John Mulrow

The steady-state/degrowth movement opens the possibility of re-defining “needs” and reorienting engineers to achieving equitable prosperity on our one shared planet.

I’m asking us to stop considering the environment and make some space—mental, political, or spiritual—for global-scale economic restraint.

But advocates of the circular economy rarely grapple with a central truth: the circular economy depends on a significant and sustained period of economic degrowth. Instead they tend to focus on innovations that deliver efficiencies and unlock new economic opportunities.

In Chicago, Sweet Beginnings helps people returning from prison learn how to make a living with bees – changing ideas about ecology and imprisonment along the way.

There is need for a new level of nuance — a local circular economy — one, in which materials, ideas and feedback flow cyclically and locally.