Interesting stats on EVs and energy use in the US, developments in wind and tidal power, a plastic recycling microfactory, and an "unprecedented collapse" in EU fossil fuel generation.
Transitioning to a green-energy sustainable world is going to cost a lot of money, honey – which is why I'm always interested to see what people who are in the business of making or managing money for their clients are saying about our pressing need to move toward a more circular economy.
That's why I found this article from a fund manager on Shroders.com so interesting. I'm not familiar with Shroders but they sound like a reputable financial assets managment company based in the UK. (If anyone knows differently, let me know! 🙏) Presumably their success is large based on making sound investment decisions for their clients.
And here's one of their fund managers talking about how the circular economy is not only inevitable – there are trillions of dollars to be made from investing in it.
Here's how the article starts:
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The transition to a circular economy will be one of the defining long-term growth trends of the coming decades. It is driven by the need to decouple economic growth from resource consumption.
I'm like, yup. That tracks.
It goes onto state, "The circular economy opportunity is not a “feel good” theme; it’s very much an economic one." Then the author describes how his firm evaluates investment opportunities according to various criteria based on the company's sustainability and plans for circularity etc., and how they never outsource their sustainability assessments but keep them in-house to make sure they're done according to their high standards, etc. etc.
(Which is where he lost me, haha.)
BUT: the fact that this investment company seems to take it as a given that we WILL be transitioning to a sustainable circular economy in the next few decades, AND that there is a LOT of money to be made from it, is super interesting to me.
I get that we need to take anything being written on a company site with the purpose of wooing clients with a hefty grain of salt. (Also: who knows how sustainable the companies they invest in on behalf of their clients really are?) And I know that chances are the reason why they published this article at all is because their SEO research told them people are researching this term and they wanted to add content to their site that makes them seem timely and relevant.
BUT even the idea that their thinking might have been, "Better get some content on the site talking about the circular economy because that's what our ideal clients are looking for" is interesting.
Not as exciting as it sounds – BUT it is another example of a valuable source of biomaterials that we've been throwing away or burning instead of making better use of it.
