DAME Ellen MacArthur will be in Glasgow on 1 March to challenge and inspire local young people to rethink, redesign and build a positive future.
The city hosts the first in a series of ‘Project Re-Design’ events across the UK run by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Teams of students aged 16-18 will be challenged to turn the UK’s ‘waste to landfill’ problem into a potential opportunity by re-thinking the way the system works.
One team from Glasgow will win a fully funded internship with one of the Foundation’s FTSE 100 founding partners: B&Q, BT and CISCO, National Grid and Renault.
MacArthur says: “I am looking forward to working with young people in Glasgow.
“Our aim is to provide a framework within which to be creative and innovative, looking at future product design, transport, energy and communications.
“Our economy is still based on a liner ‘take-make-dispose’ model. We want young people leaving school understanding the huge opportunities a re-thought future can offer.”
Says a spokesperson: “Ten years on from her Vendée Globe solo, non-stop round the world race, MacArthur is working with education and business to support a re-design revolution.
“The yachtswoman has spent over four years engaging with government, business, NGOs and the public sector.
“The ‘Circular Economy’ approach endorsed by her Foundation, in which waste becomes food for another cycle or process rather than simply thrown away, is gaining increasing international interest both in education and the business community.”
For more on Project Re-Design visit: www.made2bmadeagain.org
For further information on The Ellen MacArthur Foundation visit: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
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Notes to editors
Interviews with Ellen MacArthur on 01 March 2011 at the Glasgow Science Centre are available on request.
About The Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
Sailing solo around the world, Ellen MacArthur realised that her record breaking achievement was not only the culmination of one dream but the beginning of another.
She knew first hand that when you race solo around the globe you take with you the minimum of resources and you manage them down to the last drop of diesel, last packet of food – a light boat is a fast boat, to mis-manage is to lose or worse.
It became clear to her that on land things were not so different.
This inspired Ellen to find out about more and she came to realise that is it is not just a question of using less and less to make finite resources last a few more years but more about a complete re-think so that resources are used, not used up and products are made to be made again – hence the vision of a circular economy.
She has created the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to help further this vision so that the next generation of students and business people will have both the knowledge and the framework to make this a reality.
www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
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eross@goodrelations.co.uk
Katie Bergius
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kbergius@goodrelations.co.uk
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