In this special two-part episode, we hear from the founding father of the Performance Economy Dr. Walter Stahel. In today’s episode (Part One), we learn about Walter’s background, how his work on the performance economy began, and his experience finding arguments to convince people that buying performance rather than products makes sense for business as well as the environment. I also announce the winner of our special book giveaway in collaboration with Catherine Weetman! Resources and links discussed in this episode are available at www.gettinginthelooppodcast.com . ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST Dr. Walter R. Stahel is founder and director of the Product-Life Institute (Switzerland), the oldest established consultancy in Europe devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies. He is a visiting professor at the University of Surrey (UK), a full member of the Club of Rome, and author of numerous publications,, including his recent book The Circular Economy: A User’s Guide. HIGHLIGHTS 4:30 Walter’s background and how he became passionate about the performance economy 10:00 How to create wealth and wellbeing with much less resource consumption 14:30 Best practice examples of performance business cases 19:30 Behind the scenes with the fascinating story of single use cameras 21:00 Social benefits from creating performance business models 24:30 What has surprised Walter the most over the past forty years