With over 20 years’ experience in environmental roles, John Thorne joined the Glasgow School of Art as its Sustainability Coordinator in 2013. There is no better place than an art school to both develop circular design principles and to discover practical applications, and John’s work roves across the GSA’s Design, Fine Art, Architecture and Innovation and Technology schools. Key to our development is the psychology behind our social and economic decisions, and our emotional attachment to ourselves, each other and wider Nature. John integrates this by supporting the wellbeing of students. and through their projects, how we can connect the environment with social justice issues to transform our society. Art is critical in this process, forming an emotional link to areas such as race, gender and class, and how they are intertwined with our history, culture and how we design future systems.
Specialist in creativity and new business models, Justine Laurent is a graduate in international management and innovation (Chile and Spain) and Managing Director of Circulab, a strategy and design agency dedicated to the circular and regenerative economy.
She has co-designed the circular design method and tools of Circulab that she applies as consultant with clients such as Plastic Omnium Environnement, HEC Executive Education, Communauté d'Agglomération Seine-Eure, CTCN-UNIDO or the City of Paris. Justine is also a teacher and trainer on innovation and circular economy. She is a regular lecturer for the design school ENSCI-Les ateliers and co-designed the diploma "Collective Intelligence for a Circular Economy" offered by University of Paris-Saclay. She is the educational coordinator of the Global Circular Economy Chair at ESSEC Business School.
