Green Economy Journal Issue 61

CIRCULARITY
CIRCULARITY
WASTE NOT,
WANT NOT
The circular economy
makes business sense
The 2023 World Circular Economy Forum conference explored fresh thinking about protecting
nature. Protecting the environment and our future are at the heart of every discussion. So is
capitalism. One thing’s for sure: there’s plenty of money to be made in not wasting resources.
BY GEORGINA CROUTH
Without harvesting collective energies to drive this circular
economy, Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund), Nordic
Innovation and partners from around the world say they
fear that within the next five years, biodiversity loss will become
as big a political and economic issue as climate change is today.
Sitra is a public foundation that operates directly under the
supervision of the Finnish parliament. The foundation, which operates
independently with the help of a healthy endowment, has reached
the stage where investments in the circular economy have increased
momentum and the government is wholeheartedly committed to
the project.
At first focused on problems in nature – pollution, the ozone layer,
climate change – Sitra has now redirected its focus to nature loss and
aims to encourage fresh thinking about the use of virgin resources
and reducing the use of such dwindling resources in the system.
Jyrki Katainen, the president of Sitra and former prime minister of
Finland, told delegates at the plenary session that the private and
public sectors have done a significant amount of work to address
climate change.
NEXT STEPS
“We believe that this has paved the way for the next steps, where
nature loss – biodiversity loss – is going to be learnt (experienced)
faster than what was the case with climate change.”
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Looking at what the world has been doing to address biodiversity loss
in recent decades, the classic answer has been to set up conservation
areas. That might be important, but it is simply not sufficient.
If the world ever reaches the United Nations’ sustainability goals to
protect 30% of our water and land areas, we should question what
happens to the most important issue – the 70% that is not envisaged
to be protected: the built environment, agricultural, forestry and other
areas, he said.
Within the next five
years, biodiversity
loss will become as
big a political and
economic issue
as climate change
is today.
Article courtesy Daily Maverick
It’s for this reason that the attention needs to be shifted to the circular
economy: how the market economy can produce more efficiently, in
harmony with nature.
“Without answering or finding solutions to these questions, we cannot
address biodiversity loss. This is where the circular economy comes
in because it is a significant answer to addressing biodiversity loss.
“The more we reuse resources that have already been extracted,
the less we need to use raw virgin material, which is why businesses
need to be encouraged to change their business model towards
circularity,” said Katainen.
André Küüsvek, the president and CEO of Nordic Investment Bank,
said the bank had run programmes for years on circularity and the
circular economy, to assist companies in adapting their business
models. In their experience, many companies wanted to participate
in the circular economy, but they still lacked the knowledge, insight
and understanding of how it could be done.
“Regulations are important, but a transformation to a sustainable
future and to combat biodiversity loss cannot be done without industry
adapting to this near future.”
Küüsvek said 170 companies had participated in their programme
for companies from all five Nordic countries to develop and implement
a circular business model. It has been published in an open-source
playbook to allow the rest of the world to see what and how it is being
done in Scandinavia.
LINEAR ECONOMY IS FAILING PEOPLE
Valerie Hickey is the global director for environment, natural resources
and the blue economy at the World Bank. She highlighted that we’re
living in a world where primary resources are getting more scarce,
overall goods and services are less affordable, and governments are
in a debt crisis.
“So, circularity is not just a nice-to-have. It’s an absolute must-have
because, at the end of the day, it’s an efficiency and affordability agenda.”
The World Bank, she said, is in the business of ending poverty and
is committed to ending extreme poverty by 2030. But it is desperately
failing at doing that.
“We live in a world today where there are 828-million people who
are going to go to bed hungry tonight. That number was 690-million
people eight years ago. The numbers are getting worse, people are
getting poorer, and our business is failing.”
It’s because the linear economy is failing people and not delivering
for everybody.
“We’re in a doom and gloom loop that we have to get out of, and
that’s the promise of a circular economy…”
As Katainen pointed out, the circular economy is not about charity:
it makes business sense from a purely capitalist perspective.
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