Repairing the Economy
Here is why: Manufacturers in general do not design products to be reused, repaired, or culled for valuable parts at their end of life. This isn’t nefarious – it is the result of decades...
Decarbonise Now
The Mauna Loa observatory, in Hawaii, has found the average concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, to be above 410 parts per million (ppm), the highest level seen in the last 800,...
The Future Demands Ambitious Goals
But, as the latest round of the UN climate change talks begin in Katowice, Poland, it is worth remembering that we have, in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the framework we need to build a common response...
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...
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...
The Age of Plastic
The media is full of Chris Jordan’s famous pictures of seagull carcasses with their stomachs full of bottle caps, tubes and other plastic paraphernalia. Documentaries denouncing the indecent...
A Fiscal Update: The Winning Strategy
The latest study by The Ex’tax Project, New era. New Plan. Europe., shows that by implementing the tax shift, the European Union and EU member states would benefit from higher economic growth,...
A New Renewable Matter
In fact, “economy” derives from oikosnomos (οἶκοςνÏ�μος), meaning the management of a hou...
The World is only 9% Circular
Over decades, even centuries, since the boom of the Industrial Revolution, it has delivered tremendous living standards, wealth and comfortable lives to some people, in some parts of the world, at c...
Sustainability Is Fashionable
So, one of the defining characteristics of Italy’s brand has established itself as a driving force carrying with it the revival of local products, organic and biodynamic produce. Now it is the...
The Future Despite Trump
What will the world be like in 30 years time, in 2049? The Blade Runner sequel is well described in Roberto Giovannini’s column. But in reality what will the situation be like? Forecasts becom...
Circular Cities
So, we are not faced with choosing between two industrial models, but between a self-destructive system, already unable to avoid the counterblows caused by the build-up of environmental imbalances, ...
Diving into Circularity
The sea is obviously connected to circularity because it is an essential element of certain fundamental cycles, from that of water to that of coal. However, this is a technical aspect which recalls ...
2016: Rm Renews Itself Along With Matter
On Twitter, @MRinnovabile profile reached 1,000 and now it gets 2 new followers every day: on a sample of 100 tweets, between 10th and 17th December 2015, the number of accounts potentially rea...
The Mirror of Waste
These macro themes – from the financialization of the economy to eco mafias – have generated a heated debate that in this Renewable Matter’s issue it is not possible to tackle. But...
Renewability across the Board
In the case of the Kyoto Protocol, it took over 7 years for the European diplomacy, at the time very insular, to make the agreement enter into force. Now the situation is totally different, a muc...
Fairtrade Carrier Bags
The articles we publish in this issue of Renewable Matter on the problem of carrier bags help look at the link between environmental and social issues with a fresh pair of eyes. The association bet...
Two Tests for Europe
First theory: doom-mongers. The Paris Agreement is the umpteenth farce by the circus that for over twenty years has gravitated around the UN to produce conferences leading to no practical results. D...