January 18, 2022

Facilitating the shift towards the circular economy requires widespread adoption and diffusion of circular thinking, particularly among startups and entrepreneurs who can disrupt their respective industries. Incubators and accelerators have great potential to accelerate and advance the circular economy in North America by providing resources and support to innovative startups and help them incorporate circular economy concepts.

ACTION has initiated a no-cost, self-guided program with a collection of modules from prominent product design and circular economy experts to assist your organization in mentoring and training startups in circular thinking. Regardless of the industry sector focus of an incubator/accelerator, the collection of resources will provide a circular economy curriculum to help your network of startups and entrepreneurs learn more about the circular economy and apply these concepts to make their business more sustainable, impactful and attractive to investors. In-person/online training sessions are also available for incubators and accelerators.

Explore the modules here and contact us with interest in customized programs at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

October 18, 2021

ACTION Innovation Network will be presenting a workshop on the morning of November 22nd to explore how incubator and accelerator managers can help their companies transition from linear to circular thinking and apply these strategies toward building sustainable companies, and by doing so make them more competitive in the global economy. Whether your incubator supports cleantech, healthtech, bluetech or other types of companies, this workshop will offer tangible ways to assist your companies. This workshop is open to all incubators, accelerators, and other entrepreneur support organizations. Topics that will be covered include:

• The concept of circular economy and importance of adopting circular strategies
• Sustainability measures corporate and institutional investors look for in companies
• Circular design thinking and circular business models
• Training materials for circular thinking for incubator or accelerator programs

August 19th, 2021

ACTION Innovation Network, together with Innovation Texas and Tondo, will present a side session at the World Circular Economy Forum. The conference is hosted virtually from Canada from September 13th - 15th, with side sessions throughout the month. The event, co-organized by the Government of Canada and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra will be hosted for the first time in North America. The World Circular Economy Forum brings together forward-looking thinkers and doers, and presents the world’s leading game-changers in the circular economy. The session, Circular from the Start (Up), is planned for September 16th from 10:00 am -12:30 pm Eastern time and will introduce the Circular Economy concept and how it creates value for incubator and accelerator programs. Panelists include Humberto Olivo, Head of Innovation Texas, Partner, Valyfund Venture Capital, Shyaam Ramkumar, Tondo Circular Expert and Advisor, and Joan Popolo, Executive Director, ACTION Innovation Network, along with other invited speakers. The panel will discuss the need for innovation for a circular economy transition and how incubators and accelerators can enable circular economy innovation.

July 14th, 2021

The next edition of ACTION's Pre-Landing program, InterACTION: Circularity 2021, will be held remotely from October 21st through November 18th. It is open to international cleantech/sustainability, marine, and life science startups that are interested in exploring US market entry opportunities. Reports indicate that the circular economy financing market is taking off. Assets managed through public equity funds with the circular economy as the sole or partial investment focus have increased sixfold, from USD $0.3B to over USD $2B since 2020.