Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to promoting sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 and the circular economy
Circular Economy
The circular economy is a generic term for an industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative and in which materials flows are of two types, biological nutrients, designed to reenter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed to circulate at high quality...

.



The key aims of the charity are to:


  • Provide a framework for inspirational content, through the medium of education programmes.
  • To provide a seed for the future economy with people with the skills and knowledge to build a sustainable future.
  • Engage with industry and showcase what is already happening.



The purpose of the Foundation is to make young people re-think and re-design the future, from a linear economy to a circular economy. It hopes to make mankind think about what is happening to our materials that we use everyday, to think outside this very huge box, reducing our environmental impacts drastically over the forthcoming decades, which is resulting in the phenomenon called "Global Warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

". Its aim is to inspire a generation of people to eradicate waste in the materials we use and not use finite sources, like fossil fuels, but to constantly use materials over and over again. Its aim is also to reduce the energy we all use in our daily lifestyles, and switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, soucres that last. Since the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

, the world, for the first time in many millions of years, has seen the rate of which photosynthesis is happening is much less than other, antagonistic processes like respiration and the combustion of fossil fuels. One of the Foundation's goals is to have the global photosynthesis rate at least equal, if not out way the antagonistic processes, by means of leading us to the circular economy and us not drastically altering our atmosphere. Our atmosphere has, for many millions of years, been changing, as a result of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

 and will keep on happening until the Earth no longer sustains life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...

. However, since the industrial revolutution, we have been changing our atmosphere much faster than we have seen in the last 4.5 million years.

History

It was founded on 23rd June 2009 but wasn't publicly launched until 2nd September 2010, by Dame Ellen MacArthur at the National Science Museum
National Science Museum
National Science Museum may refer to:*Science Museum *National Science Museum of Japan*National Science Museum, South Korea...

. The most notable fact about the Foundation is that £6 million raised from donors in business. The charity was inspired by MacArthur's sailing experiences and she put £500,000 of her own money into the project. The £6 million was raised by the five co-founding partners, which are BT
BT
BT may stand for:* Baal teshuva, a Jew who became Orthodox * Babylonian Talmud, a central text in Judaism* Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium which forms Bt toxins...

 and Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...

, B&Q
B&Q
B&Q plc is a multinational DIY and home improvement retailer headquartered in Eastleigh, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1969 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingfisher plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange....

, Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

 and National Grid
National Grid
-Electric power transmission systems:*National Grid , the electricity transmission network of Great Britain.*National Grid , the electricity transmission network of Malaysia....

.

Chale Community Project

The Chale Community Project is to make the village of Chale
Chalé
Chalé is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Zona da Mata and to the microregion of Manhuaçu.-See also:* List of municipalities in Minas Gerais-References:...

in the Isle of Wight rethink and redesign the way in which they live their lives and make the community more sustainable with less impact to the environment.



The Chale Community Project has 3 aims:

  • To reduce the fuel costs, mainly heating the home.
  • To create a sustainable community.
  • To generate local employment opportunities, as a result of the economic downturn.

Project Re-Design

Project Re-Design was a series of educational workshops, competitions and internships held up and down the country, to promote the circular economy, for 16-18 year-olds and they were hands-on, free workshops that were to promote how we think about our future and how we use materials, how things should be 'made to be made again and again'. During the day, students are challenged to rethink and redesign how products are made and used and also how our world may work in the future.
The winners then went into internships to meet with several of the co-founding companies of the Foundation to try and learn and redesign one of their products, to be sustainable. These companies were Cisco, National Grid, Renault and BT. They discussed with the business how the circular economy could be achieved in these four different companies.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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