Topic discussion - Looking at the Root Causes and the Big Picture of Sustainability

• Come up with few sub-topics
• Root causes or barriers to sustainability
• Religion -> habits & consciousness
• Scientific illiteracy or Ecological illiteracy
• As a developed nation - we are pretty ignorant - outside of US, average person is much more informed and much more global centric - incentive in the national level too
• Why should we do anything sustainable when I can do whatever I want? Why should I have to fix or pay for it?
• Lack of accountability
• Capitalism
• Critical mass
• Lack of willingness to rock the boat
• Great expectations for comfort
• Part of what we are seeing is the part of assumption that was inserted ages ago with infinite resources
• Short-long term thinking
• Before you thinking about long-term…
• Consumer culture …
• The way we define 'Growth'
• Trust - 'lack of trust' or 'too much trust'

• Which are the three big things we should fix?
• Short - term long term thinking
• Culture social pressures
• Accountability / accounting

• Education - how can we address this at education?

• Somewhere 'need' was replaced by 'want' and what is 'enough'

In many cases it’s a double edge source - diversity creates tention as well as it has the best opportunities as well!! Valuing value!!!
- Our system is set up for valuing some things… but not all… aligning the real value with our stake holder will be a better way to move

People don’t want to spoil where they live - its lack of awareness of the system! We need to spread that awareness .. Are we thinking of things nearly or are we thinking of things circularly?

Idea of people wanting more - happiness or difference in measuring success… if we measure success with happiness or something that doesn’t measure with growth!

Wheather this growth (what we define) can continue? Too many people on the planet - you cannot keep taking using and destroying the planet .. 2/3rd of India and china cannot meet their water needs by 2030

We kind of co-opted and redefined growth to the economic growth - we have to redefine the progress again!! -> How?

- We have to get very clear with what we need!
- Change is threatening!
- Growth and quality - it should be qualitative growth …

Internet space - there is a lot of conversation around abundance?

If people are paying real prices - then they will not buy huge houses or huge cars.

Think about where do these core beliefs or core values come from With respect to growth definition

- One solution is development issue. If GDP is the most important goal for all countries? How are you going to bring change in the value system?

Talking about 'big picture of sustainability' - the word 'sustainability' should not be there at all - that is how the businesses must be run - Sustainable!!

We have an outdated mental model - we need to begin to fix that mental model
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Design work

How do we redefine growth at organizational level as well as national level?

Think about what we have and draw something about where we need to go?

Draw a model where we think differently about the growth and not only have $$ on it!

- Rally young entrepreneurs against legacy
- May be as a generation or legacy - eg: solving the problem of malaria… its legacy we live!
- People need to start thinking about legacy at age of 20-30 and not when you are 60years old…

2 kinds of growths - one was general and profitable growth and the other is how much less harm we are doing to the environment! Concept of double top line - if you focus on doing more social good you will be more profitable! Could you propose an alternative capital market? Gross National Happiness Index

• Redefine progress from national perspective

Taking about double line, ultimately it has to be one thing…. Profit is not an indicator ...

• The bottom line of the business should be purpose!! Sense of visioning
• The real purpose is the purpose any business should have a real purpose!
• How you instrument that will have 2 to 3 indicators … profit,
• You have to relate it to a context!
• It didn’t really compel people! You wont be able to have credibility in people….
• Fine a different way to frame all those things……. Once done that imagine you will have points to contribute to nation's happiness

• Reconnected growth to purpose AND ____
• Should we go back to chartered corporations with charters that have to be renewed. The charter speaks to purpose.
• Business schools are part of the problem: they bought the internal return on invested capital as paramount measure because it was simple and teachable. Somehow it became God's law.
• We need to respect time cycles. It takes 9 months to have a baby no matter how many people you put on the job.
• Strategic inefficiency: there are places where you want to slow things down to optimize the performance of the whole.
• Should there be minimum time commitments of invested capital?

What's the best leverage point to shift this conversation around growth?

• If we have that kind of tremenderous concentration of power… its hard for this change to happen…

• It will take a people's movement to change this
• Political structure should be changed

• We do have alternative corporate structure
• Common element across the western culture is corporate governance

What's required to change this?

• Popular movement - retirement funds
• Alternative corporate structure - B corp, ex
• Alternative corporate market
• Terms limits on capital
• Growth of positive social value
• Not just "less Bad"

• Look to TEA PARTY Strategies
• Simple, compelling, narratives

• What are some of the organizing strategies
• Huge mass public relations campaign?