Architect and founder of Turntoo, Thomas Rau proposes rethinking the concept of linear, infinite economic growth. How? By giving materials a passport, so that waste can once again become resources.
"The planet? It's a limited edition. As are the resources we have available", opens Thomas Rau during his talk at Klimahouse in Bolzano. The vision of the architect, founder of Turntoo and author of "Material Matters. L'importanza della materia", is both objective and far-sighted. It is not a new concept for those in the sector, but it is practical and functional, expressed not only in his writings but also in practice. Rau was indeed the first architect to design a "circular" building, nearly ten years ago now — when the circular economy was still a concept known only to a few.
On a planet of finite resources yet committed to growth, we have reached a historic moment in which materials and products that are discarded at the end of their life cause a short circuit. This happens because natural resources are a "finite" and "determined" entity. With this in mind, Rau speaks of "extended producer responsibility", meaning that the producer of goods and services must take responsibility for the consequences their actions have on the entire system. This is the origin, in 2010, of the Turntoo model — "a model in which power and responsibility are no longer separated, not even temporarily. It is a model in which the producer knows that the consequences of their actions will fall on them: they remain the owner of the product, and therefore of the materials used to produce it."
From this comes the concept of product as a service. I no longer buy a car; I hire one to take me from A to B: ownership stays with the producer, as does its management. It is one version of what is also known as the "sharing economy", where it is no longer ownership that gives value to a product, but rather the possibility of using it. To illustrate this idea, Rau recounts the case in which, during the renovation of the Dutch offices of his architecture practice, he persuaded Philips to take responsibility for both the lighting and the supply of light bulbs.
"I wanted high-quality lighting, and for that I turned to Philips, but I decided I didn't want to own the lamps. I just want the light," he told the company. "The electricity bill for the light is Philips's too, of course. Your lamps don't work without electricity — they're designed that way — but I ordered only the light, nothing else." At that point the company completely rethought its lighting design, delivering a solution that required fewer bulbs and less electricity to provide the same "service". A new revenue model had been born: Pay per Lux, or Light as a Service (LaaS), since promoted by Philips worldwide as Circular Lighting (pp. 89 – Material Matters, Ed. Ambiente).
Starting from the idea that our economy must be reformed so that "everything we have in limited supply (raw materials, materials and land) becomes continuously usable", Rau explains that "we must decouple economic growth and wellbeing from the consumption of raw materials. The concept of product as a service can reduce waste, as has been shown, but it is not enough." Hence the idea of a "materials passport" — a kind of identity card for materials, a way of preventing materials from slipping into anonymity as waste or being lost altogether. But how? The first sector in which Rau's idea was put into practice is construction: "If materials are inventoried in advance, it is possible to adapt construction and design techniques so that an entire building can be dismantled; this means that all materials, without any loss of value, can be recovered." Circular economy by definition. But once materials have been given a passport, they need to be registered in a kind of public, centralised land registry.
So in 2017 Rau and his collaborators launched the Madaster, an acronym combining "Cadastre" and "Material", an online database in which the identity and temporary location of materials are documented in the form of materials passports. "In this way," explains Rau, "we can be certain that the identity of materials can actually be recognised and traced." Since September 2017 the platform has been online and accessible to anyone — private individuals, companies, public administrations and researchers — and today it is present in 10 countries with the active participation of dozens of companies. An unmistakable sign of the change that is under way.