Eco-Design and Ecological Transition

1The Environmental Impact of the Contemporary Economic Model

The report published by the IPCC (IPCC 2021) in August 2021 confirms the colossal impact of our economic model on the environment: increase in greenhouse gas emissions, surface temperature, precipitation, salinity at the surface of the oceans, surface water temperature and the retreat of glaciers, are most certainly linked to human activity.

The purpose of this first chapter is to identify the limits of our economic model in order to better define the objectives and contents of the ecological transition. Based on the three-part model of buy, consume and discard, the current economic model can lead to several dead ends: climate change disrupting our living conditions and provoking conflicts in certain territories, increasing difficulties in finding resources to produce and meet our needs as consumers, pollution causing health problems among populations. The ecological transition designates the transition from the current economic model to sustainable production and consumption methods. It then consists of finding the technical and human means that will probably change our lifestyles.

Before presenting the solutions developed by companies in the following chapters, we will look at the foundations of the economic model: the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist process. In the second section, we will study the most visible aspects of the limits of the economic model: the production of waste and emissions of pollutants. ...