Collaboration can help industries create nutrients, not waste

Image: Rushil2u, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The concept that industries and communities can behave like nature, producing only nutrients and feedstock as part of mutually beneficial relationship, is a reoccurring theme I have seen in the trend to embrace and promote the circular economy. This article highlights a powerhouse of corporations based in Minnesota (3M, Aveda, Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Medtronic, and Target) all working to identify circular economy opportunities and challenge that no one company can solve, using nature to create aspiration goals. What I appreciate in this article is the quote from Dave Rapaport, vice president of Earth and community care for Aveda, articulating the circular economy is "an evolution in business thinking, not really a departure from what we were taught in business school," reminding us that it is "not a foreign business concept to want to not let those resources go."

Contributed by Nicole Miller

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Want more inspiration from nature on biomimicry and the circular economy? Download a free Biomimicry Innovation Toolkit summarizing sustainable packaging principles inspired by nature.