Julian Ryall talks to environmental thinker and pioneer Gunter Pauli
Founder director of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) foundation, Gunter Pauli believes that existing “green” strategies are inadequate. Based at the United Nations University in Tokyo, ZERI identifies innovations that do not require us to invest more time or energy, but use what we already have. This “Blue Economy” business model developed by Belgian-born Pauli aims for “absolute sustainability” – turning waste into wealth.
Everyone seems so enthusiastic about the “green economy” – why do you think this is misguided?
Ever since I graduated from university in 1979, I have wanted to help create the green economy and help contribute to it. But three decades later, I have to admit that an economy that depends on subsidies and taxes – and still requires that consumers pay more and investors get less in returns – can never take off.
What is the alternative?
We must embrace innovation. We must embrace the innovations that natural systems have already been applying for centuries, millennia. If we focus on these innovations – and we have identified more than 2,000 – then everything we propose is sustainable.
In a nutshell, how does the Blue Economy work?
Natural systems – ecosystems – follow a few basic principles. First there is no waste, because waste for one person is food or energy for another. Everything that is alive generates waste but that does not mean that the waste is wasted. Human beings are the only species that can create something that no one desires. Thus the key is to produce and consume so that everything gets and gives value. That is why the leftovers from ground coffee can be converted to mushrooms, and leftovers from mushrooms into animal feed.
The laws of physics dominate. Cold water contracts as it warms from zero to four degrees Celsius; it never expands. If we apply this knowledge, we can squeeze toxins, salt and bacteria out of water, thus purifying through the laws of physics, instead of relying on chemistry to kill off the bacteria.
Keep it simple. Instead of cleaning water with a filter, you filter without the filter. That means there is no maintenance; the design is simple and cheaper.
We have so many “artefacts” in our daily lives that make sustainability impossible. Take the battery. We have discarded 40 billion batteries in landfills. Now we want green batteries that last longer and pollute less. But polluting less is still polluting. And green batteries rely on rare earth metals. What about generating electricity without storing it in batteries?
How do you come up with these blue innovations?
First, we start with science. It is wonderful to be romantic and dream about a sustainable world, but we need solid, scientific foundations for business models to progress. So my inspiration comes from scientific observation: Why is the zebra black and white? How come the Namib Desert beetle can take a shower every day, even if it has not rained for seven years? You ask these questions and you will find the answers.
Have you been able to generate interest from business?
Of course businesses are interested, because I can show them how to make a pacemaker that only costs $500, requires no battery and no surgery for the patient. Imagine going from $50,000 for surgery to $500? Would the present makers of pacemakers ever be interested? They would fight such radical change. But what might a national health organisation say about the same proposal? The biggest challenge for established companies is that we are changing the rules of the game. The champions of today have no idea how to play the game tomorrow. That is why I am appealing to entrepreneurs more than existing companies.
Is it difficult to convince traditionally minded business people to throw away concepts that they have worked with for years?
Of course! We are asking them to jeopardise their cash flow, their profitability, their bonuses. What we are asking is more than you can expect from any executive.
The basis to your approach seems to be a psychological one?
We have to change mindsets and the education system. If we only teach children that the apple falls from the tree, they will never question how it got up there in the first place. We are so linear in thinking that we have to open up our minds. Once we have done that, we will see that there are so many possibilities out there that it’s embarrassing they’ve not been noticed already. All our proposals have their foundation in science, not in emotion. There is too much science that no one is paying attention to.
How can everyone develop the required mindset?
If we are only competing on quality and price, then forget it. The PET bottle, for example, was created on the premise that if we cut weight to a minimum then we can reduce the price. But they clog landfills, get dumped in the ocean or are burned, releasing harmful pollutants. A glass bottle can be reused an average of 21 times; and when it has reached the end of its life as a bottle we can crush the glass, inject it with carbon dioxide and make a construction material as strong as steel. This eliminates the need for new steel, is super-strong, is resistant to mould, repels vermin, and has already been approved as a building material. A factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is already recycling this stuff and will break even after processing 5.3 million bottles. Businesses can evolve because they have a different business model. We just have to open the minds of business people.
What about government policy?
It is very important that governments take a step back. They have to stop being interventionist. In the past, they had to intervene to oversee industries, but all these technologies come from natural systems and, once they are in place governments should just let them run. Of course, they have to check and approve a product to make sure it does what it is supposed to, but they should then step back. Governments need to open their minds as much as the rest of us.