Last Tuesday we held a fantastic Future Thinkers panel discussing all things circular economy within the built environment with Debbie O’Byrne, Co-Founder of Planet Price, Michael Long, Senior Account Manager at Inzide, Maria Walker, Senior Consultant, Sustainability and Climate Change at Aurecon, Israel MacDonald, Sustainability & Market Development Manager at NZ Steel and Joe Quad, Manager Buildings and Communities at the NZGBC.
Debbie kicked things off by delving into the hard-hitting facts off the bat. She talked to Earth Overshoot Day, a calculated calendar date on which humanity's consumption for the year exceeds the planet’s capacity to regenerate those resources for the year.
According to Earth Overshoot Day, the date is “computed by dividing the planet’s biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources Earth can generate that year), by humanity’s Ecological Footprint (humanity’s demand for that year), and multiplying by 365, the number of days in a year.”
In 2023, that date was August 2nd. Yet research determining where the day would land based on the way a nation lives shows that for Aotearoa that date was April 11th 2024. It’s a sobering thought, but one Debbie raised as she stated, “We have a serious problem.”
You may have heard of the nine planetary boundaries; atmospheric aerosols, ocean acidification, ozone layer, freshwater, land use, climate change, novel entities (meaning human-made pollution, such as microplastics and radioactive waste), biosphere integrity (which includes biodiversity), and nutrient flows. We have overshot the last six according to scientific research.
We face a multi-faceted problem when it comes to sustainability, and Debbie believes that there is a tunnel vision regarding de-carbonisation, and other pressing issues such as water scarcity, biodiversity or anthropogenic mass can be forgotten.
A move from the linear economy in which we operate, where we take, make and dispose must be made to a circular economy where we make, use and return.
Yet our economy and systems aren’t set up in a way that supports this. Michael raised the point that the cost of landfill is too cheap in Aotearoa and doesn’t incentivise recycling, rather it props up a linear economy.
Positive change is occurring, however. Israel discussed the Electric Arc Furnace project which will half the carbon impact of the NZ steel when operational in 2026 and enable the use of post-consumer steel and Maria delved into her research using mycelium and biocomposites for building materials.
Debbie raised the point that circularity requires a storage solution as materials may not be needed right away, making them easier to send to landfills than to store.
Discussion centred around ways to achieve this, with some key points being raised:
- Transition Brokers are needed so it is not the responsibility of one company, but a partnership of many stakeholders.
- Digital enablement and AI are needed to help sort and store data of materials as there is too much information for humans to manage efficiently.
- Look at products as a service instead of a resource. A mine can lease metals instead of selling them.
- Biomimicry is a good way to cut down waste as there are fewer replicated patterns that are difficult to replace in pieces.
- Fundamental System change: Tax pollution instead of income. 65% of global businesses would not be profitable if they had to pay the pollution price.
What we ultimately learned is that the circular economy principle leads with an economic lens that sees sustainability as a benefit whereas sustainability seen in isolation is often considered a cost.
