The Circular Economy
18 Months of fast-pace progress
Since the launch of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, through our work in education, catalysing businesses and through the media we estimate that we ...
The 30th anniversary of the 1982 Mitchell Prize competition
Read about the impact of this seminal essay on the performance economy by Professor Walter Stahel.
"Good rather than less bad": the circular approach
The depletion of the world’s natural resources is linked with the generation of an increasing quantity of unwanted by-products, among which ...
Chapter II - The circular model’s founding principles
The closed loop model is a biomimetic (life-imitating) approach, a school of thought that takes nature as an example and considers that our systems...
Chapter III - Putting the idea into application
Seeking to create a healthy and waste-free model, this philosophy has been pushed forward by American architect William McDonough and German chemis...
Chapter IV - Just a revamped "use less and recycle" approach?
Taking the problem at its root – the design of products – is a totally different way of thinking, say McDonough and Braungart who point...
Chapter V - In reality, how does that translate?
If the “closed loop” model is easy to understand from a theoretical standpoint, implementing it seems quite daunting – yet it has...
Chapter VI - Re-thinking business practices for good products
On a smaller scale, C2C certified equipment goods are available to consumers, and Swiss firm Rohner produces the Climatex Lifecycle biodegradable f...
Towards the Circular Economy
Ellen MacArthur Foundation launches a new report, featuring analysis from McKinsey, that makes the case for a faster adoption of the circular econo...
Rethinking the Economy
Roland Clift and Julian Allwood outline how industrial ecology, applying chemical engineering thinking to the management of material flows in the e...
Why waste should be food.
The idea that recycling is a ‘good thing’ pretty much pervades the formal schooling system, but it may be due for a long overdue rethink. Recent s...
Europe needs to embrace the closed loop model, says Belgian EU Presidency
As part as Belgium’s Presidency of the council of the European Union, Flemish Environment Minister Joke Schauvliege...
Services, not Goods
Rethinking our economic model does not only involve a re-organisation of manufacturing processes, the change goes as far as redefining the relation...
Closed Materials Loops and Communities
What cheap oil and gas hath torn asunder shall expensive energy bring together? ‘We don’t know’ is the honest answer.
It’s all good on paper, but…
The idea of sustainability being based on a ‘circular economy’ model is gaining more and more exposure. It is based on converting to a solar powere...