The industrial economy could be described as wasteful - it rewards the extraction of finite materials and generates large quantities of waste at the end of life. In other words, it’s about throughput and ignores the use of goods.

Digital technologies and new business models are opening up the possibility of an economy based on the idea of stock optimisation. What if people or firms paid for the performance of goods and then handed them back when they no longer needed them? There is growing evidence that this is a smart route to take, generating positive returns for society, for the environment and for the economy.

Watch Walter Stahel explain more in this video.

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This video was filmed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for the Disruptive Innovation Festival 2017.

All rights reserved Disruptive Innovation Festival 2017.