Waste Economic Forum
A unique collaboration between investigative journalism, science and the law,
to reveal the dirty secrets behind the system we call ‘economic growth’
Introduction
Please allow us to introduce the Waste Economic Forum (WEF) to you. This new foundation revolves around one mission: to fundamentally reboot our economic system and achieve healthy economic growth for all. How? In a unique collaboration between investigative journalism, science and the law.
We took waste as our starting point, because, let’s face it: we live in a fantasy world, convinced that the only way is up. We measure growth as the sum of the value of what we produce. So we produce as much as we can and disregard the consequences. This is what we call ‘progress’. The outcome? We are overwhelmed by the waste we produce.
Let’s look at some numbers:
99% of the products we buy last less than 6 months.
30% of our food is wasted.
40% of the clothes we produce are never sold or used.
50% of the medicine we manufacture ends up as trash.
2 billion tons of solid waste is produced each year, and that number is rising fast.
What we call ‘economic growth’ today is essentially industrial production output. That is way too limited considering the complex societies we live in. Yet every major decision made anywhere around the world is underpinned by its potential to contribute to this type of ‘economic growth’. The resulting damage to the world we live in - and therefore to mankind - is immeasurable, to the extent that it threatens our survival.
We must change and we can change.
OUR MISSION
Achieving healthy economic growth for all, by fundamentally rebooting our economic system
Our mission amounts to creating an economic system based on opportunity and on the actual natural laws of survival: taking and giving in a balanced way strengthening economic, social and ecological systems and increasing wellbeing, instead of depleting the planet and adding to social unrest.
WEF is creating an ecosystem of partners, each feeding into each other, while sticking to their own strengths. This unique task force of partners is built on 3 pillars: science, investigative journalism and litigation. Together these pillars will keep the causes of our waste issues firmly on the global agenda and support solutions, while contributing to the design of a new system based on achieving healthy economic growth for all. We intend to show the tremendous number of new opportunities to tap into, in the transition from traditional economic thinking to a new system.
How does it work?
Waste Economic Forum acts as a
-
Magnifying glass
Research
Visualise
Discover
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Megaphone
Publish
Uncover
Distribute
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Spotlight
public outcry
Debate.
Change.
What will the magnifying glass, the megaphone and the spotlight do?
Together with our partners WEF will thoroughly investigate issues related to our current convictions about GDP and waste. This will include problems just as much as solutions. Under the magnifying glass of WEF our research will bring out new discoveries that we will turn into written, audio- and visual stories.
Once we have our story, it is time to take out our megaphone, publishing and distributing our work to audiences we intend to target with a specific story. Depending on the topic, this can vary from very niche - policy makers on a certain issue in a certain country or region for instance - to as wide a global audience as possible. In doing so we uncover our discoveries for the world to see.
Putting the spotlight on an issue and keeping it there, stories have the potential to generate public outcry and put the topic on the agenda of politicians, media, boards of executives and the likes. By continuing to follow up on issues that we bring to light, WEF will feed the debate in these arenas. A new narrative will come to life, eventually contributing to lasting change.
