Dr Waleed Montasser and Nicholas Head from the School of
Science and Technology attended the Ellen MacArthur Prestige lecture at Cranfield
University on 26th June 2014. Ellen MacArthur (DBE) is best known
for her yachting achievement, but has also gone on to establish the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation with significant buy-in from large corporate bodies such
as Kingfisher Group and Unilever.
Ellen has given impassioned keynote addresses at
prestigious global events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos. She has
also been interviewed on numerous media outlets including BBC Radio 4, Channel
4 News and Newsnight. In addition, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has been working
in partnership with the Schmidt Foundation and has awarded fellowships to
aspiring students in various fields in order to examine opportunities for
innovation in design, engineering and materials usage.
Ellen spoke of the importance of the circular economy
model in offering us an opportunity to harness innovation and creativity to
facilitate a sustainable and restorative economy. A circular economy is
restorative by intention - it aims to rely on renewable energy, eliminate the
use of toxic chemicals and eradicate waste, through careful design of products
and services as well as through a more fundamental redesign of current
production and consumption systems.
Ellen began the lecture with an informative and engaging
discussion of her sailing achievements which were truly inspirational. She
succinctly described the need for self-reliance and an ability to manage finite
resources in the context of both sailing single-handedly around the world and
from an economic perspective at the local and global scales.
Perhaps the most important message which came across from
the lecture was the message that the economic model we currently follow is
fundamentally flawed and the need for a more circular model will become
increasingly observable over the medium term. We are faced with a choice:
either take action now to build in resilience for the economy and move towards
a sustainable position or be forced in the not too distant future to make some
uncomfortable decisions.
The lecture was attended by high profile academics and
industry CEOs as well as government agencies including WRAP and members of the
CE100.
