Blue Economy

Initiated by former Ecover CEO and Belgian businessman Gunter Pauli, the Blue Economy is an open-source movement bringing together concrete case studies, initially compiled in an eponymous report handed over to the Club of Rome. As the official manifesto states, 'using the resources available in cascading systems, (…) the waste of one product becomes the input to create a new cash flow'. Based on 21 founding principles, the Blue Economy insists on solutions being determined by their local environment and physical/ecological characteristics, putting the emphasis on gravity as the primary source of energy. The report, which doubles up as the movement's manifesto, describes '100 innovations that can create 100 million jobs within the next 10 years', and provides many examples of winning South-South collaborative projects- another original feature of this approach intent on promoting its hands-on focus.