Organization · the method
ZERI, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives
Research network founded by Gunter Pauli in 1994 with the support of the United Nations and the Japanese government. The zero-waste methodology that structures the cases and principles of the Blue Economy.
The beginning of the adventure
ZERI was created on April 6, 1994 by Gunter Pauli under the direction of Prof. Dr. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, then Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo, to translate scientific ideas, visions and knowledge into concrete projects.
The philosophy is older than the institution: the network dates its first formulation of “zero emissions” to 1991. The institution gave it a frame, and the frame became a network. Since 2001 the ZERI Foundation has worked as an antenna in the global economy, with contacts across four continents and nearly two hundred projects over twenty years.
The founding question has not moved: to meet everyone's basic needs with locally available resources. Not by doing less damage, but by designing systems in which the waste of one process becomes food for another.
“The blue economy is ZERI's philosophy in action.”
Key markers
What ZERI stands for
The network describes itself in four images, and each one points to a real mechanism rather than a symbol.
Mushroom magic
ZERI means “mushroom magic”. In 2009 an American specialty coffee association recognised fifteen years of work in Colombia: prunings and unharvested coffee plant material are used to grow shiitake, creating around ten thousand jobs.
The wisdom of Nature
ZERI is inspired by the wisdom of Nature. The concept was refined project after project, from four design principles to five, and then into guidelines for human society.
The 5 Kingdoms of Nature
ZERI represents the five kingdoms of life. That is the key to the cascade: what has lost its value in one kingdom regains it in the next, exactly as in an ecosystem.
The power of algae
ZERI represents the power of algae, one of the network's starting points for rethinking food, energy and materials.
An open source commitment
“We have a deep ethical commitment to open source, because we believe that solutions for a better world cannot be transformed into proprietary know-how protected by non-disclosure agreements.”
The flagship projects
The families of projects the network itself puts forward. None of them is an isolated demonstration: each one connects industries that were not talking to each other.
Mushrooms
Teaching the cultivation of edible mushrooms to improve community health and well-being.
Bamboo
The design of a Guadua bamboo structure for Expo 2000 in Hanover, which inspires sustainable farm designs in the tropical Andean highlands.
Beer
In Namibia, Sweden, Canada and Japan, breweries convert brewing waste into valuable products, income and jobs.
Integrated agriculture
At Montfort Boys' Town in Fiji, a vocational school becomes a sustainable living centre for food and energy security.
Reforestation
In Colombia, a community regenerates biodiversity, produces drinking water and biodiesel, and closes its material loops.
Asphalt
Italian and Japanese companies bring unrelated industries together, starting from industrial waste streams.
Abalone
A link between shellfish farming and the cosmetics industry, creating value from the abundance of a local ecosystem.
Diapers
Sixty years of disposable diapers read as a Swedish initiative for quality of life and gender equality.
Carrots
Food security, social development, job creation and sustainability held together in one ordinary object.
A word about Las Gaviotas
The network's official page also lists Las Gaviotas among its reference cases. Credit is worth restoring: this village on the Vichada savanna, in Colombia, was founded and led by Paolo Lugari. ZERI and Gunter Pauli documented it and made it known, they did not create it.
The Las Gaviotas caseZERI and the Blue Economy
ZERI is the cradle. The principles say how to design, the case studies prove it holds up in the field, and ZERI is the research frame that turned intuition into a repeatable method. The network sums it up in one line: the Blue Economy is its philosophy in action.
Source · Official page of the ZERI Foundation as republished on the historic site theblueeconomy.org, French and English versions; Gunter Pauli, The Blue Economy 5.0, p. 440, for the support of the United Nations and the Japanese government.