Monday, February 05, 2007

Beyond Sustainability. Regeneration







Sustainability is Only Half the Solution, Regeneration is the Other Half. That is the subject of Carol Sanford's lecture at MIT. The lecture is available as streaming video from MIT World.

Here is the premise of her lecture. Imagine inhabiting Earth as a business. The success of any business lies in these basic principles. Income more than expenditure. Good rate of return on investment. When it comes to inhabiting Earth, are we following these basic business principles ? If the current rate of resource depletion is any indication, we are extremely bad at it.

Carol Sanders makes the point that if inhabiting Earth were to be a successful business, we need to think beyond sustainability and start thinking in terms of regeneration.

She talks about her experiences consulting for various Fortune 500 companies. Dupont's Titanium Dioxide business model, I thought was interesting. Listen to the entire lecture here

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The earth does not belong to man... man belongs to the earth" -Chief Seattle

I just noticed this. So very true.

Yes, regeneration is very important too. Because, the 'expenditure' levels are soaring implying that we need to regenerate to be able to sustain.

In response to your question, i had commented.
[Low population growth is certainly one of the variables associated with economic development. I feel that the relative importance of low negative growth [towards economic development] is not much if there are proper and efficient public service systems in place. What do you think?]

BenSchott said...

Just to add one point:

Keep in mind the very anthropocentric viewpoint of this lecture...although I have to say: A VERY EXCELLENT EDUCATIONAL PIECE. brilliant!