口译练习 Day 15：Circular Economy

2018-02-23 译匠

What Is the Circular Economy?

Here’s an idea. What if you never had to buy a lightbulb again? Instead, you lease light, like you lease a car or an apartment. It’s just one idea that’s part of the circular economy.

Before we can understand the circular economy, well, it helps to define the linear economy.

Most organizations today operate in the linear economy, which is based on a ‘take, make, and dispose’ model. So, for example, a lightbulb company takes resources, like glass or metal, to manufacture its products. The company makes the bulb and sells it to a customer like me who uses it. Once the lightbulb burns out, I dispose of it. It’s likely neither the company nor I will ever see that lightbulb again.

For a lightbulb company to make money in the linear economy, it tries to buy materials for the lowest cost possible and to sell as many bulbs as possible. This model operates as if there are infinite resources, like glass or metal, in the world.

But you and I know that’s not the case. That’s why the circular economy treats materials like they’re finite.

A company in the circular economy doesn’t just recycle products but maintains ownership of them all along, so the model looks more like this: ‘make, use and return’. Let’s go back to the lightbulb example.

Instead of buying bulbs, this office in London leases its light from Philips Lighting. It signed a 15-year lease for the service and pays a fee each quarter. Philips still owns the actual lightbulbs and provides maintenance and replacements when needed, no extra cost. This model gives Philips the incentive to produce energy-efficient lightbulbs and it saves the office money with fixed lighting costs.

It’s a radically different business model that makes companies more like service providers than sellers of a physical product. And it turns out lots of companies are looking for ways to get involved.

Take H&M, one of the world’s largest clothing retailers. It’s working on a strategy to become 100 percent circular. The company collects old garments in its stores and recycles them. Since 2013, H&M says it has gathered more than 55,000 tons of fabric to reuse for new garments.

Some governments are getting on board with the circular economy, too. The European Union adopted an action plan in 2015 aiming to make supply chains, you guessed it, more circular. This includes everything from production to consumption, repair and manufacturing, and waste management. The point isn’t just to become more ‘green’ and create environmental benefits, there could be economic benefits, too. One report estimated a shift toward the circular economy in the E.U. could increase GDP by an additional 12 percentage points by 2050.

But, moving from the linear economy to the circular economy also brings costs. Companies would need to redesign their supply chains and products in order for them to be used again and again. Manufacturers might be burdened when it comes to the actual logistics of disposing and recycling. A recent report found only 22 percent of U.K. companies are trying to generate value from products that are returned for reuse, recycling or refurbishing. It’s estimated the cost of transitioning to a fully efficient reuse and recycling system across Europe could be as much as 108 billion euros, roughly 130 billion dollars.

Cost is one thing. Changing people’s mindsets is another. And that’s what it’ll take for the circular economy to go from an idea to reality for everyone.

打卡任务清单：

必做的标配打卡任务，可提高英语听力、提高翻译能力；

可选的高配打卡任务，可练习口译笔记、提高口译能力。

标配打卡任务清单：

1 集中注意力仔细听一遍英文音频/视频，有意识地抓句子主干、概括大意；

2 看视频/听音频进行跟读影子练习；

3 再听一遍音频/视频，边听边做口译笔记；

4 对照文本记下文中没听懂和没看懂的发音和术语含义（通过在线搜索，积累专业术语储备）。

5 选一段你认为代表整个文本核心内容的句子进行笔译练习，以双语对照的形式贴在评论区。

高配打卡任务清单：

1 集中注意力仔细听一遍英文音频/视频，基础好的可以直接边听边练习记笔记；

2 看视频/听音频进行跟读影子练习；