2032 and Beyond: Circular Economy and the Brisbane 2032 Blueprint

Andrew McCormack:

Hello and welcome to Ashurst’s Business Agenda podcast. My name is Andrew McCormack and I am a partner in Ashurst's Project & Energy Transition Team. It is with great pleasure that I bring you this series of bite-sized episodes revisiting key talking points from our 2032 and Beyond Podcast Series.

In these special episodes, we will take a detailed look at a range of important issues that are relevant to the Queensland Government's recently unveiled plans for the venues, infrastructure, and transport solutions for the Brisbane 2032 Games.

In this episode, we will delve into the critical role of the circular economy in shaping the future of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and explore how circular economy principles are not just a sustainability buzzword, but a fundamental shift in how we design, build, and operate major events and infrastructure.

We previously spoke with industry expert Jodie Briscout, who leads Aurecon's dedicated circular economy team, to discuss why moving away from the traditional “take, make, waste” model is essential for achieving climate positivity and long-term resilience.

The themes explored here—intentional design, resource efficiency, regeneration of nature, and the need for systemic change—remain relevant as Brisbane sets out to deliver the most sustainable Games in history, embracing the circular economy, and its systems-based approach.

Let's hear what Jodie had to say about these issues:

Jodie Briscout:

I love circular economy. It's basically looking at how can we thrive in this future climate and resource-constrained world by doing three things in a systems approach: What we're trying to do is remove waste and pollution from inception, so designing out. Secondly, once we've got things in the system, we're trying to retain their value for as long as possible. We're trying to slow things down, use them longer, recycle them, keep all these products and valuable things in our economy for as long as possible. And thirdly, and possibly most importantly, it's regenerating nature as well, because if we're not actually giving back to this fabulous ecosystem that is cleaning our air and cleaning our water, etc, we can't really function in balance with our world in this future that we're heading into.

So, Circular economy principles are underpinned by total systems transformation, intentional design and innovative business models. It's really about shifting society's “take/make/waste” mindset towards a circular “design-out/retain/regenerate” system. This really needs business and policymakers to be working together for it to happen. We can't possibly move towards a circular economy in isolation – collaboration is vital. Andrew’s already talked about some of the ways of doing that. It's also important that we're collaborating so that we're not just building capacity and infrastructure for these two events that are happening in southeast Queensland, but for the whole region, and why not Queensland or Australia completely?

How can this be done? For Brisbane to achieve its climate positive aspirations for the 2032 Games, it's going to need strong circular economy action plans developed with industry that actually shape the way things are procured and whole of infrastructure design with really clear targets, especially around design for legacy. What's going to happen post-Olympics? Everything around material selection, reuse, recycling, and finally waste. Making digital solutions are going to be really important to track the products and materials for future maintenance, reuse and recycling, such as through material banks and material passports linked to digital twins, for example. We hope that will be standard by 2032, but we really need to be designing it in now.

Andrew McCormack:

Obviously with big strategic projects, contractual mechanisms can help promote the adoption of the circular systems that are there to support those projects. Collaboration between industry and government, the contractual and legal frameworks that can drive innovation, and the lessons learned from previous Games can create economic opportunities, strengthen supply chains, and ensure that the legacy of Brisbane 2032 benefits the entire region for years to come. Let's hear more from Jodie.

Jodie Briscout:

We are all in a race to try to get to net zero - Countries, states, cities, companies, we're all trying to get there. But one of the issues is that we can only address 55% of the world's climate emissions through switching to renewable sources of energy. And it's right that that's where most of the focus is. But the problem is the other 45% can only be addressed through shifting how we might transport, use, and dispose of our materials, or ‘stuff’. If we don't consider our stuff and materials or shift that we're not going to hit net zero.

You can either be a climate change denier, and, you know, that just means you're not going to be able to access world markets and things like that. Or you do recognise this, and realise that if we don't start hitting that, we're going to hit the point where we will have catastrophic climate change and things are going to change pretty severely. The life we live now is going to be really, really different and uncomfortable in the future.

Wayne Hubbard from ReLondon was fantastic when we were speaking together, and he talks about that. He says, ‘Life is going to change by design or by disaster’. Either we don't hit net zero, it all goes belly up and we are just forced to change. And it was really inspiring, because he says, ‘Well, I pick design every time’. And circular economy is about trying to design our economic system now so that we can avoid this disaster, but also so we can function better. We know we're going to have to adapt to it as well. That's my mantra at the moment: ‘By design rather than disaster’. That's the climate change side of things.

But we also saw, I think COVID was really good for us in understanding better around our supply chains and seeing supply chains be drastically broken from one week to the next. And we're not sure you know, there won't be a linear, nice, neat increase in prices of different materials. But we know that prices are going to go up, they will be available and then not available. How are we going to make sure that we have access to these important materials and products that we need to function as a society? This access to materials issue and even sovereign supply chain is one that I think is really, really significant as well.

That's talking about the ‘sticks’, as Andrew was saying before and burning platforms usually about sticks, right? But there's some important ‘carrots’ as well. Study after study after study shows the economic benefits and jobs benefits that come from circular economy business models and the innovative thinking that goes behind circular economy. And that's really, really exciting for us in Australia, in our capital cities and our regions - tomorrow's employment and job opportunities that we might be seeing through the circular economy lens.

Andrew McCormack:

Now that the legacy plan has been launched and infrastructure planning is further underway, it will be interesting to see how circular approaches might be embedded in the systems that will support Brisbane 2032 to realise the objective to be the most sustainable games ever delivered. Thank you for listening to Ashurst Business Agenda, and this episode in our Beyond 2023 mini-series.

In the meantime, to hear other Business Agenda episodes, including full episodes of 2032 and Beyond, you'll find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. While you're there, feel free to subscribe to Ashurst Business Agenda and leave us a rating or review.

Until next time, thank you for listening, and goodbye for now.

This podcast contains general information and does not constitute legal advice. Ashurst is not a sponsor, licensee, or promotional partner of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement, nor any Olympic body, event, team, or athlete. Nothing in this podcast is intended to suggest any such sponsorship, licence, or promotional affiliation.