Circles are good for the economy

Contrary to what your mother may have told you, going in circles is sometimes a good thing. When it comes to our economy, it is actually a great thing.

1. Materials (sand, iron, gold, etc.) are evaluated for purpose and taken from nature.
2. Modified and refined as necessary, these materials are combined and recombined into the services and products we use every day, until…
3. Their usefulness to society wanes and the everyday products and services are disposed of in a heap of useless trash.

• Regenerative design –  interdisciplinary field of inquiry concerned with a sustainable future
• Performance economy – the vision of an economy in loops (or circular economy) and its impact on job creation, economic competitiveness, resource savings, and waste prevention
• Cradle to cradle – focuses on design for effectiveness in terms of products with positive impact and reducing the negative impacts of commerce through efficiency.
• Industrial ecology – the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems
• Biomimicry – a discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems
• “Blue Economy” –  uses the resources available in cascading systems and the waste of one product becomes the input to create a new cash flow

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