With the growing environmental impact, from excessive energy consumption to waste and pollution, it has become increasingly important, and urgent, to adopt measures so that the planet can do its innate work of balance and return to normal.
Sustainability - an alarming issue
In a society increasingly concerned – and rightly so – about its future and the state of the planet for future generations, the term “sustainability” has gone from being a concept created by a small community in Rome, Italy (we’ll get to that later) to becoming part of today’s collective lexicon.
With the growing environmental impact, from excessive energy consumption to waste and pollution, it has become increasingly important, and urgent, to adopt measures so that the planet can do its innate work of balance and return to normal.
This normality is now sought in every social branch, in all forms of production and consumption, and fortunately, it is already reaching increasingly younger age groups, as we can see in the various demonstrations for the climate and environment where voices are gradually becoming more audible and even notorious – take the example of Greta Thunberg.
Club of Rome′s new book reads like an eco manifesto | Environment | All topics from climate change to conservation | DW | 14.09.2016
The Club of Rome
The theme of sustainability has its origins in 1966, when some leaders of a village in Rome – known as
the Club of Rome – met to identify and discuss environmental issues. This original group inspired a Club of Rome, founded two years later by Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei and Scottish scientist Alexander King.
The club is still made up of a notable group of distinguished people whose interests focus on economic and political issues, but above all on environmental and sustainability issues. Its members are figures linked to communities as diverse as science, religion, culture, academia, politics, finance, etc.
Important dates for Sustainability
Three more dates were recorded as crucial for the dissemination of environmental awareness and for the practices that were becoming necessary. In 1987, in the illustrious Brundtland Report, the idea of
sustainable development was coined, an idea that had been developed since the 1970s.
In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development took place, where the
Johannesburg Declaration (the city where the conference was held) was signed and was attended by 22,000 participants from 193 countries. In this political declaration, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable development and its three pillars: economic, social and environmental development.
Finally, in 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the “
Rio+20 Conference ”, took place. As the name suggests, it took place in Rio de Janeiro and served to discuss the renewal of the political commitment to sustainable development.
Upcycling and the circular economy
With this growing awareness of the need to take care of our
homes, practices have also emerged that have been adopted by companies and, more recently, by a collective in search of new ways to take care of the old (and essential) environmental balance. One of these measures is
upcycling . Far from being a new practice, upcycling has experienced a huge
boom thanks to its ease of application, sustainable techniques and mutual benefit.
The term “upcycling” means, in Portuguese, “reuse upwards” and we can say that it is a superior form of recycling. In a less literal deconstruction, the term basically consists of giving a new life to materials that would initially be discarded, in order to renew the idea of “trash” and keep resources circulating until the limit of their usable capacity.
This is also where the concept of
Circular Economy comes in. “ The Circular Economy is a holistic model that is “resilient and restorative by intention”, where, as in nature, “nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed” (Lavoisier’s Law)”. In the Circular Economy, there is no waste or garbage. There are, however, valuable resources (or nutrients, as they are called in this model), and as such, their useful life must be maximized, extending as much as possible the period in which they generate value for societies” , we can read on the website
beecircular.org .
Upcycling as a form of sustainability
The name
upcycling was coined by Reine Pilz, a German environmentalist, in 1994, but it would only become popular with the publication, in 2002, of the book “
Cradle to cradle: rethinking the way we make things ”, written by architect William McDonough, in partnership with chemist Michael Braungart.
Since then, the concept has spread and gained new followers and implementers. New and different business models have been created, and it is now very much present in markets such as decoration, fashion, furniture, technology, industry (food, textile, automotive, etc.), among others.
What was initially a trend is now a way of life and part of a solution that has become essential for implementing sustainability and caring for our planet.
The benefits of upcycling
On the same website
beecircular.org we can see a list of benefits of using this practice:
“Using upcycling techniques brings many benefits to people, our planet and organizations, since:
Vianatece as a pioneer of upcycling
With these advantages in mind,
Vianatece (
Letheshome 's parent company) has been practicing a policy of reusing materials since its creation in 1985 and, combined with the art of craftsmanship, has made sustainable production its
main identity and distinguishing feature . As a company, Vianatece has been working to provide its customers with the best of the artisanal production of its looms while, inspired by the famous
rag rugs , it focuses on reusing thousands of kilos of waste from the textile industry, thus giving a new and useful life to what many would consider to be trash.
This environmental commitment, with a reduced ecological footprint, has earned us the
Blue Angel seal, confirming our environmentally friendly production and proving our focus on Sustainability and the application of Upcycling, which has always been part of our policy and identity. Despite the latent problems, we believe in the future and believe that each one of us – as a company or individually – can make a difference, now more than ever, which is necessary. Because, as the famous
slogan says, “
there is no planet B ”.
