Gunter Pauli: Nature Teaches Us About Connectivity

We first met and listened to economist, innovator, and entrepreneur Gunter Pauli at the event Destination: Success organized by Vzajemci, where he impressed with his presentation and book The Blue Economy, which is also translated into Slovenian. A few days ago, he took some time just for Nedelo. His thoughts are unusual, sometimes provocative, but they could be a good springboard for more economical, sustainable, and at the same time profitable operations for all of us.

What is the Blue Economy?

The Blue Economy is a new perspective on a highly competitive and sustainable economy. The principles of the blue economy follow the principle of using the efficiency of nature and waste. This concept requires that nothing is left as waste. Waste for one is food for another, and waste from one process is a source of energy for another. The Blue Economy assumes social inclusion, which means self-sufficiency for all. This brings social equality, more jobs, more opportunities for the poor, and a bridge between generations. And crucially: in the concept of the blue economy, the key is not the lowest-cost production but the pursuit of the highest added value. This means creating more cash flows, more income, more benefits. The Blue Economy is the key to transforming the economy.

Think about it, what if we no longer produced waste? What if our production systems restored our ecosystems? What if unemployment was replaced with an abundance of meaningful jobs and innovations? What if our economy, due to the blue economy, created more income and happiness for everyone? The Blue Economy is something that is best for health and the environment. It is the cheapest because life's necessities are free due to the local production and consumption system that works with what you have. The Blue Economy is based on studies that propose a good philosophy in action. It draws inspiration from the natural world around us to produce exactly what we need, work in harmony with other living beings, and in harmony with the ecosystems that make up our planet. This is the right path, where we strive to live in a way of regeneration, autonomy, and abundance, improving the relationship between the individual and their environment, and promoting harmonious coexistence among people.

Do you look to the future with optimism?

I imagine that we will no longer pay so much attention to bad news, that we will no longer be so pessimistic. We will enjoy the transition because we will imagine it as a new path to better opportunities that we have not seen before. I imagine that we will have a fresh outlook on the future and that we will feel all challenges as part of the meaning of our existence, and no longer as problems. Because of the feeling that our actions have meaning, we will be full of energy and will joyfully and courageously overcome obstacles.

Humans have always imitated nature in innovation. What new things can we learn from it today?

The best lesson from nature is that it teaches us about connectivity. Everything is connected into a whole, and nothing operates separately from others. This lesson prompted me to explore intelligence in nature. Who would have thought that shellfish shells at the bottom of the sea are actually a fortress or defensive wall for octopuses hiding from predators, including sharks? I was also fascinated by how an octopus stole an underwater camera from a diver and even filmed him, but when it realized that this object did not belong in its nest, it returned it. This experience, which you probably remember, completely changed my view of the world. Think about the so-called swarm intelligence, which indicates collective intelligence. Biologists and naturalists study the behavior of insects because of their efficiency in solving complex problems, such as finding the shortest path between their nest and a food source or organizing their nests. This is natural GPS, navigation, and from here we can take directions for organized traffic infrastructure. Swarm intelligence is a very smart and sustainable approach. Nature is our great teacher.

What are the principles of the blue economy? Which rules of the game do we need to change?

The principles of the blue economy guide us to change the rules of the game. Today, you can be competitive, but that means you have to be cheap or cheaper than others. In Slovenia, it is difficult to be more affordable than in Bangladesh or Brazil. So, we need to add new value and new usability to every product. Let's look at coffee. We drink only 0.2 percent of the content offered by coffee beans grown in Kenya or Colombia. The rest is discarded. But couldn't the grounds be used differently, utilized?

Everyone who drinks coffee discards 99.8 percent of the raw material. Those who drink tea discard 99.9 percent of the raw material. This is a great waste, and the vast majority of tea and coffee lovers are unaware that this waste rots and turns into methane, which is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. But fortunately, almost 30 years ago, researchers at the University of Hong Kong discovered that one kilogram of coffee grounds allows the cultivation of half a kilogram of shiitake mushrooms. Twenty years ago, shiitake mushrooms were not well known, but today they have established themselves as a very nutritious and tasty type of mushroom. In other words, they are a food that we should consume more often, as they help with stomach problems, headaches, high blood cholesterol, and atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, liver diseases, help with diabetes, relieve flu and cold symptoms, and we can grow them ourselves from coffee grounds. Let's look at the circle: when I drink my morning coffee, I can grow mushrooms alongside it, which enrich my diet and the diet of chickens that lay eggs for me and provide healthy meat. So, the change in the rules of the game in business goes in the direction of making more products from one product and thus generating new sources of income.

What motivated you to green the roof of your company back in 1992?

I was motivated by the idea of outcompeting the world's largest corporations with products that are truly sustainable, and also with their production, which would be ecologically sound. Moreover, I wanted to prove that I could be competitive and price-comparable despite sustainable operations. The symbol of my green strategy was the greened roof on the factory, and it was not just a trick to prove that we are truly green, but that we operate ecologically at every step. My operating model is not only environmentally friendly but truly economical and even very profitable.

The best lesson from nature is that it teaches us about connectivity. Everything is connected into a whole, and nothing operates separately from others. PHOTO: Shutterstock

I find it interesting that your employees were motivated by just one euro to cycle to work every day. Do you think this is a happy coincidence or an expression of general human psychology?

I offered employees 50 cents for every kilometer they cycled. They were satisfied with this initiative because they calculated that with 50 cents per kilometer, they could earn extra vacation annually. This is not insignificant, so everyone took the initiative seriously and loved it. People need to be motivated with concrete initiatives in which they recognize a benefit for themselves.

Will the local overcome the global?

The local will certainly overcome the global because if this does not happen and we all buy abroad, we will all be worse off.

Could it happen that small countries like Slovenia will become just large open-air museums?

We must not, or you must not, allow this because your homeland offers so much beauty and usefulness. Just look at your forests. And the real question for you Slovenians is not how to compete with the world, but what opportunities we see here and now that we have not seen before, and what we can offer the world.

You obviously have innovation in your blood. Everywhere, even in coffee or orange peels, you see business opportunities. But people, intellectually and culturally numbed by TikToks, Netflix, and the like, have become dull and anemic. What kind of kick in the butt would be most effective to wake them up?

Kicks in the butt have never really motivated people. The best way to convince them to adopt different operating models is to show them which business and how it brings benefits for themselves and at the same time for the environment. You have to prove to them that this business brings them money, profit, and returns. I also organize seminars for this purpose, but I quickly realized that people need to be taken by the hand like children, guided, and shown the logic of operation step by step with concrete examples from practice. It is true, as you say, we are completely blinded by Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, and the like. We are intellectually regressing.

What are the most common challenges companies face when trying to implement sustainable practices?

The biggest challenge is ignorance. People are so distorted by bad news that they no longer believe in good news. I literally shock them with my examples. Everyone is convinced that good business stories can only be built on harmful practices such as layoffs, relocating production to markets with cheaper labor, cutting costs, and the like, but it is not true! Surviving and even living well or even better is possible with a positive attitude and above all a lot of curiosity, learning, and courage.

How do you see the role of leaders in the future? What skills and qualities must a leader have to successfully implement and lead business models aligned with the blue economy?

The leader of the future will be a "problem solver" who has vast knowledge, experience, wisdom, and a positive attitude. In the future, there will be more and more challenges, and if leaders do not solve them positively, they will go bankrupt. However, the leaders of the future are certainly not people who make empty promises, complain, and look for scapegoats for their incompetence.

Will the world still exist in a hundred years and beyond, will humans be on it, or just mushrooms, bacteria, algae, and viruses?

In a hundred years, we will be in paradise. We will do everything in a positive way. When we look back, we will be ashamed of how we treated the environment so neglectfully, polluting it with emissions, microplastics, and destroying ecosystems. I firmly believe that awareness is already awakening in us that such behavior is harmful. In a hundred years, we will take much better care of our health, our longevity, and the longevity of our society. And for the ecosystem on which we all depend.

Which energy source will be the winner and which the loser at that time?

Lithium will certainly be the biggest loser of the future. I assure you of that! We need to dematerialize the world, which means we need to reduce consumption. If we know why an apple falls from a tree and how water collects in a coconut, then we don't need devices with lithium batteries and artificial intelligence to operate water pumps. We know well how the laws of nature work, such as the law of gravity, and therefore we must follow nature. Given what I have said, it probably does not surprise you that my love is the wind, which can be captured at 200–300 meters height. It is unlimited and available day and night. Another option is hydrogen. Today it is very simple to produce, so the logical question is why we fill cars with batteries that require more and more mining. If you are a lithium trader, I understand that changing mobility towards lithium batteries is currently the biggest business in the world, but lithium is not the future, it is an intermediate phase and should be as short as possible.

Lithium batteries will go into oblivion, and I assure you that hydrogen will be the winner. I am convinced that the long-term solution is hydrogen. I know this firsthand because my ship Porrima produces it from seawater using solar energy. And since we need a mix, the second energy source is the wind, captured with a kite at least 200 meters above sea level. Then round out the mix, add a little sun, and you will go very far.

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This article has been translated from Slovenian into English with the help of AI-powered machine translation. We apologize for any possible inaccuracies.