Conscious Material Choices. A Systemic Approach to Reframing our Relationship with Materials and to Accelerating the Positive Impact Future

Abstract

We are immersed in a sustainability crisis fueled by our “take-makewaste” industrial model1 and our throwaway culture2. We need an urgent, seismic shift from linear growth to sustainable prosperity. Positive impact can be at the core of new ideas, projects and business models, integrating all aspects of sustainability and creating tangible, long-lasting value. We can move positive impact front and center in our creative conversations with materials. Using systems thinking, material professionals can imagine a ‘new normal’. Leverage points to activate change include a reframed relationship with materials, a new modus operandi and new opportunities leveraging on circularity thinking and technology. Beyond the immediate opportunities that making conscious material choices can unlock in products and buildings, we can radically accelerate the positive impact future.