How can brands build a zero waste future?

Infinite Ownership

"We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can support and if we continue in this way, we will need three planets to support human life by 2050" (Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International). Our unsustainable – and now critical - pattern of consumption needs urgent action. Moving away from misrepresented labelling and thinking bigger than just plastic and recycling, we need to reimagine solutions and whole system change to meet future and societal demand.

In this month’s Futures Feed – Infinite Ownership – we focus on four key areas of change that illustrate how brands can turn waste streams into valuable resources, create zero-impact production systems and design objects with an unlimited lifespan that actually give back more than they take from the earth’s resources. These shifts are brought to life with ground-breaking insights and best-in-class examples and showcase how brands can embrace these critical changes to create better products and systems as we collectively take infinite ownership of a better world.

Image credits from top to bottom of the page: Ecobirdy, making children’s toys out of recycled plastic gathered from disused or broken plastic toys; Global Förändring by IKEA, a collection of home accessories made from rice straw that would otherwise be burnt by India's farmers; Suelo Orfebre glassware by Simon Ballen created from a waste product of gold mining.