Pauli: Excessive and Unsustainable Accumulation of Goods Leads to Economic Collapse

The third conference on good economy began today in Zagreb with a lecture by Gunter Pauli, author of “Blue Economy” and a leading global innovator in sustainable projects and technology.

Professor Pauli did not travel from Belgium to Zagreb, but delivered his lecture via Skype.  The Belgian entrepreneur, known as the “Steve Jobs of sustainable development”  reiterated the main theories from his book to the attendees and warned them that if they want to change the economic system, they must first start with themselves. Small steps.

– The economy that interests me is called “blue economy.” It is not limited to resource conservation, it is not greedy like the “red economy” which collapsed in 2008, nor is it unsustainable like the “green economy” where companies invest much more for better product quality, and consumers pay more. It focuses on resource renewal and is designed to allow ecosystems to continue their natural path. From this, we will gain financial benefits, eat better, and live healthier. We need to discard expensive facilities that consume huge amounts of energy and start looking for solutions based on simpler, cheaper, and less environmentally harmful technologies. The point is that the ecosystem is created in such a way that it will enable us to progress if we act in accordance with it – stated the author of “Blue Economy.”

– We need to ask ourselves how much do we actually need? Modern life is driven by an irrational desire for excessive accumulation of goods. The problem is that nothing is done with the accumulated resources, and their collection becomes an end in itself. The problem of society is ignorance, and all economic crises stem from this – he adds.

– Do not teach children only what you were taught. They will make the same mistakes and we will not progress – concludes Pauli.

Christian Hiss, the next speaker at the conference, is the creator and main organizer of Regionalwert AG,  a civic action society from Freiburg, Germany, which is slowly changing the way German agriculture functions. It serves as a platform for raising funds from citizen-investors with the idea of creating a network of small regional economies engaged in various activities related to agriculture.  They are involved in the distribution and sale of natural products, research activities… Committed to ecological solutions and guided by socially conscious legislation, the work is overseen by a group of directors, along with Hiss, who are also experts in ecology and organic farming.

– Farms and farmers are struggling to survive today. There are issues with land inheritance and obtaining loans. It is necessary to create a new regional economic space, where a larger number of people can be supplied from that newly created space/system – explained Hiss, adding that three million euros have been raised in the last seven years.