sustainable-future Archives

19th June 2020

What is a sustainable product?

How do you know if a product of service is sustainable?
What is a sustainable product?
How do you go about defining, designing and developing a sustainable product? In this article we explore these questions and the things you need to consider and ask are any products currently sustainable?

20th December 2019

2020 Sustainability Issues

What will be the big sustainability issues in 2020? Each year we look to identify the emerging and fast-moving sustainability issues (here are 2019’s) we believe will shape sustainable business practice. In 2020 these are not wholly new, but existing issues continue to gather momentum, move from the edge to the mainstream or become the […]

25th May 2018

Act now for sustainability! Should companies be activists?

Sustainability is a transformative agenda. It requires companies to not only develop new priorities, but also to become corporate activists – to act to affect the wider system within which they operate.

28th February 2018

The sustainability of profit – stop looking back

Profit isn’t very useful for measuring sustainability, or even for telling us much about economic viability. Why? Because profit is a lagging indicator and sustainability is inherently about long-termism. Delivering sustainability requires forward-looking indicators.

31st January 2018

Sustainable Finance – workshop report

In September 2017, we ran a Towards 9 Billion workshop on sustainable finance, to explore how the finance sector could build a sustainable future. To get the workshop report contact us.

27th September 2017

How might the financial system build a sustainable future?

A sustainable financial system requires both rethinking the very nature of value, as well as creativity in how we would project that value over time.

31st August 2017

Population & consumption: where’s the problem?

Alongside the challenges to sustainability we already face, there is growing concern about how these might accelerate in the future. One key issue is population growth and its impacts, but should the scale of humanity be seen as a threat or as an opportunity?

31st March 2017

It’s the end of the world…but I don’t care

Ignoring the state of the planet is like ignoring the state of our house…except that when the walls fall down we won’t have anywhere else to move to.

31st January 2017

2017 – What are the big sustainability issues?

Business sustainability continues to grow but are you focussing on what’s important? What big sustainability issues should you pay attention to in 2017?

20th December 2016

When all around is broken – maintaining optimism for sustainability

Sustainability practitioners need ways to maintain optimism, celebrate small successes but also keep an eye on the scale of change required.

30th June 2016

Towards 9 Billion books – out now!

Our free Towards 9 Billion books series. Big hopeful, playful ideas for a sustainable, equitable future.

29th January 2016

Rejuvenative innovation – building a flourishing future

A short overview of one of the key themes of Towards 9 Billion – the need and hope for rejuvenative innovation towards a sustainable, equitable future.

17th December 2015

From the stars…post-scarcity economics & energy as a human right

Energy as a human right…what could we achieve if our ambition was not constrained by the impacts and availability of energy?

16th November 2015

Absolute beginnings – the rise of sustainability context

Contextual analysis is not new, but conventional approaches ignore the real big picture. Sustainability context is on the rise and about time too!

21st October 2015

Truth and reason – Natural philosophy for sustainability

Natural philosophy for sustainability – science must recombine with its philosophical component to deliver the future we want.

30th September 2015

Biodiversity – there is no wealth but life

Biodiversity is one of the current buzz words in corporate sustainability. What is it, what does it mean for you and is it time for a radical reappraisal?

28th July 2015

Questions for a sustainable world

Unless we ask the big questions, we won’t find the answers which meet the scale of the challenge we face.

29th June 2015

Against a dark background – the limits of certainty

A sustainable future depends upon our ability to perceive the limits of certainty, and to embrace the uncertainty that has always been there.

29th May 2015

A planetisation of finance: The Earth as a going concern

The motivation behind multi-capitals approaches is to highlight their value to the economy. Why not focus upon the value of the planet as a going concern?

28th April 2015

Utility – the fundamental metric of social impact

Defining and delivering true social utility requires a fundamental perspective and approach to assessing the purpose of enterprise in the first place.