Marx Reloaded
For over a century, social activists and trade-unions have battled for new rights, including those of women, and have fought for changes such as the universalisation of paid holidays and minimum wag...
Chile's Journey
Over the last few years, the circular economy has gained momentum in Latin America. Historically, Chile has based its economy on an agro-mining export model focused on the extraction and exploitatio...
New Model, Different Jobs
Cillian Lohan is Rapporteur of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for the circular economy. His fundamental conviction that sustainable and resource efficient business models will eve...
The Sustainable Future of Labour
Complexity is key to analysing employment’s social, economic and environmental challenges. This is a pivotal statement in the research and studies by Enrico Giovannini – an eco...
Moving from Endless Growth to Endless Jobs
In his famous book The Ecology of Commerce, Paul Hawken wrote: “[...] we have to look at how our present economic system consistently rewards short-term exploitation while penalising long-term...
Is the Circular Economy an Employment Driver?
Eight hundred million by 2030. This is not a new climate or energy target set by the international community, but the number of jobs that are expected to be lost by then. This labour squeeze will be...
New Jobs: How Many and of What Kind
Transitions are never easy, especially for those whose livelihoods are rooted in the models left behind. Drastic societal and economic changes have always caused fear of job losses, whilst often act...
Making Products Last
Recently, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, made an unnoticed but major statement. She announced that Apple’s goal was to eliminate the ...
The Future of Employment? It's Very Similar to its Past
Flexibility is the future of employment. Collaborative consumption will save the world. The internet is a democratic revolution. These are some of the enthusiastic statements that have marked our ec...
“Too Much Pessimism Over Europeâ€
We are living in a time of strong evolution, great transformations and with a labour market that is changing fast, whilst economic growth remains rather slow. An unprecedented situation th...
Future-Proof Incubators: Between Work and Innovation
According to a recent global study,(1) incubators and accelerators that are connected to universities alone created over 70,000 jobs between 2017 and 2018, generating a revenue of $3.2 billion ...
A Global Affair
“Without a true valorisation of agricultural production coca cannot be stopped,” explains a local small-scale farmer called Nico, when interviewed. Even if this is an extreme example, th...
The Circular Rush
Sustainability requires a radical change in how we use resources. We need to reach the same level of production and wellbeing with one tenth of the resources and one tenth of the emissions. E...
Food, a Basic Unit of Connection
Every living being is the result of relationships that are influenced by context and, in turn, capable of influencing the natural and social environment around them. We are open systems with circula...
3D Intelligence
Non-conventional is the standard definition of Gunter Pauli’s ideas. The visionary entrepreneur from Antwerp has always tried to overthrow the rules of neoclassical economics, with an ability ...
The Food System in the Circular Economy
Why talk about food and the circular economy? Linear management, that has characterised the food production and consumer systems over the last century, has been the root cause of environmental and ...
A Sea of Opportunities
Pollution, over-exploitation, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, as well as climate change have become major threats to aquatic eco-systems. To unlock the potential of seas and oceans, ade...
Back to the Future, Rediscovering Traditional Knowledge to Win the Food Challenge
What has food become? What does it mean for Western society to feed itself? What does the meat on the plate before us represent? What do we mean by food security? Questions that, even if s...
Cities as Catalysts for the Circular Economy
In the 21st century urbanisation has taken flight. Today, over half of the world’s population live in cities, a share that is expected to increase to almost 70% by 2050. Furthermore, economic ...
Circular Glasgow
Glasgow’s vision is to become one of the world’s first circular cities. In 2015, it took its first steps towards creating a stronger more sustainable economy by pioneering a complete Cir...