Circular design: rethinking our world

Design is not just about making things look pretty. It determines the creation of food, clothing, buildings and mobility. Right now, our world is wasteful by design.

Our current linear ‘take-make-waste’ system designs products to be thrown away after just one short use. It is the underlying cause of global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

The good news is that our world can eliminate waste and pollution by design. By designing with circularity in mind, we can make sure waste and pollution are not created in the first place. Through biomimicry, we can emulate effective designs we find in nature for making things such as packaging. As in nature, each element can work to make the most of resources. And we can turn entire industries, like fashion, into thriving ecosystems. Creating an entire economy that is regenerative by design.

Intesa Sanpaolo is the first strategic financial services partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an international charity committed to the creation of a circular economy that tackles some of the biggest challenges of our time.

The Circular Economy is based on three principles, all driven by design: 
•    Eliminating waste and pollution  
•    Circulating products and materials (at their highest value)  
•    Regenerating nature  

By embedding Circular Economy principles into how we build our world, we can make a better future for us all.