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When nature's might collides with the artistry of design

Latin America has five circular design stories to tell.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Milena Lumini, Latin America Content Coordinator, and Victoria Almeida, Latin America Communications Manager

The natural landscapes and resources of Latin America and the Caribbean region are vast and diverse, ranging from lush tropical rainforests in Costa Rica to the savannah-like Brazilian Cerrado all the way down to Patagonian glaciers. The region is home to 40% of the world's biodiversity and half of the world's tropical forests, including the Amazon, which is home to one out of every ten known species.

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It does, however, have significant rates of deforestation and resource extraction. Latin America has positioned itself as a significant exporter of primary resources over the years, driven by commodity demand. The UN Environment Programme has recognized the consequent intensification of agriculture, expansion of agricultural lands, and increased mining operations as important local drivers of deforestation, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

This raises the question of whether and how natural resource economic prospects may be realized while still having a good impact on the region's ecosystem. And the answer rests in the circular economy's three guiding principles: reducing waste and pollution, reusing products and materials, and regenerating natural systems.

Designers play a vital role in putting these ideals into action. Design decisions help ecosystems give back more than they take away. When designers use circular design concepts to create goods and business models, they create economic opportunities from local natural resources while also conserving ecosystem health.

Five real-life examples from Latin America demonstrate the breadth of these possibilities.

Local ecosystems and culinary innovation can both benefit from food design. What and how crops are produced, what people eat, and what is discarded are all determined by the decisions made up until the moment a food product lands on a plate or a supermarket shelf. These choices, which are made by food designers, have a direct impact on biodiversity. Despite the existence of hundreds of thousands of edible species, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that only 12 crops and five animal species account for 75% of our worldwide food intake. Latin American food designers are utilizing local biodiversity as a significant source of culinary innovation by employing circular economy concepts, creating demand for a wider range of native species and supporting agricultural practices that benefit local ecosystems.



The spines of nopales are picked off by a lady. Unsplash photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández

Pujol's award-winning chef Enrique Olvera helped put the Mexican nopal cactus on the culinary map, and now he's supporting its production in the biodiversity-rich area of Xochimilco, where Aztec structures ('chinampas') laid over protected wetlands carry organic polycultures and contribute to the local ecosystem's fertility. In the face of urban growth, local chefs, such as Olvera, are incorporating local ingredients into their menus to help Xochimilco farmers maintain stable demand and speed their adoption of agroecological practices. This helps to maintain a broad and deliciously healthy ingredient supply while also safeguarding this important urban ecology.

This is likewise true with the Corrutela restaurant in So Paulo. Fresh ingredients from agroecological family farming in the rural south of the city, an area that retains vestiges of Atlantic Forest vegetation and vital water springs that supply the Brazilian megacity, are the starting point for chef Cesar Costa's sumptuous "vegetable-centric cuisine." Supporting these peri-urban farmers and allowing them to choose what they cultivate helps to protect the city's rural territory from urban sprawl pressures by keeping it productive and healthy.



Farmers from Parelheiros organize produce for distribution in the city center of So Paulo. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Ellen MacArthur

Biomaterial innovation has the potential to provide distinct competitive advantages. Resources utilized for purposes other than food have a plethora of unique features with economic significance. Traditional peoples have exploited and conserved much of this potential. Large corporations are now delving into this information and collaborating with communities to help scale these models and develop goods that are better for people and the environment.

This is the case with Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company that helps reveal the valuable cosmetic characteristics of many plant species by combining scientific science and traditional knowledge from local Amazonian communities. Natura's supply chain contains around 40 types of plant-derived substances collected through collaboration with 7,000 local families, and this has historically been a primary innovation driver for the company. Because fruits and seeds are integrated into cosmetics value chains, the forest creates more economic value for local communities when it is standing than than when it is deforested for timber products, encouraging more regenerative practices.

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Disruptive innovation can also be fueled by local species. Desserto's founders, Mexican designers Adrián López Velarde and Marte Cázerez, have created a vegan leather produced from the Mexican nopal cactus. Cactus leather, like bovine and synthetic leather, may be used to make garments, shoes, purses, and furniture, but without destroying natural landscapes in the process. The nopal cactus is native to the Mexican state of Zacatecas, where it has a symbiotic connection with other local species and serves as a natural carbon sink. Desserto grows them in a perennial manner with no chemical inputs, harvesting only the mature leaves of the cactus plant each time. Part of the manufacturing goes into a line of vegan leather products produced with partners like H&M, and the rest is sent to the nearby food sector to be used as efficiently as possible.



Unsplash photo by Sunira Moses

Another circular design invention, the Totomoxtle, was inspired by Mexican native plants. It is a veneer constructed from the husks of typical colorful Mexican corn. Fernando Laposse, a designer, created this material and uses it to produce a range of unique-toned furniture and installations, providing a high-value purpose for this inedible byproduct. This, however, is only one side of the story. Native Mexican corn plantations are gradually being replaced by hybrid corn varieties to provide foreign markets due to global demand pressures for standard maize. Laposse urges family farmers to reintroduce native seeds and really benefit from them by incorporating them into his furniture designs. Totomoxtle also contributes to the creation of greater work prospects for local people, as the husks are processed into veneering material by local women.

Designing for and with nature. Although Latin America's unique biodiversity and natural resources are one of its greatest assets, examples like those highlighted in this article have yet to become the norm. Harnessing the creative potential of local biodiversity through technologies that also assist preserve and restore ecosystem health is a huge opportunity. Collaboration with local communities could also yield a wealth of knowledge on valuable properties and production models, resulting in more diffused and inclusive enterprises. Applying circular economy ideas to product, company, and value chain design provides a useful foundation for solutions that benefit business, society, and the environment.