The Ellen MacArthur Foundation Announces Google as a Global Partner

COWES, Isle Of Wight, Sept. 29, 2015 /CNW/ - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation today announced Google as its latest Global Partner accelerating the transition to the circular economy.

The partnership recognises Google's commitment to developing innovative, market-leading circular economy initiatives at scale alongside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's five existing Global Partners: Cisco, Kingfisher, Philips, Renault and Unilever.

As industry leaders, Global Partners work closely with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to identify circular business opportunities and to implement tangible programmes. As a global front-runner in technology innovation - with its extensive global network of data centres and real estate, a strong presence in the electronic devices market, and arguably the world's leading data and analytics capability - Google is ideally placed to play a key enabling role in bringing about the system-level change needed to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Google will build on an already impressive track record in energy efficiency and resource effectiveness to become a pioneer and global reference point for many aspects of the circular economy.

Over the coming months, the Foundation and Google will be working to explore and shape a series of initiatives to embed circular economic principles into the fabric of Google's infrastructure, operations, and device programmes.

Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, stated: "Google's ambition to lead the way on the circular economy represents a step-change opportunity - we are thrilled to be working closely together with such a visionary, innovative and transformational partner on this journey".

Notes to editors:

1. Google: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google was founded in 1998 and has grown to serve millions of people around the world. Google's innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top Internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world. See http://www.google.com/about/ for more information.

2. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was created in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Foundation's work focuses on four areas: insight and analysis, business and government, education and training, and communication. With Knowledge Partner, McKinsey & Company, the Foundation works to quantify the economic potential of the circular model and to develop approaches for capturing this value. The Foundation collaborates with Global Partners and its Circular Economy 100 network (businesses, governments and cities), to develop circular business initiatives and build capacity. The Foundation is creating a global teaching and learning platform on the circular economy, encompassing work with leading universities, schools and colleges, and online events such as the Disruptive Innovation Festival.

Follow the conversation on Twitter:
@circulareconomy #circulareconomy

SOURCE The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Clare Mucklow, [phone], [email protected]