Publications
Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives - A Case for South Africa
By Nirmala Nair (Director ZERI-Southern Africa)
No more downsizing, no more `lean and mean’ strategies for big business and government at the expense of the workers. Sounds impossible? Yet projects quietly happening in about fifty different countries across the world confirm that it is possible. Sustainable social housing programs using locally grown bamboo and by-products from other processes; bricks made of mud and other left overs from recycled plastic residues; one of the largest renewable energy programs for social housing; solar sterilization for a bottled water purification plant, increased food security and multiple livelihood options - and all of these while making sure that there is no negative environmental impact.
We need to learn our lessons of ‘development’ from nature. Ancients have always revered nature as the greatest teacher. Nurturing, ruthless sometimes, nature’s ways have been the best source of inspiration for many ancient traditions.
The advent of industrialization has slowly stripped away humanity’s connection with nature, replacing it with machines, technology and profit-margins.
Would it ever be possible to merge the two? A symbiosis of these seemingly disparate, yet connected worlds? Would it ever be possible to adapt the gains of an industrialized world, yet infuse the wisdom of nature, working for the greater good of all ?
The current model of development is very human centered. This is compounded by the human arrogance of seeking to wield power over nature. Nature is ‘exploited’. Nature is ‘controlled’. This has been a concerted tradition dating as far back as Sir Francis Bacon, the Father of modern Science.
Even where we seek to oppose this, our approach still falls into the same trap of failing to see the whole, the interconnectedness of our existence in an eco-system that sustains us. So we seek to ‘save the X’ or ‘save the Y’ - reflecting our fragmented approaches to environmental activism. Moreover, human-centered arrogance has led us to forget that we are as much part of this ecosystem as the blue green algae or protozoa.
The key difference is that we think; we have the discerning power to make or break the world. As the pendulum swings between the ‘know-it-all group’ (the scientists, big business and their minions) and the stumbling majority still figuring out their place in this world, the process of re-establishing connection with nature gets hi-jacked by elitist groups appropriating nature in many ways - eco-tourism; new agers, the booming alternative health industry. Now that the whole world is more or less colonized these are new foci for the expression of the erstwhile colonialists.
However, in a number of instances around the world attempts are being made to apply the design principles of nature to develop new industrial and other processes, land use patterns and livelihood options, mindful of the interconnectedness and networking designs of nature. Moreover these are designed in such a way that it need not necessarily be controlled and manipulated by the power elites.
Nature does not produce waste. In nature the waste of any one organism or process becomes the food for another. This principle is the founding philosophy of an organization called ZERI, which seeks to promote this approach across a range of activities through projects around the globe.
The ZERI philosophy is grounded in a systems approach based on how natural systems work. Nature consists of entire, sometimes chaotically complex, multiple networks that have supported the integral survival of life on Earth for billions of years, constantly co-evolving and unfolding - often unpredictably. ZERI seeks to work in congruence with nature, learning and observing how nature works.
Gunter Pauli, the founder and director of the ZERI Foundation, explains,
‘ZERI designs and implements a production and consumption system able to respond to the basic needs of all species on Earth in co-evolution with each other’
ZERI stands for Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives. In a natural system there are no net emissions.
The astute Japanese, who coined the term and housed it within the United Nations University in Tokyo in 1996, did a lot of thinking around this ‘simple, yet complex term’. The objective is to realize ‘mission impossible’ - to create a society where every emission is optimally used.
Japanese austerity combined with aesthetic minimalism and a culture steeped in ancient wisdom did not see any problem with such a radical concept. The Japanese government has backed ZERI from the start. The national White Paper on Environment in1998 was entirely devoted to ZERI strategies for Japan. Industrial giants like Toyota are deeply interested.
As a systems-based intervention, ZERI differs from linear models of the current developmental paradigm rooted in largely western industrial approaches. ZERI believes in developing designs that operate in clusters, where each one’s output, or unused resource, is ingeniously converted into the inputs for a multiplicity of value added production processes.
Current projects
In African countries most ZERI projects are land based and water focused. For instance, a project in Mutare, Zimbabwe, is involved in growing mushrooms using water-hyacinth as a substrate. The substrate becomes the resource input for many other job creating projects.
In Namibia, Namibian Breweries (Tunweni) has started the Tsumeb project as a leading ZERI project using sorghum beer waste and saving water consumption using ZERI technologies. With a world record for the lowest water consumption in commercial brewing, this project produces bread, mushrooms, and feed for piggeries through using all waste in a productive manner, creating profits and jobs and food security.
In Colombia 6,000 hectares of arid land has been regenerated through a soil regeneration program and natural ways of replenishing the surface water. One of the main revenue generating activities in this project happens to be bottled water! Las Gaviotas project outside Bogota has been named as the model for the developing world by the United Nations.
ZERI Educational Initiative
Three dozen books for children written by Gunter Pauli forms the basis of this initiative. Each book offers a creative response to the most common questions children often ask. "How can I be the strongest?", "Why can't I eat sugar?" and "Why don't they like me?”.
A common aspect of childhood is curiosity. Tapping into this curiosity, allowing a child’s imagination to unfold creatively, the ZERI series assists the child to explore complex scientific facts through stories like, “Can apples fly”? (on gravity); “Zebra air-con?” (on meteorology); “King of hearts” (on electricity).
ZERI Link connects children’s' creativity with local business. Instrumental in establishing programs for high schools in Europe, Japan and Latin America, this project empowers children how to dialogue with local industry to embark on their own enterprises.
The ZERI diplomas and teacher training programs
ZERI in Latin America has introduced a postgraduate training program in Colombia, covering the issues related to ZERI in a management format. The course, which started at EAFIT in 1996, has evolved to a full fledged program of 120 hours, with 12 professors and resource persons.
Brazil has introduced ZERI through the government curriculum. So far 65,000 teachers have undergone advanced ZERI training. Over 200,000 children are exposed through this programs.
Potential scope for SA
The last ten years have been challenging for post apartheid South Africa. Still witnessing an unprecedented gap between rich and poor, increasing joblessness and poverty, the South African scenario is aggravated by AIDS and related health crisis.
The relevance of ZERI to SA must be seen in this context. ZERI’s innovative strategies, while critiquing the modern development paradigm has concrete alternatives, a concrete way forward. Conscious focus on upsizing, job creation, livelihood strategies make ZERI an attractive proposition for South Africa. A well thought-through action plan, combined with a social responsibility clause, emphasis on strong educational focus complements its approaches to building on a new vision, and a new ethos that is inclusive and truly transformatory. © 2004
