Building the Blue Economy, with Gunter Pauli
  ~ April 23, 24, 25, 2010 ~
Santa Barbara City College Campus, Santa Barbara, California
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Hosted by the SBCC Center for Sustainability

~Evening Talk & Book-Signing, Fri, April 23, 7:30 - 9:30pm, SBCC Fe Bland Auditorium $15~

~Building the Blue Economy Workshop with Gunter Pauli, plus guests*** ,
SBCC Campus, Sat, April 24, 9am - 5pm, $120 ($100 early registration/April 3)~

~Retreat with Gunter Pauli, Sunday, April 25, 10am - 4pm  $300 ($250 early registration/April 3)~

How a new generation of entrepreneurs can bring
 innovations to the marketplace, secure basic needs for all,
and make sustainable businesses competitive.
 
Join the Santa Barbara City College Center for Sustainability for a rare chance to spend time with one of the most innovative thinkers of our times.  Author of the newly published book "The Blue Economy, 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs" Gunter Pauli challenges us to give up doomsday thinking...

Gunter Pauli suggests by emulating nature we can evolve from an economy based on scarcity to an economy based on abundance---the cascading, nutrient rich, Blue Economy.  Founder of Zero Emissions Research Initiatives (ZERI) Global Network, Gunter Pauli pioneered the concept of waste being seen as a resource that with creative thinking, can be used to create multiple enterprises from singular ones, with benefits for the economy and the environment. Pauli is fond of saying that returns on investment from these kinds of business models far exceed those of companies like Microsoft.

Gunter Pauli, famous eco-entrepreneur and passionate proponent of green development worldwide, is the former president of Ecover biodegradable soap company who built Europe’s first ecological factory.  Pauli is the founder of Worldwatch Europe, and a member of the Club of Rome and directs the Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI) at the United Nations University in Tokyo. He lectures regularly to business executives and governments, and is the author of 17 books in 21 languages.

***Saturday Workshop with Gunter Pauli/Afternoon break-out sessions with:
Sponsored by the Santa Barbara City College Center for Sustainability
Co-sponsors: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & SBCC Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Event Info, www.sbpermaculture.org, margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805)962-2571

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More Information:

On YouTube: Gunter Pauli introduces "The Blue Economy" and it`s 100 innovations.   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oHCEGalr7U&feature=player_embedded


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100 Innovations:
 Gunter Pauli releases one innovation per week for 100 weeks
100 Innovations/one per week go to www.blueeconomy.de
Introduction to the 100 innovations
that could generate 100 million jobs within a decade
By Gunter Pauli

Imagine 100 innovations that could generate 100 million jobs over the next decade. Over the next two years I will introduce these real opportunities one by one, on the basis of technologies proven by scientists to work, bench marked as a business somewhere in the world, and ready to be introduced anywhere.
 
As an entrepreneur, who established 10 companies, I have always been searching for the best way to enter the market, to out compete the market leaders. An entrepreneur introduces innovations, that respond to a need, generate cash flow, create jobs and work with what is readily available. With a track record in media, databank management, internet and eco-products I was very much impacted by my incapacity to see how I created collateral damage, trying to implement a new business model. What happened?

As president of Ecover, I promoted biodegradable soaps manufactured in a green factory with a huge grass roof. I was shocked to learn that as demand for palm oil - the main ingredient - increased, more rain forest was destroyed. How could I ever have overlooked that cleaning up the rivers in Europe leads to the destruction of the habitat of the orangutan? I learned the hard way that biodegradability has nothing to do with sustainability.

As a consequence, it became a passion to imagine a model that has no unintended consequences. I searched for the opportunity to create companies that outcompete on the market, thanks to solid innovations, dramatically increasing productivity, improving return on investment, while operating in harmony with the ecosystems. I imagined business that not only preserves the environment, rather businesses that enhance the ecosystems in which my companies operate.
 
The United Nations University and the Japanese Government offered me the chance to imagine such businesses, scientifically proven and economically viable. The platform in Japan permitted me to build a team to pioneer concrete examples from a beer brewery in Africa, to coffee farming in Colombia and waste management in Japan.
The hands-on cases inspired me to go back to undertake a competitive analysis and make an inventory of all innovations that are likely to shape the future. A review of +2,200 innovations revealed that only very few were adopted by business. Of all the sustainable innovations borrowed from nature only three that had become main-stream with sales in excess of 100 million: Velcro from the USA, Lotusan from Germany marketed by Sto and Proboscis-inspired needles from Japan made by Terumo.
 
I turned to the projects I knew, the scientists I visited, the CEOs I had met and discussed the best ideas with business journalists, corporate strategists, management scholars, policy makers and innovation experts. Thanks to their input I drew up a list of 100 innovations that are likely to change the competitive game in many sectors.
 
There was a major surprise. When the experts advised me on the magnitude of potential job generation, the number reached 100 million. Checking the benchmarks before me, I was surprised that one third of the business ideas are already invoicing and the several innovations represent platform technologies applicable in dozens of sectors. This proves there is potential.
 
A business model emerged that fundamentally changes the rules on the market. Instead of a triple bottom line, there is a triple cash flow, not just for the company, also for the community. How is this possible? Ever since management focused on core business based on core competence, companies have discarded any opportunity outside their tight focus on economies of scale, making more of the same cheaper through mergers and acquisitions.
 
The 100 cases that will be released one after the other provide insights on how costs within that core business model turn into multiple incomes applying a concept known as economies of scope. This clustering of value adding generates revenues that did not even exist. This is the core uniqueness of the competitive business models that will be released one by one as of February 22, 2010. There is more.
 
Once entrepreneurs can generate multiple revenues, value and cash flow, then it is easier to understand why these innovations also create jobs. On top of that, since value is created out of something that had no value before, there is no substitution effect. The traditional economist will be surprised that higher productivity now equates with job creation.
While the generation of additional cash flow will be a main argument, the fact that the market leaders have limited means to formulate a competitive response turns the odds in favor of the entrepreneur.
Companies that have decades of experience and a loyal customer base worldwide, supported by a stable cash flow and profit margins; will not easily hand over a major part of business to a newcomer. However, as postulated, these innovations change the rules of the game, often without openly informing the key players, taking them off guard and without the internal competences to respond.
 
When I promoted a detergent to the market without advertising, how could companies like Unilever, Henkel and Procter react when their marketing mix is dependent on advertising? This is exactly the opportunity that entrepreneurs can embrace.
The portfolio of opportunities based on these 100 cases is vast. More than one entrepreneur, more than one investor, more than one venture fund can take the initiative. That is the main reason for offering this inspiration open source.
The 100 cases offer an insight into an emerging economy - the Blue Economy- that is more competitive, generates jobs, brings innovations that steer business towards sustainability and builds up social capital.
Who would not like to join this?

Gunter Pauli
Author of the Blue Economy, 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs
Visit The World Congress on Zero Emissions Initiatives:
 http://www.zeroemissionshawaii.org/



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