About Orchestrate community
The importance of circular ecosystems
Circular ecosystems are important because circularity cannot be achieved by a single product, company, or solution — it is a property of an entire system. Addressing complex challenges such as waste, resource depletion, and social inequality requires coordinated action among multiple actors. Circular ecosystems enable this by connecting businesses, services, and stakeholders into networks where their contributions complement each other. This broader perspective allows us to identify gaps, improve resource flows, and create more effective and scalable solutions.
By mapping and understanding these ecosystems, we can see not only who is involved, but how collaboration can generate greater environmental and social value. In this way, circular ecosystems are essential for driving meaningful, system-level change.
Furthermore, circular ecosystems can take different forms depending on their scale and scope — from local initiatives like repair hubs and circular cities to global industry networks —demonstrating that system-level collaboration is needed at all levels to achieve a circular economy.
The importance of ecosystem mapping
Real circularity requires collective action. From brands and policymakers to recyclers, NGOs, designers and academics. The Orchestrate community aims to explore and map how different stakeholders collaborate and coordinate to bring about circular change in the fashion and textile industry in the UK.
The role of Orchestration
Circular fashion systems depend on the collaboration of many diverse and independent actors—from brands and recyclers to policymakers and communities. However, simply bringing these actors together is not enough. To achieve meaningful circular outcomes, their efforts must be actively coordinated.
This is where orchestration plays a crucial role.
Orchestration refers to the work of a focal actor that purposefully connects and coordinates different stakeholders to enable collective outcomes, such as circular supply chains, resource flows, and shared value creation. Orchestrators act as bridges across fragmented systems, linking actors, aligning interests, and fostering collaboration where it would not otherwise occur.
Effective orchestration involves aligning stakeholders around a shared vision and common “rules of the game,” while continuously shaping and evolving a collective circular value proposition. It also requires reconfiguring roles, relationships, and resource flows, and establishing forms of governance that allow collaboration to function despite the autonomy of individual actors.
In practice, orchestration is enabled through concrete capabilities such as partnership building, standard-setting, and negotiation. By enabling coordination across complex ecosystems, orchestration is essential for turning fragmented efforts into coherent, system-level change—and ultimately making circularity achievable.
Our goal
To map the ecosystem of organisations driving circularity, identify gaps, and highlight opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
Our research approach
use mixed, multidisciplinary methods to understand how circular fashion ecosystem’s function and evolve:
- Literature and document analysis.
- Interviews with ecosystem leaders and builders.
- Workshops and focus groups.
- Organizational or participatory action research.
- Media and social content analysis.
- Visual and software-based ecosystem mapping.
- Thematic and cross-sector analysis.
Our work is framed through ecosystem orchestration—exploring how coordination, trust, and shared goals emerge across diverse actors.
Our outcomes
- Mapped UK and Greater Manchester circular fashion ecosystems.
- Insights from 60+ semi structured interviews with academics and practitioners.
- Scoping review of 90+ academic and industry sources.
- Analysis of media, podcasts, and social content.
- Visual ecosystem maps highlighting gaps and connections.
- Toolkits to support coordination and action.