d32 SUSTAINABILITY / THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY End of I
n 1684, Thomas Savery
invented the steam engine and it transformed our ability to make things
– and the Industrial Revolution that followed laid the foundations of our current economic system. However, over 300 years later, this system is starting to reach breaking point. Many would argue it is no longer working for business, for consumers and it is certainly no longer working for the environment.
The current economic model is what we call linear. It is a take-make-waste model that relies on cheap, widely available resources to create favourable conditions for economic growth and stability. And this is where the problems start. Unfortunately, our planet does not have infinite resources. It is estimated that three billion consumers will enter the global market by 2030, accompanied by an increased demand for goods and services. This demand is no longer tenable within the limitations of the planet and therefore calls our linear economic system into question.
MAR 2015
JUN 2019
designer kitchen & bathroom
designerkbmag.co.uk
AS LINEAR CONSUMPTION STARTS TO REACH ITS LIMITS, CALLS FOR A MORE REGENERATIVE AND RESTORATIVE ECONOMIC MODEL ARE GETTING LOUDER, WRITES STACEY SHEPPARD
the Line?
urgent necessity of environmental equity.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was
launched in 2010 to
It has become undeniably evident that we need to change the system to one where we give much more thought to how we manage resources, how we make and use products, and what we do with the materials afterwards. This new economic model will need to go beyond the boundaries of sustainability. Instead, we need a system that can decouple economic growth and revenues from consumption of resources.
In boardrooms around the globe, a new economic concept is starting to capture attention in a way that sustainability was never able to. It is reaching into the consciousness of business leaders, politicians, engineers and designers. The Circular Economy is being heralded as a way to reconcile our need for economic growth with the
accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Since its creation, the charity has emerged as a global thought leader working to quantify the economic potential of the circular model and develop approaches for capturing this value.
A 2013 report by the Foundation entitled Towards the Circular Economy, said that adoption of circular setups in relevant manufacturing sectors could yield net material cost savings of US$340-630bn per year in EU alone. The economic incentives are there, it’s just a matter of implementing this new system.
Anna Tari is the founder of The Circular Economy Club, an international network of over 3,500 circular economy professionals and organisations from over 100 countries. Tari says that the main obstacle to implementing a circular economy is the lack of markets for waste
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