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TEXT Satu Tähkä PHOTO Vesa Laitinen THE MANTRA of a circular economy has been repeated globally for decades. Philosopher and scientist Kenneth Boulding paved the way for the concept in his Spaceship Earth metaphor in 1966. Spaceship Earth is a world view where human beings must find their place in the cyclical, renewing ecological system. Now Boulding's theories are the words the world needs to live by. Even though we are aware of environmental challenges, such as climate change and the availability of food, the nature's own resources have annually been used up by August, leaving the world to increase its ecological debt for the rest of the year. "It is intellectual dishonesty to believe that sustainable development is possible with current operating models. We need new technologies, methods, and understanding to break the cycle of incurring a triple debt: consuming financial, economic and social capital simultaneously," states Lassi Linnanen, Professor of Environmental Management.