More than Just Lines on a Map: Best Practices for U.S Bike Routes
An end to ‘take make-waste’
1. An end to ‘take-make-waste’
•
One of the most curious aspects of the business model that has held sway over the past few
decades has been the ability to cling to ideas that are simultaneously counter-intuitive, wasteful
and lacking in an evidence base – and to express deep scepticism about smarter ways of working.
•
On the matter of environmental sustainability, there persists an attitude that the rapacious, colonial
approach of ‘take-make-waste’ must be good for profits, and that to care about the environment
must involve costs. But how on earth can being wasteful make good business sense? This came to
the fore last year at an event run by the sustainability network 2degrees, when a spokesman for
Coca Cola Enterprises commented that the company was trying to be far more efficient and
environmentally responsible, but that people doubted it could be done.
•
As recorded in our blog at the time, vice president Stephen Moorhouse said the firm was in its sixth
consecutive year of growth and had reduced carbon emissions by 8.5%. Smarter operations and
more efficient use of energy can help the business, yet he often gets asked how it is possible to
combine business growth with better environmental protection. ‘I get asked that question a lot,’ he
said.
•
In New Normal Radical Shift, we encourage adoption of Bob Willard’s dictum of ‘borrow-use-return’
to replace the unsustainable ‘take-make-waste’.
