A/Prof Martin Geissdoerfer is an internationally recognised authority on circular economy and Associate Professor at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, where he leads the Circular Economy Labs. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, during which he was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. He is also an Associate at the University of Cambridge’s Circular Economy Centre, a guest lecturer at several leading universities, and previously worked at McKinsey & Company, where he led projects advising Fortune 500 companies and governments on corporate, circular economy, and sustainability strategy, business building, and the design of policy labs.

Recognised among Stanford’s global Top 2% Scientists, Martin is widely cited as a leading academic in the field. His research explores the business and policy challenges of scaling the circular economy, with a focus on transitions, business model innovation, and ecosystem design. He has authored some of the field’s most influential publications - four with more than 1,000 citations each, including the most-cited circular economy article (>12,000 citations) - with impact across academia, policy, and practice.

With over a decade of experience in circular economy research and practice, Martin co-led early major Horizon programmes such as ResCoM and INSPIRE, helping to shape the field globally in its formative years.

A committed “pracademic”, Martin combines academic expertise with long-standing industry experience. Now based in Melbourne, he works with industry, government, and civil society to accelerate circular transitions across Asia–Pacific and help Australia achieve its ambition to double its circular economy by 2035.

Established in 2024, Martin's Circular Economy Labs acts as a transition broker, bridging ambition and action. It convenes leaders from business, government, and research, combining world-class scholarship with practical tools, pilots, and partnerships. The Labs' aim is to build Asia-Pacific’s leading circular economy business and policy research centre, delivering whole-of-economy impact.

The Labs' three current priorities are:

From Bin Room to Boardroom
Position the circular economy as a board-level strategy for value creation, innovation, and diversification, not just a cost or waste issue.

Circular@Scale
Overcome scale barriers by embedding circular models into global value chains, reversing the global decline of circularity and unlocking system-wide benefits.

Smart Policy Adoption
Translate global best-practice circular economy policies to the Australian context to drive productivity, resilience, and competitive advantage.

Alongside these priorities, we are closing the region’s capability and leadership gap, creating Australia’s first interdisciplinary Circular Economy Master’s unit at Monash and partnering with Net Zero Academy to deliver executive education for business and government leaders.

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