ABOUT US
The Global Circular Network offers a whole systems platform and smart tech tools for circular collaboration at scale using the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) data architecture for global interoperability.
OUR MISSION. Enable any-size Brand to activate a Circular Business Model and harness the 3 principles of a circular economy:
eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials and regenerate nature.
plus efficiently collect trusted product-only data for global interoperability providing metrics for change.
ALISON JOSE (pronounced Joe-s)
Alison is a circular economy leader as Founder and CEO of Global Circular Network (GCN) Digital Product Passport EPR Platform and STSC Sustainable Textile Supply Chain.
Alison is a CIRPASS-2 Expert Working Group Partner created by the European Commission to roll out Digital Product Passports, a participant in UN/UNECE developing the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP), a partner in the Nordic Circular Hotspot and a Member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Community. GCN is currently partnering with Fraunhofer Austria as a first stage Feasibility Study as part of PASSAT and Industry 4.0 Austria.
Alison shares her circular economy expertise from the 'beginning' of textile supply chains as a wholesaler, manufacturer and developer of sustainable textiles working with mills in India, Indonesia, China and Germany for more than ten years. In 2020 Alison developed CircStretch, a new bio-stretch textile to reduce the plastic in performance stretch garments using specialty yarns by Lenzing Group and Asahi Kasei with the worlds first Cradle to Cradle Gold Standard elastane.
Her focus shifted to the circular economy in 2019 when she received an Australian government grant from NSW EPA, creating Australia’s first Circular Textile Waste Service. Working across textile manufacturers, local councils, Virgin Airlines, denim brands and R-Cyclers plus the beginnings of recycling and waste networks, Alison quickly saw a recurring challenge: inability to identify materials and trace products to brands, siloed industries, lost resources, and missed revenue streams were limiting the impact of circular initiatives.
It was here that she realised a truly affordable, people- and planet-first circular system needed to start at the very beginning—brands had to integrate Digital Product Passports from the design stage, enabling products to actively participate in circular systems rather than relying on end-of-life interventions - and do-so at scale.
“I was amazed that at the exact same time, the EU Commission had reached the same conclusion and was introducing mandatory DPP regulations,” she recalls. This alignment confirmed a global trend: traceable, interoperable product data is central to scaling circular economies, and inspired Alison to launch the Global Circular Network to turn this vision into an industrial-scale reality.
The platform was included on the European Commission's CIRPASS list of DPP solutions in 2023.
OUR MISSION
GCN's platform utilizes both open-source data and digital passports specifically for products only to address our key objectives:
- Ensure our DPPs and interconnected platforms have zero ability to collect consumer data. Customer engagement tools are managed by platforms not connected to GCN in order to preserve consumer data privacy as a fundamental human right.
- Deliver an at-scale solution capable of addressing the 'wicked problem' of extreme volumes.
- Ensure developing systems combine technology alongside a human workforce #communitywealth
- Leverage readily available, affordable technology to support MSMEs throughout the circular value chain.
- Enable siloed industries and so-called "competitor platforms" to connect and benefit from our shared data.
- Provide verifiable data that enables the development of optimal circular pathways built on trusted metrics.
GCN aims to build collaborative networks that support an inclusive, equitable and financially sustainable circular economy.
Our goal is to mitigate landfill, incineration and pollution while radically reducing carbon emissions from an industry recognized as the third-largest contributor to the climate crisis.
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