Mission Statement
Design shapes how we live on this planet. I’m driven by the belief that thoughtful design, grounded in ecological reality, can transform how we make and use things. Creativity becomes responsibility.
Biography
Dries Laperre is a designer, researcher, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of circular design, biobased materials, and systemic innovation. He co-founded Surplace, a product innovation studio focused on circular economy solutions, and Vlastic, a venture developing flax-based biobased materials for packaging and acoustics. As Senior Researcher at HOWEST University of Applied Sciences, he leads the CIRCUL8 project, exploring ecodesign, new business models, and change management for SMEs in the making industry.
Dries believes we’re at a turning point—where the sustainability and climate challenges we face are matched by opportunities to fundamentally redesign how we make, use, and value things. His work proves that circular solutions aren’t just idealistic visions but practical, scalable necessities that can be embedded in real products, materials, and systems.
Through design by research – or is it research by design – he helps businesses shift toward regenerative models, testing ideas with people and within planetary boundaries. His approach combines creative strategy, systems thinking, and hands-on experimentation—always grounded in the belief that meaningful change happens when creativity meets commitment.
Currently, Dries is also working on CirculariTREE, a project challenged to protect trees on construction sites. He brings the resilience of a cockroach to everything he does—persistent, adaptive, and stubbornly optimistic about building a regenerative future today.
Questionnaire
Where do you want to foster change and why?
With start-ups and innovators in the making industry. They’re building tomorrow’s businesses today—where circular models aren’t retrofits but foundations, creating real impact from day one.
What or who influenced you during your professional career?
Attenborough sparked my love for our planet as a child, Rams taught me design should be essential not excessive, and Krznaric’s “The Good Ancestor” gave me the framework: design for generations ahead.
We all have those significant moments or situations (success or failure); which one was yours, and what did you learn from it?
In the middle of COVID, energy crisis, and industrial recession – possibly the worst time to start anything – I made radical personal and professional choices. Co-founded two ventures, completely shifted direction. My world turned upside down. New highs, deep lows, but zero regrets. What I learned: clarity rarely comes before action. Waiting for the “right moment” is a trap. Trust your gut, jump, and figure it out as you go.