Gunter Pauli

Gunter Pauli is a Belgian economist (Antwerp, 1956) known worldwide as the father of Blue Economics, and author of a book with the same title. He studied economics at KU Leuven in Leuven (Belgium) and subsequently obtained an MBA at INSEAD in France and a PhD in Systemic Design at the Polytechnic Institute of Turin (Italy).

He began his career as an advisor to the Club of Rome, writing the biography of one of its founders, Aurelio Peccei, an interesting character who was part of the Italian anti-fascist resistance and manager of the Fiat company. In his interviews, Pauli often talks about his first entrepreneurial experience: a plant for the production of natural soaps and hygiene products. Although the company favoured "green" actions both in production and among employees, he realised that the extraction of the natural products used in soap production was detrimental to the environment in which the products were grown, so he focused on researching sustainable alternatives at all points in the production chain.

With the support of the Government of Japan and the United Nations University, he created the ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives) project, dedicated to research into natural cycles applied to the economy.

As a result of his research, in his book The Blue Economy, he offers 100 examples of innovations he has observed, detailing various sustainable production systems for natural products that could generate 100 million jobs in 10 years.

Another of his books, Supra-recycling, sets out innovative ways of using waste materials to make new products with higher quality and greater value, both economically and ecologically. The fundamental difference between this circular model and traditional recycling is that it does not seek to be part of the chain of single-use products or to investigate the decomposition of materials, but rather to extend the useful life of products or materials, create new products and reduce the consumption of raw materials that is at the root of the overexploitation of resources.

Pauli is also a strong supporter of local communities, and currently supports a number of community-run blue economy projects in various countries. An example of this is the project being carried out in the Colombian village of Gaviotas, one of the first self-sustainable municipalities, whose experience was reported in a book published by researcher Alan Weisman in 1998 with the help of the ZERI foundation, created by Pauli: "A village called Gaviotas, the place where the world was reinvented".