Nutrient Cycling
Companies practicing circular economy principles aim to mimic the closed-loop nutrient cycling that sustains natural ecosystems.
The forest teaches that long-term persistence requires closing loops, treating outputs as inputs, and designing systems where waste from one process becomes resource for another.
Nutrient cycling is the continuous movement of chemical elements through ecosystems. Elements flow from inorganic forms to organic compounds in living organisms, back to inorganic forms through decomposition, and into living organisms again. Nutrients don't disappear; they cycle. Ecosystems function as nearly closed systems where most nutrients are recycled internally rather than imported from external sources.
The old-growth forest demonstrates this circular economy at massive scale. Trees take up nutrients from soil, incorporate them into wood, leaves, and roots, and eventually return them through leaf litter, dead roots, and fallen trees. Herbivores consume plant tissue, assimilate some nutrients, and return others through waste. Predators consume herbivores, similarly cycling nutrients. Decomposers break down all dead organic matter, completing the cycle.
Business Application of Nutrient Cycling
Sustainable systems must close loops - transitioning from linear resource flows (extract-use-discard) to circular flows (use-return-reuse), treating waste as misplaced resources, and designing systems where outputs become inputs in continuous cycles. Companies practicing circular economy principles aim to mimic the closed-loop nutrient cycling that sustains natural ecosystems.