Circular Economy

I've just read a piece from Nick Warburton's blog about the circular economy. Nick's piece opens: "Those of you following developments in Davos, Switzerland last week will probably be aware of an incredibly timely and thought provoking presentation that underlines a growing issue with immense ramifications for the UK economy". Needless to say I'm afraid I haven't been following developments that closely and I'd even missed the fact that the Ellen MacArthur Foundation had launched a report on the subject at last year's Davos shindig.

The subject being - the circular economy.

In essence what's being discussed is a closed loop system - which philosophically has great attraction but will require some radical mind-set changes from an awful lot of people. In their second report the Foundation suggests that the circular economy relies on five founding principles:

Waste is food;
Diversity is strength;
Energy must come from renewable sources;
Prices must tell the truth;
Thinking in terms of systems is key.

So you can see why I suggest that we're in paradigm shifting territory here.

It's an easy read - but stimulating. I suggest you try it.