Butterflies have always been the symbol of regeneration and transformation. Humanity is now in the midst of profound changes that could lead to a new civilization. Yes, humanity is on the verge of a great leap in its evolution as a biological species! And this trend is driven by our decisions and actions.
The Butterfly symbol reminds us that we live in an emerging world in which our decisions and actions really matter! It reminds us that we live in a world of connectivity, that we are not alone, but together. In partnership we can achieve much more! We live in a plentiful Univers and not exploitation and competition will bring us this wealth, but collaboration and partnership!
The simple insight that on a finite planet a system based on infinite material growth is impossible should be enough to convince most people that we do need to redesign the basis of our current economic systems and the patterns of material and energy used that are associated with it.
We urgently need to move from a degenerative economic system that incentivises (directly or indirectly) the destruction of diversity, ecosystems integrity, planetary health, and social well-being, to a regenerative economy that incentivises the protection and restoration of all of the above and regenerates the key resources needed to meet human needs within closed-loop, renewable energy based and environmentally and socially benign systems. We can create economic structures and policies that will favour the emergence of regenerative cultures everywhere, and an increasing number of people, organizations and networks are already exploring how we would do this.
A circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. As envisioned by the originators, a circular economy is a continuous positive development cycle that preserves and enhances natural capital, optimises resource yields, and minimises system risks by managing finite stocks and renewable flows. It works effectively at every scale.
We can re-design the way our economy works - designing products that can be ”made to be made again” and powering the system with renewable energy. With creativity and innovation we can build a restorative economy.
The circular economy provides multiple value creation mechanisms that are decoupled from the consumption of finite resources. In a true circular economy, consumption happens only in effective bio-cycles; elsewhere use replaces consumption. Resources are regenerated in the bio-cycle or recovered and restored in the technical cycle. In the bio-cycle, life processes regenerate disordered materials, despite or without human intervention. In the technical cycle, with sufficient energy available, human intervention recovers materials and recreates order, on any timescale considered.
The circular economy rests on three principles, each addressing several of the resource and system challenges that industrial economies faces.
Principle 1: Preserve and enhance natural capital
Principle 2: Optimise resource yields
Principle 3: Foster system effectiveness
While the principles of a circular economy act as principles for action, the following fundamental characteristics describe a pure circular economy:
Design out waste - Waste does not exist when the biological and technical components of a product are designed by intention to fit within a biological or technical materials cycle. The biological materials are non-toxic and can be simply composted. Technical materials—polymers, alloys and other man-made compounds – are designed to be used again with minimal energy and highest quality retention.
Build resilience through diversity - Modularity, versatility, and adaptivity are prized features that need to be prioritised in a fast-evolving world. Diverse systems with many connections and scales are more resilient in the face of external shocks than systems built simply for efficiency.
Work towards energy from renewable sources - Systems should ultimately aim to run on renewable energy—enabled by the reduced threshold energy levels required by a restorative, circular economy.
Think in systems - The ability to understand how parts influence one another within a whole and the relationship of the whole to the parts is crucial. Elements are considered in relation to their environmental and social contexts. While a machine is also a system, it is clearly narrowly bounded and assumed to be deterministic. Systems thinking usually refers to the overwhelming majority of real-world systems: these are non-linear, feedback-rich, and interdependent.
Think in cascades - For biological materials, the essence of value creation lies in the opportunity to extract additional value from products and materials by cascading them through other applications.
Cradle to Cradle design philosophy considers all material involved in industrial and commercial processes to be nutrients, of which there are two main categories: technical and biological. The Cradle to Cradle framework focuses on design for effectiveness in terms of products with positive impact and reducing the negative impacts of commerce through efficiency. Cradle to Cradle design perceives the safe and productive processes of nature’s ”biological metabolism” as a model for developing a ”technical metabolism” flow of industrial materials. Product components can be designed for continuous recovery and reutilisation as biological and technical nutrients within these metabolisms.
Cradle-to-cradle design is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems. It models human industry on nature's processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. It suggests that industry must protect and enrich ecosystems and nature's biological metabolism while also maintaining a safe, productive technical metabolism for the high-quality use and circulation of organic and technical nutrients. It is a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not only efficient but also essentially waste free. The model in its broadest sense is not limited to industrial design and manufacturing; it can be applied to many aspects of human civilization such as urban environments, buildings, economics and social systems. It is time for our civilization to rethink the way we live, work, travel, design, build and consume. To think that we are doing our part simply by driving a hybrid car and recycling our paper, bottles, and cans is a dangerous illusion. For years, environmentalists have been telling us to do more with less in order to make change happen. This is simply not enough. We are going to have to fundamentally change the way we design our products, industries and cities. Our current recycling methods are inefficient and only serve to perpetuate the “cradle-to-grave” manufacturing model that we’ve been using for hundreds of years.
Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. Is a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. Biomimicry relies on three key principles:
1. Nature as model: Study nature’s models and emulate these forms, process, systems, and strategies to solve human problems.
2. Nature as measure: Use an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations.
3. Nature as mentor: View and value nature not based on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.
The ideea of a Circular Economy butterfly came to me very simple when I read something about circular economy and I saw there the ”butterfly diagram”. Wow!! Butterfly can be a symbol of biodiversity, the capacity for transformation and even a diagram of the type of economy that we should aim for.
