In addition to highlighting the work of ZERI Education, we feel it is critical to help people get more involved, to take real action - to get connected. Here are some simple things you can do to help create deep and positive change around ZERI Education.
Read more.
These readings are essential to learning more about ZERI Education.
Donate now. Click here to donate to help support the goals of the ZERI Education project.
ZERI Learning
Who is Günter Pauli?
Günter Pauli is a world-renowned sustainability educator whose entrepreneurial activities span business, culture, science, politics and the environment. He is dedicated to design and implement a society and industries, which respond to people’s needs using what is available from nature. Pauli is fluent in seven languages, with a masters degree in business administration from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Pauli has lived on four continents and is a true world citizen.
Pauli is the founder and director of ZERI [Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives] – a network of 3,000 scientists focusing on creative solutions for pressing problems – and the redesign of production and consumption into clusters of industries. A keynote speaker at the launch of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Pauli leads over 50 ZERI major projects throughout the world.
Pauli was President of Ecover from 1991 – 1993 and built the first ecological factory featured on CNN prime time news. Pauli also served as Founder and Chairman of PPA Holding and the Secretary General European Business Press Federation [UPEF].
Author of “Upsizing: More Income, More Jobs And No Waste” Pauli is now dedicated to the completion of "From Fairy Tales to Reality": 36 stories that recount some 1,500 scientific principles – all of which have been certified by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. These 'fables' provide us with a groundbreaking, sustainability-based curriculum that can be modified for grades K - 12.
Pauli is the recipient of many awards including the “One of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in the World” [1983] the “Global 500 Award of the United Nations,” [1993]; the “Global Leader of Tomorrow” elected by World Economic Forum [1994] and the Fuji TV “Special Global Environment Award” [2005] , He has written more than 200 newspaper and science articles and sixteen books – which have been printed in 27 languages.
In 1985, Pauli was the Co-Organizer of the World Youth Summit in Hiroshima with the Japan Junior Chamber bringing 40 young leaders under 40. In 1995, Pauli organized the first Internet Summit, a one hour web-based video debate with Nelson Mandela, President Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres and Elie Wiesel, held in conjunction with the “Future of Hope” Conference in Hiroshima, hosted by the Asahi Newspaper of Japan. In 2000, he constructed, built and operated the ZERI Pavilion at the World Expo in Germany, introducing bamboo as a German approved building material, visited by 6.4 million persons over 5 months.
What is ZERI?
In 1991, Pauli launched the concept of zero waste and zero emissions for industry through the clustering of activities at his detergent factory, Ecover, in Belgium. While he was instrumental in the construction one of the world’s first ‘green’ factories he failed in his ecological mission. The main reason for the failure was that these biodegradable products relied mainly on ingredients derived from palm oil plantations. The switch to biodegradable ingredients helped to clean up the rivers in Europe but spurred the destruction of the rainforest in South East Asia. In order to meet demand for palm oil derivatives, the rainforest was clear-cut and planted with a monoculture of palm trees. Günter resolutely decided to study natural systems, looking for the connections between apparently unrelated phenomena.
The goal of the Zero Emissions Research Initiatives [ZERI] is to respond to people’s needs with what they already have, by seeking inspiration from natural systems where several and highly diverse species cluster together and nothing is wasted. Furthermore, in nature no species consumes its own waste. Whatever is waste for a species of one kingdom of nature is of value to a species from another kingdom. In nature, five kingdoms [bacteria, algae, fungus, plants and animals] always cluster together integrating and separating materials, leaving nothing behind and responding to all basic needs. The ZERI experience has shown that when our industrial systems replicate these same high levels of systemic efficiency, we create more profitable and sustainable businesses. Pauli’s groundbreaking vision is to view waste as a resource and seek solutions using nature’s design principles as inspiration.
The intention of ZERI is to create a network of systems-orientated scientists and use the Internet as a tool for allowing them to identify and promote innovative solutions to pressing problems related to water, food, shelter, health, energy, education and jobs.
The ZERI Foundation has crystallized a clear image of an emerging business model. This model is inextricably linked to a societal model that is capable of responding to the basic needs of all within it while respecting the immutable laws of nature.
It is clear that few possess the skills necessary to put this vision into practical action. After all, no one ever taught us how to learn to live. This is where ZERI Learning begins.
What is ZERI Learning?
One definition of stupidity is “expecting different results from the same behavior.”
Behavior is, after all informed by education. The ZERI Learning initiative is based on the scientific understanding that in nature everything is interconnected and nothing is wasted. It has become clear, that unless we begin to adapt human behavior so that it replicates the efficiency and innovations of natural systems that surround us, we are bound to fail in our quest to create a sustainable and restorative society.
Many scientists give us a 20-year window of opportunity to affect changes to ensure the survival of the planet. The ZERI Learning initiative is therefore aimed at young people. It is imperative that the next generation is endowed with the necessary knowledge to make new and wise decisions. After all, as Pauli demonstrates, “If we only teach our children what we were taught, then we can only expect them to do as poorly as we have.”
For thousands of years, mankind has passed on accumulated knowledge and wisdom to succeeding generations through the use of stories. This understanding led Pauli to create an educational program entitled "From Fairy Tales to Reality." This K – 12 educational program consists of 36 fables. Embedded in the storylines of the fables are 1,500 scientific principles, all of which have been certified by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Together they create a new paradigm of nature and mankind’s place within it.
ZERI Learning calls for innovation in what we teach – and the way we teach it. "From Fairy Tales to Reality" offers the chance to familiarize oneself with science, to develop emotional intelligence, to value and nurture imagination, to ignite artistic vision, to uncover and understand the hidden connections amongst disparate phenomena, and to strengthen the capacity to implement innovative ideas and projects.
Unless we can live – and learn – within natural systems where there are millions of hidden connections [and therefore millions of diverse solutions] we are bound to fall short of our objectives to create a more sustainable society. ZERI Learning teaches that doing “less bad” to accomplish “more good” [think: recycling] is not a sustainable philosophy. ZERI Learning empowers people of all ages to move from ideas into action.
6,000 teachers have been trained in the ZERI Learning model. In turn, 300,000 children worldwide have been taught the ZERI principles in countries such as Japan, Sweden, Germany, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, United Kingdom and here in the United States – in New York, Colorado and New Mexico.
Click here to order Gunter Pauli’s “Bioneers by the Bay” Conference plenary presentation: “Systems in Action; The End of Core Business and Core Competence”
contact details: ZERI Learning Marion Institute 202 Spring Street Marion, MA 02738
Günter Pauli is a world-renowned sustainability educator whose entrepreneurial activities span business, culture, science, politics and the environment. He is dedicated to design and implement a society and industries, which respond to people’s needs using what is available from nature. Pauli is fluent in seven languages, with a masters degree in business administration from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Pauli has lived on four continents and is a true world citizen. 