Introduction to the Blue economy

in #nature7 years ago

                                                        What is the Blue economy?  
  

The Blue economy can be described as a sustainable use of our natural resource to bring economic value and social growth to local communities [1]. The Blue economy promotes the use of: 1) only what is locally available, 2) the laws of physics and 3) nature intelligence to not only respond to the basics needs (water, food, shelter) but to also to create jobs, energy and healthcare [1].  To apply the Blue economy principles, it is important to  understand how nature ecosystem works. Nature can teach us a lot in terms of economics and in fact the Blue economy states that nature has a Master of Brilliant adaptation (MBA) [2] . In nature, there is no unemployment, no tax and anybody is contributing to the health of the ecosystem. For instance we can take a look at slime molds. Slime molds have one of the most advanced business model. Slime molds collect tree wastes and use it as a source of energy but also convert the rest of this waste as nutriments for trees and other micro-organisms. 


  “Key in life is to be able to answer the question "How much is enough?" Modern society has a desire to accumulate stuff and do nothing with it” Gunter Pauli [3] 


                                                 Who invented the Blue economy?  


The Blue economy initiative started in 2004 and was created by Gunter Pauli, a Belgium entrepreneur and author. He is actually the best selling Belgian non-fiction author [4]. The Huffington Post actually called him “The Steve Jobs of Sustainability” [5]. The 2008 global financial crash gave him further hint to extend the Blue economy initiative and at the end of 2009 he presented the Blue economy book [6]. The Blue economy book contains a list of a 100 innovations in accordance with the Blue economy vision that can create 100 million jobs worldwide, provided that people start to be aware of it and take action to use it in their local communities. 


  “People who contend with stressful situations regularly detect more opportunities of this nature than people who are living in pampered circumstances.[3] Gunter Pauli

 

                                                     Why was the Blue economy invented?  

Gunter Pauli used to be the CEO of Ecover, an ecological soap company which was making biodegradable soap from palm oil trees [7] . While making biodegradable soap is ecologically a very good initiative for fishes in rivers, Gunter Pauli realized the damaged that it did to the Orangutan forest in Asia [8]. Indeed, due to the increasing demand of palm oil, rain forest trees were replaced with palm trees, which was destroying natural inhabitants and microorganisms. Palm oil trees had nearly no inhabitant, no animal, it was a “ghost forest”.    
  This allowed Gunter Pauli to understand that being “green” does not necessarily mean being sustainable nor ecological. Humans most of the time think linearly, while nature does not, and this is why humans sometimes tend to not see the direct consequences of their actions. For instance, the chemists that design plastics decades ago thought that it could be dumped in oceans without any harm. They failed to see that oceans have heavy amount of sodium, which is a strong preservative agent. Gunter Pauli then quit his company to start the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI).
 

                                         Some concrete innovations of the Blue economy  
The Blue economy shows tremendous amount of initiatives that can be used to create business which will empower local communities while respecting the nature and its basic principles.  
  

1) Did you guys know that when we go to Starbucks and we drink a capuccino, really we are only drinking about 0.2 % of the coffee matter while the rest of it is dumped to waste? 

This seems like a pretty bad business model isn’t it? Who designed that kind of system (economically it does not make any sense)? Now what if I told you guys that the remaining 99.8 % of that coffee matter could be used to create a business and thus bring economic value? Yes that’s right, it is possible and it is explained by the Blue economy.  Coffee  waste is the best known compost for mushrooms, provided that it was already sterilized (which happen when your coffee is brewing in the coffee machine!!!).  Coffee waste can be used to make U.V creams, clothes, underwear and so on. Coffee is known to well absorb smell. For instance, a company from Taiwan used coffee to make odorless clothes [9]. Once harvested, the mushroom roots can be used to feed cattle for instance.  
 

                                    2) Paper can be made out of rock particles coming from mines

 Paper made today wastes tremendous amount of trees, energy and water. We can just look at how the Amazon forest is being destroyed everyday. What if I told you guys that paper can be made from rocks? That is right and that is one of the innovation of the Blue economy. It is much more lucrative in terms of cost and its sustainable and beneficial to the environment (it keeps out forest safe)!  
  China is now one of the very few countries that produce paper from stone along with Argentina! The technology was invented by William Liang from Taiwan and is explained in detail in the Blue economy book 3.0 book written by Gunter Pauli. Check this link for more details: goo.gl/a2qvvW. To briefly explain, stone paper is made from 80% calcium carbonate crush stone from mining plant wastes and 20% of a non toxic plastic HDPE (High Density PolyPhene). That paper is also fully water proof and can be constantly recycled !!! You can imagine the tremendous economic and environmental impacts of such an advanced technology! This is a really great opportunity for entrepreneurship and for the environment!  
  

In this paper, I wanted to introduce the Blue economy initiative to the Steemit community. I presented 2 innovations (out of many many) to show you its potential. In future sustainability posts, we will explore more innovations as well as the philosophy of the Blue economy at its core.  
 

juv79505 sincerely thank you for reading this article. Please feel free to comment below in case you have ideas, questions, suggestions or simply want to criticize this article. Also, note that all pictures used in this article were extracted from the google section “pictures labeled for commercial reuse”. Stay tuned for more articles on health, environment, artificial intelligence, technology, geography, history, sports or video games. 


References

[1] The Blue economy 3.0 book, Chapter 1

[2] https://goo.gl/ptKWpp

[3] https://goo.gl/MkGLqb

[4] https://goo.gl/KTXuBY

[5] https://goo.gl/6fBktZ

[6] http://www.theblueeconomy.org/

[7] https://goo.gl/9VLU6s

[8] https://goo.gl/pQ2Wcq

[9] https://goo.gl/EVh9w8


Pictures

Image 1 was taken from: https://goo.gl/HZ7wSA

Image 2 was taken from: https://goo.gl/yRjydh

Image 3 was taken from:  https://goo.gl/fWz7g4


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I came here to visit your blog because I wanted to upvote you for a comment you made on one of my posts that was over the 7 days and wasn't sure if you would get credit. So glad I am here because this is a GREAT post. I love the Blue Economy concept and the projects that are springing up. Ended up having to Re-steem this one too :) Keep up the good work, the world needs it.

Thank you @vickiebarker this is so kind of you I really appreciate it :) ! I am very glad that you like the Blue economy! There will be much more posts about it! I was just very busy the past few days with my Ph.D but I will post on the Blue economy very very soon. Keep up the good work too, you post very very good work! :)

Am actually taking a course on the circular economy and I was going through the different definitions of circular economy and voila! I stumbled upon your post.

I enjoy sustainability,write about and research about it alot, looking forward to learning from you.

@cmbugua thank you for commenting! Yeah the circular economy is great and people like Ellen MacArthur are doing a tremendous job for sure. I do think that the Blue economy takes the circular economy to an entire new level though. The Blue economy is able to cascade multiple cash flows and achieve multiple revenues from just one "waste". I will come back to that in my future posts.

Stay tuned and thank you again for commenting I really appreciate it! ;)

I love the concept. I'd always thought that something like a barter system is how a community can collectively achieve self reliance. This system can be used on larger scales and best of all incorporates the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. Thank you for sharing, this post was really enlightening.

I apologize for the late reply. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my article and reply to it. "I'd always thought that something like a barter system is how a community can collectively achieve self reliance." I totally agree. "This system can be used on larger scales and best of all incorporates the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share" I believe that is where some of the answers of the future is because we definitely need this to eat good food to be healthy for instance and with the growing population the Blue economy method will without any doubt be able to feed everyone. You are very welcome and I also wrote a new post regarding some principles of the Blue economy yesterday night. Thank you again.

This was interesting and I will follow you in hope of more in the subject.

@lynxki Thank you for commenting, I really appreciate it and stay tuned because I will post much more Blue economy stuffs ;)

Interesting post, @juv79505, I hadn't heard it referenced this way yet.

Nice to meet you and welcome to RMS!

Thank you @intuitivejakob!! Glad you liked my post! RMS is an awesome group and I am really glad to be a part of it! :)

Companies should be looking for ways to get involved with the blue economy.I mean if its the best for everyone why not use it, right ? We are protecting our planet that way which means we are taking care of ourselves.Its a matter of time when this is going to be implemented and I really hope this is going to be fast.

Thank you for contributing to the Steemit Community.Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to your next posts.

@castbound Thank you! I am glad that you liked my post about the Blue economy. The Blue economy is definitely developing very fast, they have tons of amazing projects that can really benefit this earth and I will talk about it in my future posts! Stay tuned and thank you again! :)

Thank you ! I'm glad that Steemit has someone like you = )

Thank you, I really appreciate it :) ! I just try to contribute to the Steemit community with the little knowledge that I have :)

Your contribution is appreciated ! = )

I can already tell I am going to enjoy reading your posts! Hurray for RMS!!

Show Me!.jpg

Yayyyyy :D !!

Thanks for the intro to the blue economy. Big ups to your vision!!!!!

Thank you and I am glad that you enjoy it! :) Oh no I think you should say Big up to the vision of Gunter Pauli! He is a true grand visionary really! I just try to learn as much as I can from his books, conferences and tweets ;) !

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