2026 Global Circular Challenge - The Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) at the London School of Economics
The Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) at LSE is excited to invite your students to join the 2026 Global Circular Challenge (GCC), bringing together university students from around the world to tackle one of today’s most pressing challenges: creating a more circular future for fashion.
This year, student teams will select an existing fashion product and reimagine it to take advantage of circular-economy opportunities. Their work will be guided by one central challenge:
How might we reimagine an existing fashion product for a more circular future?
Beginning October 7, teams will embark on a seven-week, hands-on design thinking competition, culminating in an in-person Finals Weekend, November 19–21, at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London. Finalist teams will have the opportunity to bring their ideas to London, meet students from other participating universities, learn from circular-economy and industry experts, and present their work to a panel of judges. The Finals Weekend includes workshops, an entrepreneurship panel, networking, presentation coaching, semi-finals and finals.
The Global Circular Challenge is not a traditional case competition. Instead of receiving a case and proposing an answer, students will build their solution over time. Each week, they’ll tackle a different piece of the challenge beginning with tearing down their chosen product, investigating its environmental footprint, conducting user research, identifying important actors who may be missing from their understanding of the system, generating and prototyping new possibilities, and ultimately developing a business model for their solution.
Design thinking is the engine of the Challenge, providing students with a creative, collaborative and human-centered approach to tackling a complex problem. Throughout the competition, students will also receive feedback from industry mentors and circular-economy experts, bringing real-world perspectives into their work.
Each participating university may select one or two student teams, supported by a faculty advisor. We provide the Challenge curriculum, weekly assignments, tools, workshops and industry mentor engagement; faculty advisors serve as the important on-campus connection supporting their teams throughout the experience. There is no cost to participate in the Challenge; however, teams must fundraise and make their own way for the in-person finals weekend in London.
For students, GCC is an opportunity to do much more than learn about circularity. They gain practical experience tackling a complex problem without an obvious answer while building skills in design thinking, systems thinking, human-centered research, collaboration, experimentation and innovation and the opportunity to take that work to London and LSE to share it on an international stage.
We would love to have you and your students join us for the 2026 Global Circular Challenge.
The deadline for universities to confirm participation is October 1, 2026, and the Challenge kicks off on October 7. Registration information can be found on the GCC website here.
Would you like more information? Attend our information session on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 11:00AM ET. Join the link here.