Since 2014, Gwen leads Circle Economy’s Textiles Programme in the Netherlands and has recently been appointed as Circularity Lead at the National College of Art and Design, Ireland. In both roles, her focus is in the design and execution of cutting edge pilots and programmes focused on increasing the circularity acumen of brands, businesses, educators and students. Gwen’s passion lies in developing new knowledge, tools and processes that can successfully guide organisations and individuals in transforming circular intent to action. 

 

In Ireland, Gwen leads the design and implementation of the sectoral circular training programme ‘Circular by Design‘, a collaborative initiative between DCCI, NCAD and the Creative Futures Academy, and is currently developing the Circular by Design Masters. 

On mainland Europe, Gwen has led various multi-stakeholder innovation projects with the industry. Recent and ongoing projects include the development and commercialization of the Fibersort (a breakthrough technology that automatically sorts post- consumer textiles by fibre composition, in order to generate consistent input for textile-to-textile recycling), Switching Gear (a project that guides apparel brands in the design and launch of a rental or resale business model pilots) and the Denim Alliance (a project to drive the uptake of  post-consumer recycled denim by supporting 40 global denim brands, suppliers and recyclers in the development and integration of PCRD fibres and styles).