When you pay your electricity bill or buy food and other goods, do you ever think about where your money goes? Who benefits from your purchases? Who and what jobs does it provide? What kind of management of natural resources and how much transport are you financing with your purchase?
The economy is not an end in itself and its growth is not a natural but a socially imposed requirement. The purpose of the economy is to meet the (real) needs of communities for products and services and quality jobs.
Production processes, relationships within and outside organisations, products, supply chains and sales channels have wider, multi-faceted impacts on the environment and society:
- The geographic dimensions of supply and delivery chains and the amount of daily migration between work and home influence the amount of transport and determine the impact of the economy on climate change.
- The way raw materials and energy are used in production processes can contribute to the depletion or conservation of finite stocks of the earth’s non-renewable resources (raw materials and fossil fuels).
- Waste, emissions from industrial processes and supply chains and their spatial requirements are one of the most important determinants of air, water and soil quality and habitat conservation.
- The ownership and governance of economic organizations determine the equitable distribution of material wealth in communities.
- Connectedness to value chains, expertise and innovation determine the level of added value of a community.
- Job security, involvement in management, the opportunity for further training, a healthy working environment and the distance of the workplace from the place of residence are key factors in the quality of life of an individual.
- The availability of jobs in local areas is a precondition for maintaining the polycentricity, population and spatial balance of the national territory, halting the process of suburbanisation and preserving the traditional and distinctive image of the countryside.
The economy can contribute to the well-being of a community in many ways: meeting the needs for products and services, quality employment (safe, inclusive, stimulating, local), material prosperity, social cohesion, preservation of the natural environment, sustainable waste management, minimising and adapting to the community’s contribution to climate change, resilience of the community to external shocks, preserving traditions and strengthening the community’s identity.
Can we have it all? We can. But only if the community focuses its economic activities on the local circular economy and community members support it through their consumption patterns. Such a community arrangement is primarily concerned with building high value-added production and supply networks based on local assets, sustainable use of local renewable raw materials and energy, avoiding the use and production of hazardous chemicals, promoting social and technological innovation, co-ownership and co-management, and sustainable consumption.
The local circular economy replicates the patterns of living systems powered by renewable energy, where organisms that are more energy and material efficient are more successful in the struggle for survival.
In nature, materials are constantly cycling – one organism’s waste is another organism’s food. Even in a (perfect) circular economy, waste does not exist, products are deliberately designed to be usable for as long as possible and the biological and technical components are easily separable and reusable at the end of their life cycle. Biological components are non-toxic and compostable; technical components – polymers, alloys and other synthetic materials – are reused with as little additional energy as possible.
Natural systems increase their survival or resilience to external shocks through diversity. So, also in the circular economy, modular, multi-faceted and flexible solutions are preferred, because they extend the lifetime of products by allowing upgrades and repairs right from the design stage.
The circular economy is based on a balance between competition and cooperation (symbiosis) and the networking of its elements, and on a system-based approach that, like nature, understands how things interact in the context of the whole – infrastructure, environment and social context.
The transition to a local circular economy is a process involving local producers and service providers, who base their activities on what is available in the local environment, and consumers, who adapt their consumption patterns. It can only work if there is a critical mass of awareness, knowledge and creativity in the community and effective support for policy and legislative action. The transition to a local circular economy requires consensus and mobilisation at community level. Infrastructure needs to be adapted for the local economy to succeed. In particular, internet connectivity enables the development and appearance of less known businesses online and their ability to do business with the rest of the world.
