Category Archives: Circular Economy
Design guru says it’s not enough to do less harm, products must do more good
This post is by US journalist Jim Witkin, based on an interview with William McDonough, co-author of a seminal book on the circular economy, Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things. Green Alliance hosted its UK launch in 2009. … Continue reading
What can green innovators learn from ‘frugal’ innovation in India?
This post is by Ian Thornton, deputy director at the UK Collaborative on Development Sciences. He is former research associate at Nesta, where he researched and wrote Our frugal future: lessons from India’s innovation system with Kirsten Bound. India is developing … Continue reading
Do we need new products or new systems for a circular economy?
Last week, I attended ‘Redesigning the future‘, an RSA Great Recovery debate on the role of design in a circular economy. Redesign certainly makes circular systems cheaper and more effective. In the case of end-of-life vehicles, design for recycling will … Continue reading
Why new landfill bans would keep £2.5bn in the economy
Our economy has been built on a wasteful pattern: we make short-lived products out of valuable raw materials we dig out of the ground, and then stick them (and the resources that made them) back in the ground as landfill. This no … Continue reading
Reasons to be cheerful
Unlike most people working on environmental issues, I spend most of my time finding and telling good news stories. When not editing the Green Alliance blog, I work on earthrise, an environmental TV show on Al Jazeera English that features … Continue reading
Why we’d be mad to leave the EU (hint: the public quite likes clean beaches)
This is a guest post by Caroline Jackson, former MEP and chairman of the European Parliament environment committee from 1999-2004. “We need to examine whether the balance is right in so many areas where the European Union has legislated, including on … Continue reading
The circular economy: big in Japan
This post is by Jonny Hazell, policy assistant on our Resource Stewardship theme. When it comes to the ways in which stuff is made, consumed, and disposed of, there’s a lot the UK could learn from Japan. Japanese recycling rates are … Continue reading
Economics, not science, will save the world
I have participated in many different types of event in my time, but none so intense as the Science Museum’s ‘speed geeking’. This involves gathering a dozen experts from fields as varied as cancer research, space mining, nuclear physics and … Continue reading
Which raw materials pose the biggest business risk?
I wrote about Chatham House’s report on resource futures last month, which provides a detailed and comprehensive look at how underlying environmental stress contributes to material insecurity. Green Alliance’s contention is that addressing material insecurity means tackling the underlying environmental … Continue reading
Chatham House on resource futures: right diagnosis but uncertain prognosis
Dustin Benton is a senior policy adviser at Green Alliance, leading the Resource Stewardship theme. Last week, Chatham House added to the drumbeat of concern about resources, declaring that ‘the spectre of resource insecurity has come back with a vengeance.’ … Continue reading
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