Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Rethink the future

The fool on the cliff.

• by Ken Webster
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• 26 Jan 2011
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Back from Hamburg and some training with the EPEA folks, who are well known as consultants and experts on the ‘cradle to cradle’ (C2C) approach to design. We had a very good week and as usual it threw up more questions, though it did supply many answers … but talking of C2C here is something I received on my return

“ …since you are from Wales, please allow me to use a Pagan analogy
to ask a… question. The first card of the Tarot journey is a Fool
wandering dangerously close to a cliff side. If the Fool were clad in
complete Cradle to Cradle drag, would it matter as to the blind action
of possibly ending off the cliff? I guess what I’m wanting to get your
thoughts on is that assuming the entire world adopts Cradle to Cradle,
so what? Will that inspire people to respect and care for one another?
Or is our behaviour so deeply ingrained by centuries of poor
decisions, that no matter what we do, we are inevitably headed for the
same fate?”

© Joss Blériot

This is interesting but quite simple and made of two parts. Lets use the C2C ‘brand’ as a synonym for a circular economy, as it simplifies the discussion. If the cradle to cradle fool teeters over the cliff do you blame Trigema or American Apparel for outfiiting him? The cradle to cradle design principles are a set of protocols, they reveal the basic system rules if products and services are to be beneficial, they do not necessarily reveal or demand a particular social or political system, nor do they mean that a person is wiser. The confusion is one which surrounds much of the ‘sustainability’ agenda – many players have assumed that it has the job of behaviour change but preferably by changing hearts and minds rather than seeing folks respond to changing system conditions – such as prices, or employment or business opportunities.

This is a fatal flaw as it means that it appeals only to those who are biddable. Many, perhaps most do not wish to be ‘joiners’ or adopt the same values, and are either agnostic or frankly, disengaged. So the fool perhaps jumps, rather than falls from the cliff to escape a repressive society or one which is just too vegetarian or where income taxes are 80% – who knows? The circular economy as a model or framework is not there to overtly teach us to care for one another or the rest of life. However, the second part of the story is more hopeful for the author of the story above.

There is the assumption in the C2C model that natural and social capital are being restored – prosperity increases too, rather than being further eroded, The value of what living systems provide – as we will have shifted to a biomimetic or ‘life centred’ industrial system – is not something that has to be taught or be the subject of fingerwagging guilt raising. Living systems turned out to be the source of innovation, improved quality of life and profit. Although the link may be far from guaranteed, the very exercise for humans in having to think in systems, of seeing connection and flow (and the enhanced advantages of cooperation as well as competition in say, cascading materials and energy) effectively stands a good chance of wising up the Fool enough to make the cliff walk a little less problematical and safe for other citizens.