Dr Gunter Pauli and CPD fellow Ian Dunlop illustrate how Australia can stop sacrificing local manufacturing jobs for cheap overseas labour by looking at local innovation. Pauli and Dunlop examine the ways in which a new, low-carbon economy can deliver a wealth of manufacturing opportunities with a higher consideration for the environment. The evidence is already there for the doubters, with Pauli’s ‘The Blue Economy’ identifying 100 cases covering 100 different sectors in which real businesses in real markets are achieving local, clean growth.

For example, if I am a world leader in instant coffee, and have no business in mushrooms, I may not realise my 3 million tonnes of waste grounds could be converted into 1.5 million tonnes of mushroom protein, generating a potential turnover of $3 billion – as now happens in now happens in Europe, the US and Africa.

For the 21st century, Australia will need a creative new economy, which is low-carbon, uses resources efficiently and competes with conventional industrial processes.

Read the full article in The National Times here

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