We need jobs. We need meaning in our lives and jobs. We need to stabilize the climate. We need growth but not in waste and hazardous substances. We need to regenerate great conditions for our children to unfold their potential and dreams.

If we want to; we can get all of that by choosing to #buildbackbetter or plainly make sure that we guide businesses, cities and countries to integrate the circular economy mindset and approach into the core of that they do, through all our efforts and support packages.

Quite a statement you might think. Here is the short version of why it is so.

Recycling used materials in a way that maintains or improve their value creates new and meaningful regional jobs. So does an increased focus on repairing, retrofitting and remanufacturing. And, it also more affordable in most cases.

Studies found that one roughly uses 2/3 of all energy and 1/3 of all man hours in the processes related to extracting minerals from the ground and processing it to basic materials. Whereas one roughly uses 1/3 of all energy and 2/3 of all man hours in the processes going into actually making the products, sale and ship them.

So if we direct our funding and focus to processes using products and materials more than once, we will stimulate more jobs, less energy use, lower the climate impact and reduce the overall pressure on the eco-system for the benefit of all of us now and in the future.

For sure it will require a lot of decisionmakers and other people to make a change in mindset and to build up new competences. But it is doable – absolutely doable and minor thing compared to what we have been through so far. I know, because we create those shifts all the time with our clients and do so over a short period of time. I know that the capacity to handle change is stretched for most people. But consider the alternative for a moment.

Helping businesses back on track and into the world of yesterday, will only force them to make the changes in a few years instead of “just” reshaping the changes they go through right now to help them into the world of tomorrow. So many cases, the public opinion, the ecosystem and so many studies show us that the sustainable business approach is the winning formula. Or as some say, the only winning formula.

We have a unique opportunity – a once in a century opportunity perhaps – to make a pivot. If we do this right, the suffering that Covid19 have brought about will not have been nothing. If we do this right, we and the next generations will look back at 2020 as the painful, but in the big picture, really positive turning point in history. The difference that made the difference for living conditions for mankind and the ecosystem we are a part of.

What do you think it would take to make this happen?