The Brief: Proof points for Africa’s solar market, home solar in the DRC, sustainable food and agtech, Revolution Acceleration SPAC, lessons in impact management

Dezeen partnered with flooring brand Tarkett to host a live discussion with Perkins and Will about how architects and suppliers can support the circular economy and help create carbon-neutral buildings.
Titled The circular economy: a journey towards carbon-neutral buildings, the talk explored why the industry should be moving towards a circular model.
A circular economy is a model that minimises consumption, overuse of finite resources and the destruction of ecosystems, by instead continually reusing materials.
Read the full article at: www.dezeen.com

With the climate and biodiversity COPs in progress, one part of the economy increasingly finds itself in the spotlight: food. Our current food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss and accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, spurring businesses and policymakers alike to set targets and take action to make changes in the sector.  But incremental improvements to the current system will not be enough to address these issues at scale and speed. A fundamental transformation of the food industry is needed; rather than bending nature to produce food, our food needs to be designed for nature to thrive.  Like most of the things around us – our clothes, phones, buildings – much of the food we eat has been designed, from breakfast cereals to pasta. Food brands and supermarkets create these food offerings from a handful of ingredients, making decisions about how something tastes, how it looks, and how nutritious it is. These decisions not only affect customers, farmers and suppliers, but also the environment.

May 12th 2021 marked a special day in the global quest against pollution. It marked an important milestone that, if it is to become law, could bring us one small step closer towards the achievement of a zero waste society. The EU published its Zero Pollution Action Plan, aimed at decreasing air, water and soil pollution. This will hopefully lead the way for other global regions to follow suit. While this is certainly a long-awaited milestone, it is important to note that the achievement of zero pollution is strictly linked to the achievement of zero waste. There cannot be a zero pollution society without there being a zero waste society. This is why, to achieve its zero pollution objective, the EU has to adopt strong policy measures to drastically decrease waste at source, as well as our reliance on waste incineration, in order for the plan to have a real impact once it is put into practice.