Google is spinning up a new, online-only startup accelerator centered around the elusive circular economy. The effort is Google’s latest to help environmentally focused startups grow while potentially hooking them on its cloud products in the process.
In the broadest of strokes, the circular economy represents a colossal shift in how humanity makes and uses stuff. Instead of primarily harvesting raw materials to produce goods that wind up incinerated, or in oceans or landfills, the circular economy offers an alternative where stuff is deliberately reused, repaired and recycled over and over again. On the whole, this is not how the world works, but the concept has gained ground among experts, as well as some corporations and lawmakers, in response to humanity’s runaway …
