【ENGLISH】 The Compass for Sustainability

Imagine if we somehow found a “magic key” to solving environmental problems like climate change, waste, and biodiversity loss?

A compass.

“Kretsloppet” may be it!

Kretsloppet has been taught and learned in Sweden since the 1990’s. We at One Planet Café Ltd. have used this “compass” for many years as well. In consulting and workshops, and in real actions – from eco-renovating apartments in Japan to our climate positive & fair trade banana paper in Zambia.

And it WORKS!

SCIENCE – NOT INTUITION

The environment – the very basics for Sustainability – is not a matter of intuition.

It’s science.

If we look at nature, we can see no waste, no extra CO2, and very seldom any over consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished.

Every species in nature – from bees to elephants to fish – are moving around using 100% renewable energy. At the same time, poverty and unemployment is almost always at a staggering 0%!

Learning from what the ant, bird and elephant already know, we will see what’s “environmentally correct” instead of environmentally friendly.

The conclusion is that there is a set of rules in nature. Everyone except us humans has known this for a very long time. Nature have figured out “rules” we call “The Principles”.

It’s like the RECIPE we need when baking a cake, or RULES for playing football. Once knowing the Principles for sustainability, we don’t feel lost anymore. It becomes easier to take the right decision towards sustainability.

So let’s take a look at how some of those Principles work:

KRETSLOPPET
The most important rules exist in natures eco cycle.
There are TWO major circles we must follow to achieve – what’s recently called – “circularity” (circular economy).

CIRCLE 1: Technical Cycle

This is the RED cycle in the middle of the illustration.

This is a cycle created by us HUMANS, inside our society.
To let nature recover – or regenerate – it is important we keep things within this Technical Cycle as long as possible.

This is where the famous 3R exists:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

CIRCLE 2 – Bio Cycle

This is the GREEN cycle (outside the Technical Cycle).

This cycle is created by NATURE. We humans have often ignored this cycle. But this cycle is the key to why there is almost no environmental problems in Nature.

And here are two other R:
Recover and Return.

What this “Principle” says, is “Do not take more from nature, than nature can recover”.

And here is the good news: once we put all those 5R together and let it guide us in our decisions towards products, services, energy etc, we will see CO2 and waste drop fast. Nature and biodiversity is given the chance to re-generate fast. And we could be on our way to reach the same levels as in Nature!