What is the circular economy & why is it important to you?
The circular economy provides an alternative to a traditional linear economy - it focuses upon maximising the resource value, rather than its commercial economic value 'take - make - consume - discard'. Placing commercial ￡ profit above all other values (we have learnt the hard way) has proved to be harmful to our natural resources. The circular economy vision reflects a society where we use the resources for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. There is a number of positives to this approach. As well as creating new opportunities for growth, a more circular economy should:
- Reduce waste
- Drive greater resource productivity
- Deliver a more competitive economy.
- Position communities to better address emerging resource security/scarcity issues in the future.
- Help reduce the environmental impacts of our production and consumption.
Of course the ideology is not a straight forward concept - it rarely is. Promotion of recycling techniques that do not reflect commercially viability or pose more impact to resources than they save is not a sustainable improvement path. This can make the case to change difficult (not impossible), the way forward is in the hands of innovation to create the commercial viability, which enables a more compelling case for the private sector to willingly engage.
The EU 2020 vision includes the following targets which it promotes via the Waste Framework Hierarchy, which the UK carries out through its statutory instrument (SI) 'The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations'. This has seen an amendment which includes targets for EU Member States to recycle 50% of their municipal waste and 70% of construction waste by 2020.
Key metrics employed by the 2020 vision include:
- To reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020 taking 1990 emissions as the reference.
- To increase energy efficiency to save 20% of EU energy consumption by 2020.
- To reach 20% of renewable energy in the total energy consumption in the EU by 2020.
- To reach 10% of biofuels in the total consumption of vehicles by 2020.
Every company everywhere is able to contribute meaningfully to these aims. The political distractions to many legal implementations twist the positive message that could be had and in turn, switches the leaderships that can make a difference - off entirely. Getting employees involved in the 'green agenda' has such significant pay-off for morale and engagement, - its the greater good of saving the planet after all. People can relate to that and its powerful stuff. Focussing the message past the legal mess of duties and instruments, the message becomes succinct 'key resources are valuable and need to be protected for the future of our children and their children's children. Cash is King...but Mother Earth is after all..well..Mom. I know who I'm listening to.