What is the role of consumers in a circular economy? How can buyers really make a difference? And when does shifting to a sustainable lifestyle become the norm?

These questions lie at the core of this DLD Circular discussion between Kristina Kloberdanz (Mastercard) and Swiss philanthropist and investor Nachson Mimran (t.org), moderated by WIRED UK editor-in-chief Greg Williams.

A powerful example of consumer activism comes from Mimran, who tells the story of his young daughter who wanted to have a Barbie doll. But not the usual kind, because “she was aware that the Barbies that were available were made out of materials that she didn’t really want to own”. Also, Mimran says, typical Baries represented “a physique that she didn't necessarily want to aspire to.”

Mimran asked friends to 3D print an alternative doll, dressed in upcycled materials. “We called her Naughty Barbie”, he recalls. “And we sent her in a box to the Board of Mattel”, the maker of the original Barbie dolls.

The result was not a lawsuit but rather a new, officially sustainable Barbie – which Mattel presented in June 2021 as Barbie Loves the Ocean, the “first fashion doll line made from recycled ocean-bound plastic”.

“We've provoked and inspired them to accelerate their shift to a circular supply chain”, Mimran says, adding that Mattel’s stock price seems to have benefitted from such planet-friendly management decisions. “So there's definitely that kind of resonance with consumers and shareholders.”

Kloberdanz agrees that it’s important to make people aware of “how their choices make a difference”. Because that can “turn consumers into activists in a way”, she says. “They’re choosing with their dollars.”

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