HUMANSPHERE added [Circular Economy 2.4]

HUMANSPHERE added

Prioritizing Manpower over Machines-as-a-"Solution"

 (This is a follow-up of the previous Circular Economy 2.0, Don't just ReUse ReValue Instead! CE2.1, Doing More with More, not Less! CE2.2 and Safe & Just Circular Principles CE2.3 articles)

A Virtuous Model

The circular economy is an industrial economy that is producing no waste and pollution, thanks to careful design. Within such a framework we see two types of material flows: biological nutrients - food and non-food elements - designed to re-enter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients - our consumer products - meant to circulate at high quality in the production system without entering the biosphere ever again. This model is in opposition to our current Linear Economy that is our “take, make, dispose” model of production today. We extract metals and minerals off the ground, transform them into products where most of them get discarded within six months of usage. That linear approach has led us to the scarcity of resources we would need daily in the years to come. 

The Missing Social Dimension

The main objective here is to rebuild reduce our negative impact on the dramatic state of our environment. By increasing the reuse of our goods, using clever access to innovative set of services, one could create a model where waste is avoided at all cost. This model is not only seen as helping us drop by up to 30% our CO2 emissions by the end of this century (Source: Circle Economy, Infosys) but is considered by numerous experts as our 'Next Economic Model'.

Should this be the case, one needs to ask ourselves why aren't we talking more about maintaining the value of the people themselves? The reason being that everything is interlinked: we cannot discuss about the future of our ecosystems without integrating the economic and the social. One does not go without the other. If one does not respond to social needs, the economic and the environmental will not be solved over the long-term.

While including the social dimension increases the complexity of this new model, excluding the people from the discussions on ways to reinsert our economies within the ecosystem, will not succeed. Countless examples shows that communities or citizens do not buy into changes unless we respond to their problems in the first place.

Putting Human at its Core (read Circular Economy 2.0)

Thus, the need to add a third sphere to the current model of the Circular Economy is not only required, but a must to ensure we take into consideration the three dimensional context according to the diverse geographies, standards of living, cultures, desires, and needs of the people themselves.

We not only have wrongly designed our linear model for years without questioning our negative impact on the wider ecosystem. But we do not question ourselves on the people living within this ecosystem, the main cause of our numerous challenges.

By adding the "Humansphere" in between the Biosphere and the Technosphere of the traditional butterfly diagram of The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, it will push the thinking further into also addressing the needs of humans living within the two other spheres, but at the origin of the flows of matter and energies.

Humans as the solution

While this is a subject that we are busy unfolding, re-centering humans at the core of the Circular Economy might spur new innovative angles:

• How about seeing humans as the solution to our climatic challenges?
• How about copying natural cycles in their entirety i.e. there is no waste neither poverty in nature?
• How about going beyond biomimicry that aim at reconnecting humans with nature, by aiming at integrating humans into nature?
• How about considering humans as source of endless energies and matter, solutions to the re-building of our ecosystem?

Humans are the solution to maintaining goods at their highest value in a circular economy. They are highly versatile and an endless source of renewable energy (Walter R. Stahel).

Humans are nature. Why not behaving like nature, as part of rebuilding nature, not just reconnect with it?

Humans are highly valued in a next economy where all matters and energies that are constantly available.

Humans are highly educated and keep on educate themselves faster year after year.

While robots seem to be the new threat of the century, we will soon see the shortcomings of these strategies: robots need fossils to be built and to feed our linear economy. They are not a desired priority in a circular economy where anything and everything that is endlessly available is of key importance.

We have this high belief that technologies are going to solve everything, yet this is the wrong focus. What is "under our feet" does not require technologies but regenerative actions from us, humans. The future of technologies is only for the "happy few" in the soon reachable and mess-able outer space.

Instead let us re-manpower humans-as-a-priority.

The Golden Priority Rule: BioSphere > HumanSphere > TechnoSphere

To ensure well-being for all in the coming decades, a Circular Economic model with a Humansphere at its core is a must.