Adapting to a world of scarcities.
by Alex Lemille
Should you have your children born in 2014, chances that they won’t be able to offer a gold or silver ring at their wedding day are high, given that those metals are projected to disappear within the next 15 years. Antimony, used in lead-acid batteries, is not only meant to disappear within 10 years, but – besides a small South African production – is mainly produced in China, adding monopolistic pressures on top of scarcity. Antimony has been classified in 2011 by the British Geological Survey as a threat to its current economic lifestyle. Even the sacred oil resource is aimed at disappearing by 2050 and - only if - they are allowed to still pump that deep during those times of unbearable CO2 levels. Yet to learn no later than this month of August that oil and gas companies haven’t provisioned enough the rising cost of deep exploration and are now selling off their assets at an unprecedented rate, while of course, maintaining generous dividends. Seriously, as nations and corporates, shall we not study transitional paths to run our economies without oil today, like any well-organised species do?
With this in mind some industries decided to lower their exposures to raw material financial markets. Prices have gone through the roof since 2000 and chances to have these continue their current path are high: a growing population with exponential middle-classes, political tensions, resource scarcity, and so on. This is the case of the car industry where companies like Renault took the lead in applying the principles of a closed-loop system - or a Circular Economy - whereby waste is valued and feeding future productions, which is for the car industry case: steel, lithium, copper, etc... Renault and its partners reinvented their activity by becoming expert in part extraction, foundry, remanufacturing, repurposing and producing car bodies and engines at competitive selling prices: up to 30% less compared from engines made with new parts. Today the rate of reuse in a Renault car engine are way beyond 60 to 70% made from old engine parts, yet while offering the same part warranty to their customers.
But a Circular Economy and its principles go beyond recycling in a closed loop. A Circular Economy is about making sure that we all live comfortably by evolving our approach to market processes, from product design and creation to product repurposing. Note that the concept of product end-of-life does no longer exist. The same goes for our food and non-food waste that is treated in such a way that produces biogas or is sent back to the biosphere safely (chemical free) to rejuvenate our soils. The Circular Economy is an industrial economy where waste is designed out, thanks to a restorative process created through product design or process intention. This is the overarching economy influenced by breakthrough sustainability concepts such as Cradle-to-Cradle, Biomimicry, Natural Capitalism, Performance Economy and Industrial Ecology. It not only sets-up the framework in which we could possibly live responsibly in the coming decades, but it brings recognized advantages to customers, suppliers, governments, in a much more socially inclusive economy.
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