Frank Becker | TU Berlin

The value conservation concept –What is Green on ReUse-economy?

1111stststst World ReUse ForumWorld ReUse ForumWorld ReUse ForumWorld ReUse Forum

07 September, 2008

Session WRF.1.3: 14:00-16:30

Project “ReUse-Computer” - aims and goals

new technical applications

and processes of reuse

developing new

strategies of use for

citizens, enterprises and

organizationssetting up a network

of enterprises in

Berlin

"Anyone who believes

exponential growth can go on forever

in a finite world is either a madman

or an economist.“

Kenneth E. Boulding

About 160 millions of PCs were sold globally in 2004

• manufacturing of ONE PC spends about 535 kWh of energy *

• for producing the microchips of ONE PC about 550 l of water are used/wasted *

• manufacturing and transport of ONE PC cause 112 kg CO2-emission*

*related to a Pentium III of 1999

Using systemic tools to develop

enterprise networks

• The narrative aspect of social networks is telling stories.

• Networks as social systems develop there own history by reflecting themselves through story-telling.

Three basic factors of networks from the point of view of systems theory:

Reciprocity: Reciprocal exchange is different from the contractually regulated

exchange of generally accepted equivalents (usually money) and

refers to the situation in which agents only exchange their material

goods, services or intrinsic needs for appropriate or approximate

counter-performances.

Trust The partners share a common past with shared experience and an

anticipated common future. Exchange or cooperation is not based on

contracts but on trust.

SignificanceThere is an understanding that ones own success can be seen in the

benefit of a counterpart.

The essential

measure of the

success of the

Spaceship economyis not production and

consumption at all, but

the nature, extent,

quality, and

complexity of the total

capital stock, including

in this the state of the

human bodies and

minds included in the

system.

There is a broad field of various possible activities towards an sustainable entrepreneurship.

Activities are not restricted only to the interface between market of supply and demand and innovation of a new additional products.

Karl Polanyi described four archetype economic models:

Reciprocity: this exchange of goods and services takes place in

accordance with a principle of mutual obligations; the goods and services

are exchanged on the basis of pre-determined or freely negotiated relative

benefits.

(Re-)Distribution: Goods and services are collected in a determined

relationship, stored (as far as possible for the item in question), and

redistributed.

Market: this exchange of goods and services is based on a price

established through supply and demand.

Barter: this exchange process is based on the usability of the bartered

goods and services.

Niko Paech proposed four different economic-technological concepts:

Renovation: The reworking or refurbishment of existing goods for

the re-use or continued use.

Imitation: The adaptation /supplementing of an existing god by

transfer / adaptation / extension.

Exnovation: Taking an existing good out of use and

disassembling it into its parts.

Innovation: The development of a new additional good with all its

(production) technical pre-conditions.

There is a broad field of various possible activities towards an sustainable entrepreneurship.

Activities are not restricted only to the interface between market of supply and demand and innovation of a new additional products.

Human capitale.g. -Skills

-Communication skills- Power promoter

Social capital= Value of relationship

resources

.

The interdependency

of all members of such

networks put into

practice the reproduction

of the network by generating

the output of reusable

computers, bicycles or other goods.

The interaction between the

network partners and with

their meaningfully surroundings

builds up societal cohesion

and social capital

Conclusion•ReUse-networks contribute to a zero waste approach.

You can achieve a reduction of use of environment e.g. by the re-use of computers.

You save some 100 kg carbon dioxide even when you use a ReUse-Computer more than one year.

•You can develop – adjusted – economic models, reciprocity, supply and demand market and other economic principals are working

together. You have to develop such models to get access to a sustainable entrepreneurship moving.

•An appropriate way is to develop heterogeneous enterprise networks of SME and micro-enterprises.

Such networks are laboratories for an political economy of sustainable entrepreneurship and can be model for a

societal embedded economy.

Frank Becker

University of Technology Berlin

Centre for Co-operation (ZEK)

Co-operation and Consulting for Environmental Questions

(kubus)

FON: +49 (030) 314-26056

FAX: +49 (030) 314-24276

becker.reuse@zek.tu-berlin.de

kubus@zek.tu-berlin.de

www.reuse-velo.dewww.reuse-computer.de

www.tu-berlin.de/zek/kubus