Is it really possible to clean without soap, make color without pigments and give injections without pain? Can we get electricity from the tap, cleanse water with gravity and grow our own homes? Gunter Pauli and his Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) program have proposals to do all that and more.
In his second TEDxTokyo appearance, Gunter will talk about moving beyond the unexpectedly harmful “green economy” to what he calls the “blue economy,” where consumption is good and what’s necessary is free. The blue economy is based on cascading systems, and its initiatives are inspired by processes that occur in nature, where nothing goes to waste.
In this wide-ranging 2009 keynote address at the Lift Conference, Gunter explains why we should use bamboo to build and silk to shave, and why “the wisdom of the past is going to get us into trouble.”
For more on Gunter’s Blue Economy business proposals, follow this link:
Care for a peek at some practical 21st-century alchemy? Akinori Ito has come up with the neatest transmutation since brilliant minds were attempting to turn lead into gold–a simple way to convert waste plastic into oil. The machine that he and Blest Company developed uses an electric heater at 400-450 C to turn polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene into liquid. One kilogram of plastics yields about one liter of crude oil, Akinori says. The potentially harmful hydrocarbon gases released during the process are absorbed by a filter and converted into water and carbon.
While most of Blest’s machines are large industrial models being used at factories and farms, here their creator demonstrates how a small tabletop model can turn everyday plastic scraps like food containers and plastic shopping bags into burnable oil that can be refined into fuel for cars, scooters or heating.
James Curleigh and his company, KEEN Footwear, want us all to create more, play more and care more—which adds up to what they dub the HybridLife. Hey, you know you really should be outside right now, don’t you, not slumped in front of some computer screen? (Yeah, we saw you straighten up. Read the rest of this and then go outdoors!)
While lots of companies talk the sustainable, environmental and social responsibility talk, KEEN walks, runs and clambers all over those concepts. Their products—like footwear that incorporates natural, renewable cork, and a special microbe shield that controls stinky, rotten bacteria and fungi, and canvas shoes made using no adhesives—are built to make the world a healthier, more pleasant place.
Then there’s KEEN’s Hybridcare program, which supports essential environmental and community projects and has distributed more than $4.5 million to nonprofit organizations globally. KEEN also turns over five dollars from every pair of shoes it sells to Kiva.org, a nonprofit that lets individuals lend as little as twenty-five dollars to create opportunities around the world via the internet and a global network of microfinance institutions.
Fans of the brand—and there are plenty—follow KEEN and contribute to the conversation on the company’s blog, and through HybridLife Radio, Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
Curleigh goal? “My dream is to look back over my shoulder in fifty years and be able to say ‘I made a difference in peoples lives and in the progress of the planet’ through my ability to provide insight and inspire action.” Along the way, he lives by the motto “Don’t take yourself too seriously . . . but take what you do very seriously!”
Eiji Han Shimizu and Roko Belic spent five years traversing the planet looking for something that we’re all seeking: happiness. They searched from the bayous of Louisiana to the Namibian desert, and the beaches of Brazil to Okinawan villages. But the young Japanese filmmaker and the Academy Award nominee director didn’t stop there–they produced HAPPY, a feature documentary describing what they found out.
What did they discover? For one thing, people who carried out five acts of kindness a day over six weeks experienced an impressive 40 percent increase in positive well-being. Also that in a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees removed from one another. That means when you feel happy, a friend of a friend of a friend has a slightly higher likelihood of feeling happy, too. Nice, eh?
“Beyond the messages we put in the film for the world, I am practicing what I’ve learned to increase my own happiness,” Eiji says. “I’ve gotten actively involved in volunteerism, community building, meditation, exercise, and finding more meaning in my work, which are scientifically proven as happiness enhancers.”
Since its release, HAPPY has received the Audience Award for favorite feature at the 2011 Arizona international Film Festival and the Director’s Choice Best Documentary prize in the Feature Film Category at the Rincon International Film Festival. Want to see what HAPPY is all about? Here’s where to look:
Is it really possible to clean without soap, make color without pigments and give injections without pain? Can we get electricity from the tap, cleanse water with gravity and grow our own homes? Gunter Pauli and his Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) program have proposals to do all that and more.
