Laurence Menhinick visits Bridge 5 Mill for an event hosted by the Manchester Environmental Education Network.

An Introduction to Systems Thinking and the Circular Economy – with Andrew Turney from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 21 Nov 2012

The goal of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation ( yes, founded by the extraordinary Dame herself) is to “inspire a generation to re-think, redesign and build a positive future through the vision of a circular economy.” And may it succeed indeed! Today’s short introduction was aimed at educators and teachers, and presented the basics of cradle-to-cradle design and introduced the free educational resources available to all (lesson plans, booklets, videos and workshops).

A couple of quick group-thinking exercises on our own perceptions of sustainability and level of actions put us in the mood to think outside the box and challenge the familiar linear economy model ( take-make-waste) we have been accustomed to. Clearly our consumer recycling efforts are not going far enough in reducing waste, partly because recycled materials can be seen as inferior or low value but mostly because the largest waste happens before consumers get the product. On the other hand, the beauty of the circular economy model lays in the simple premise that whatever you have taken and consumed can be collected by its manufacturer to form the basis of their next cycle of production.

We are all familiar with the idea of using compost to enrich the soil to grow more food (this is the biological materials loop) – well the same principle can be applied to the design of the products we manufacture where your recycled materials become “nutrients” ( the technological materials loop) … Materials become valuable assets which are owned by the manufacturer who have a considerable interest in not wasting their material wealth. Of course the absolute basis of this model lies in what I would call really intelligent design: thinking in advance (ie before manufacture and use) about the reusability of your materials and factoring it into the design and production. Take your carpet for instance. Wouldn’t it be amazing if it was easy to replace just a small section if required? If after several years, when you needed to replace it completely, it was taken back to the manufacture, where the backing and based layer were stripped out, the yarn carded and re-spun and your next carpet tiles were re-constructed. This product already exists.

Of course you can also reconsider your business model and since what the customer wants is the service your product offers and not the actual item, propose rental or lease instead of sale, in which case you are guaranteed the return of your goods and customers retain flexibility of use.

Huge opportunities therefore to once again change and re-think our industries and our consumption patterns, and still fulfil our needs with the smallest impact possible. Now, where have I heard that before…

Laurence Menhinick

-Introduction to the Circular Economy videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDE60BB4DB4BD28F1&feature=plcp

-Latest video: Walter Stahel, Founder-director of The Product-Life Institute Geneva on the Performance Economy

– Free CPD session for secondary school teachers, with Development/Field Officer (North of England) Andrew Turney