benchmark for success. From influencer dropshipping to crypto flipping and overly monetised content platforms, there’s another kind of ambition quietly gaining ground... One rooted in imagining new and clever systems thinking, circular design, and sustainable interdependence by turning its waste into others’ worth. 

This is the new game, and it’s being played by a different kind of entrepreneur, the kind who isn’t trying to escape the system but instead, rewiring it quite differently this time around. 

💬 “We don’t need another unicorn. We need beautiful, profitable systems that sustain themselves and their communities.” — Roy Fletcher

What is a Closed System within the Circular Economy?

Let’s break it down for a minute. A circular economy is built on reuse, regeneration, and redesign. It values resilience over linear scale. A closed system takes this concept one step further by designing local, self-contained loops where outputs from one process become inputs for another.

Picture this… A restaurant composts its food scraps to fertilise herbs grown on its rooftop. Greywater is filtered and used to irrigate nearby planters. Packaging is either reusable, compostable, or repurposed back into energy. Nothing goes out of the loop unless it’s transformed into something else of use.

San Francisco restaurant The Perennial operated one of the most ambitious closed-loop experiments of its time, integrating aquaponics, compost-fed livestock, and perennial grain sourcing into a regenerative dining experience. 

And in Mexico City, Baldío runs its restaurant entirely without waste bins, channelling every input and output through its regenerative farm, Arca Tierra. These are delightful signals of a larger shift towards closed-loop systems.

Entrepreneurship Reimagined: The Business of Enough

Closed-loop design presents a compelling alternative to the prevailing mindset of endless growth. These ventures aim for sufficiency, resilience, and long-term value instead of chasing maximum margins at maximum scale and velocity. 

Now don't get me wrong… a "Business of Enough" doesn’t necessarily mean settling for less or living poorly as a founder... Oh no, it means building models that regenerate their resources to sustain their entire ecosystems and reduce reliance on fragile, extractive supply chains. I think it’s a remarkably profitable return to common sense.

From Waste to Worth

In traditional circular systems, the waste it produces signals a serious design flaw. But around the world, businesses are rewriting that narrative with clever solutions to previously perceived perpetual problems.

In India, for example, reclaimed river plastics are being transformed into high-end designer furniture. In the US, companies are turning landfill-bound plastics into durable composite decking and building materials. Global brands like Decathlon are advancing circularity at scale by using recycled materials throughout their product lines, from trekking jackets and yoga mats to cycling gear and travel duffels.

These businesses aren’t necessarily cutting corners as one might think. They’re proving that circular design can uphold quality, boost their margins, and differentiate the real value of impactful brands in a very crowded marketplace.

Youth and the Power of a New Idea

Younger generations have become conscious consumers by redefining what success looks like. 

We find them building brands with purpose ingrained into their core values. And they’re seeking out ventures that align with these values, not just with their bank accounts. Circular entrepreneurship offers a model that is future-facing, system-smart, and socially cool. It’s a generational mindset that is less about sustainability as a checkbox and more about regeneration.

Gen Z is currently between the ages of 13 and 28 and is coming of age in a world shaped by climate disruption, social movements, and digital acceleration. While they could be disillusioned by the systems they’ve inherited, they remain fiercely committed to building something better with this as the foundation. They are the most connected, most informed, and (despite their struggles with mental health), perhaps the most principled generation we’ve seen in a long time.

We’re already seeing older Gen Zers enter the workforce, lead startups, or launch side hustles rooted in these values-based principles. Despite being driven by profit, they seek impact, authenticity, and meaning. We also see many of them rejecting the traditional ‘hustle’ culture in favour of flexible, mentally healthy work environments. They demand transparency, inclusivity, and justice by bringing these expectations into the core of their ventures.

Circular entrepreneurship is resonating deeply with this generation, and it's becoming clear that instead of just ticking the sustainability boxes, their efforts are driven towards system redesign, climate resilience, and collaborative economies. They are using digital tools to reimagine everything from food systems to fashion supply chains. Brands and platforms led by Gen Z are embedding climate justice, equity, and circularity into their core.

New Towns, New Rules and Localised Loops

In some places, entire business communities are being reimagined as regenerative ecosystems, intentionally designed for interdependence and efficiency, with community at their core.

Picture a town where a bakery shares its leftover yeast with a local brewery. That brewery then sends its spent grain to nearby farmers who use it as compost or feed. The farmers, in turn, supply a community grocer, who packages produce using mycelium-grown biodegradable materials. Every player in this system supports the next through mutually beneficial transactions and collaboration.

Take STORC at Sacramento State University as an example: It runs a nearly closed-loop food system where inedible food waste becomes compost and vermicompost, which nourishes worms and fish, producing nutrient-rich water for greenhouse vegetables. It’s a system that generates value at every economic, educational, and ecological stage.

The Future We Loop Into

Unfortunately, when growth is pursued blindly, it hollows out the very systems that keep us alive. The future of tomorrow calls for smarter design over more extraction - and one that respects limits, honours local intelligence, and gives back more than it takes. 

Closed-loop systems in circular economies invite us to reconsider the ways we produce value, the waste we tolerate, and the connections we build around our businesses.

So here’s a challenge worth accepting… What are you building? What waste in your business could be reimagined as a valuable input into a different system? And how could your venture become part of a local system that serves both your bottom line and the world around it?

Circularity looks very much like a strategy. It’s a bold, relatively new, and lucrative way of thinking. One that requires us to slow down, deliberately design better systems, and define success on our own terms. It’s a grand philosophy of life and business, and when it’s done right, it’s not just sustainable… It’s sexy.

Written by - Claire Taylor in collaboration with Roy Fletcher