Biomimicry

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, defines her approach as “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. I think of it as ‘innovation inspired by nature’” (Benyus 2003). Biomimicry relies on three key principles:

• Nature as model: Biomimicry studies nature’s models and emulates these forms, processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems.
• Nature as measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations.
• Nature as mentor: Biomimicry is a way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world but on what we can learn from it.

Cradle to Cradle

Created by Walter R. Stahel, a Swiss architect who graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich in 1971. He has been influential in developing the field of sustainability by advocating philosophies of “service‐life extension of goods – reuse, repair, remanufacture, upgrade technologically” as they apply to industrialized economies. He cofounded the Product Life Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, a consultancy devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies, after receiving recognition for his prize‐winning paper “The Product Life Factor” in 1982. His ideas and those of similar theorists led to what is now known as the CE, in which industry adopts the reuse and service‐life extension of goods as a strategy of waste prevention, regional job creation, and resource efficiency in order to decouple wealth from resource consumption; in other words, to dematerialize the industrial economy. Recent technical developments such as the recyclebot, which profitably converts postconsumer plastic waste to 3D printing feedstock to make higher‐value products, (upcycling) provide financial incentives to tighten the loop of the CE (McDonough and Braungart 2002; Zhong 2018).

Toward the CE

In January 2012, a report was released entitled Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition. The report, commissioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and developed by McKinsey & Company, was the first of its kind to consider the economic and business opportunity for the transition to a restorative, circular model. Using product case studies and economy‐wide analysis, the report details the potential for significant benefits across the EU. It argues that a subset of the EU manufacturing sector could realize net materials cost savings worth up to $630 billion annually toward 2025 – stimulating economic activity in the areas of product development, remanufacturing, and refurbishment. Towards the Circular Economy also identified the key building blocks in making the transition to a CE, namely in skills in circular design and production, new business models, skills in building cascades and reverse cycles, and cross‐cycle/cross‐sector collaboration (Ellen MacArther Foundation 2012).

In January 2015 a Definitive Guide to The Circular Economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015) was published by Cowes with the specific aim to raise awareness among the general population of the environmental problems already being caused by our “throwaway culture.” Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, in particular, is contributing to excessive use of landfill sites across the globe in which society is both discarding valuable metals and dumping toxic compounds that are polluting the surrounding land and water supplies. Mobile devices and computer hard drives typically contain valuable metals such as silver and copper but also hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Consumers are unaware of the environmental significance of upgrading their mobile phones, for instance, on such a frequent basis but could do much to encourage manufacturers to start to move away from the wasteful, polluting linear economy toward are sustainable CE.

Circular Business Models

A CE calls upon chances to make more prominent esteem and adjust motivating forces through plans of action that expand on the connection among items and administrations. Essentially, this implies a round plan of action isn’t centered simply around offering an item, yet it incorporates a move in contemplating incentive, presenting an entire scope of various plans of action to be utilized. This involves both the motivators and advantages offered to clients for bringing back utilized items and an adjustment in income streams, including installments for a round item or administration, or installments for conveyed accessibility, utilization, or execution identified with the item‐based administration advertised. These better approaches for working together expect organizations to make an alluring plan of action for lenders, and agents to change the way they see the dangers and openings related with these models (Lewandowski 2016).