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 ...
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...
Maribor, a Circular City
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia and home to approximately 110,000 inhabitants. Although it is not Slovenia’s capital city, it is the regions circular economy capital. In June 2...
Why is Portland a Resilient City?
Portland, Oregon (with a metropolitan area population of 2.3 million people) regularly tops the lists of “most sustainable cities” in the United States. For decades, Portland has been a ...
Tai-Pay-As-You-Throw to Lower Waste Production
Walking around Taipei, Taiwan, one seldom sees trash or even trash cans. Instead you might see people washing plastic bottles, carefully sorting computer parts and families waiting for the nightly g...
100 Resilient Cities
How can we implement a real circular economy without having cities geared for resilience against stress and shocks? This is a key area of reflection when discussing the future of cities and in parti...
We Are Resilience
What are you doing at the moment as a resilience facility? “Today we are mapping the city’s current and future risks, both in terms of shock and stress. Those classifiable as stress eve...
The Blue Revolution Playground
“To have a real impact and solve the most pressing problems, we need entrepreneurs.” This is the mantra that has been repeated for years by Siemen Cox and Wouter Veer – the creator...
Ireland is Ever Greener Thanks to the Bioeconomy
Green is the Irish colour. Historical, cultural, geographical and even religious reasons underpin this inseparable pairing. Today, green is also the banner of Ireland’s environmental aspiratio...