There’s a movement afoot!

No matter what you call it, there is momentum for a new kind of capitalism… a sustainable economy that is not dependent on depleting non-renewable resources and exploiting our fellow man. It goes by many names: Social entrepreneurship

Sustainable economics

Conscious capitalism

Green economics

Green business

Sustainable business

Corporate Social Responsibility

Socially Conscious business

B Companies

Capitalism 3.0

Sustainable Consumption

There are more buzzwords and acronyms, and they do have slightly different meanings. If I am an executive at a large multinational company, social entreprenuership represents different things than corporate social responsibility. From a big picture perspective though, they are similar.

There is a critical mass of people in the world building now that can see that our planet and population simply cannot maintain unsustainable systems for much longer. And there are enough people in that camp now that things are starting to move.

Some evidence of this movement could be the abundance of conferences on the subject, the recognition at the world economic forum to make Sustainable Economics a key pillar, the many different blogs on the subject and the appointment of people in the executive suite at large multinationals that are focused on sustainability. One thing is for sure, there is now pressure from the top (the C-Suite and global economic initiatives) and the bottom (entrepreneurs and small businesses; individual choices making a difference in large economies).

That tells me it’s a movement and not a fad. And I am happy the movement is here. What will you do to move it forward faster?

The Economics of Climate Change

I have worked in several areas of green business and things are getting better for sure. Nevertheless the bottom line that is stopping growth of clean energy use is the fact that it is free to pollute. When I have this discussion with friends that do not study this stuff on a daily basis we often end up in the same place. The friend claims that they want to do the right thing but it is just too expensive. If solar or wind were simply cheaper than coal, then that would have no problem buying solar or wind for their home.

Of course the discussion takes many turns. First I tell them that to buy solar or wind for their own home is like buying a power plant for the house. Right now they pay by the month because the central power plant was financed, so why not finance your own power plant?

Secondly though, I explain that the health and environmental costs are currently not figured in to existing pricing when buying energy from the grid that is usually produced from coal. I then go on to explain externalities. This usually takes at least one beer's worth of discussion for the non-financial types. Once they get it though, they see their energy in a whole new light.

Until there is a cost to energy, only a breakthrough technology will get us over the hump. The long but interesting article in the New York Times magazine is a great primer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html