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A Historical Perspective on Sustainability & Human
Potential
Belo Horizonte August 2011
Brian Milani GreenEconomics.net
York U. Faculty of Environmental Studies
OISE, U. of Toronto
Green City Construction
Eco-Materials Project
Social Change TodayStrategic priority of ALTERNATIVES
over opposition.Community as the key locus for
change, but every level requires action
Need for long-term VISIONNeed for incremental change and
PIONEER ENTERPRISES in ecological economic succession.
Need for incentives/disincentives thoughout the entire economy.
The Green Economy:a Redesign, not simply limits
Direct focus on human (& environmental) need
The Service Economy:Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) encouraging provision of
services not stuff.
Servicizing (voluntary EPR).
The “Lake Economy”: economic biomimicry:sectoral orientation: regenerative food, energy, manufacturing, c
ommunications.
Disarming the autonomous power of money: means, not end
New forms of economic security
Conscious support of the Commons: ecosystems, public spaces, electronic commons
Support for Real Wealth creation everywhere: Informal Economy
Building a community/ecosystem base: localization.
Common Sense Economics
Herman Daly “Trade Recipes,
not Cookies.”
Increase restrictions on the flow of material goods and physical capital (to minimize transport costs, etc.)
Lessen restrictions on the flow of information and culture.
note:
Globalization does exactly the opposite: via free trade and intellectual property law.
Localization• LOIS vs. TINA• Local First not “buy
local”• Multipliers• Employment• Stability / security
– Peak Oil / Corporate Mobility
• Quality of Life• Efficiency
The Green Economy
• A Historical Transition: …from Quantity to Quality
• A Question of Potentials …not simply limits
• Key to Sustainability: Redefining Wealth
Redefining Wealth
Quantitative: Money & Material
Accumulation
Qualitative: Well-being
Regeneration
Green as Postindustrial
• from mechanics to organics• from machinery to the landscape• culture-based development• substitutes intelligence for resources
(people-intensive)• focuses on end-use, or human and
environmental need• from quantity to quality: redefining
wealth
The Centrality of the Landscape
“The industrial age replaced the natural processes of the landscape with the global machine…while regenerative design seeks now to replace the machine with landscape.”
…John Tillman Lyle
Human Development in the Green Economy
• Production: human creativity the key
• Consumption: “end-use” Direct targeting of human need = massive resource savings
• Regulation: participation at all levels.
Labour & Resource Relationship
• Industrial economy: resource-intensive. labour productivity: Substitutes resources for labour.
• Green Economy: people-intensive / resource-saving. Substitutes human creativity for resources
Scarcity, Class Power & Waste
• War production, suburbanization and effective demand.
• Waste of resources
• Waste of human potential
Propping Up Effective Demand in North America after WW II
• The Waste Economy: suburbanization, permanent war economy. The artificial reproduction of scarcity. The Effluent Society.
• The Paper Economy: planned inflation and the establishment of the debt-based economy. The economic treadmill.
The Post WW II Waste Economy
Permanent War Economy
The Suburb Economy: Oil / Autos /
SubdivisionsNote gender and racial subtext of sprawl
“The greatest misallocation of resources in human history.” …James Howard Kunstler
Fordism & the Reinforcement of Industrial Wealth
Matter
Waste
Fordism
Suburbanization/ Consumer Economy
War Industry
Money
Debt
Keynesianism
Paper Economy
Planned Inflation
New forms of credit-money
Post-Fordist Casino Economy (post 1980)
• new technologies & Megabyte Money• financialization of economy: sector 30-50
times (?) larger than the material economy• Speculation: Stomp the weak / Get rich
quick• Empty wealth creation: de facto
redistribution of wealth from poor to rich.• The End of Mass Consumption & rise of new
“producer services”: new forms of ‘effective demand’.
• Polarization of work and society– end of social contracts: attack on Welfare
State
– McJobs: from GM to Wal-Mart
– The Great Risk Shift: more economic insecurity for almost everyone.
Source: Magdoff , 2008: calculated from tables L.1 and L.2; Flow of Funds Accounts of the US; and table B-78 from the 2006 Economic Report of the President
The Global Casino: Hijacking the Information Revolution
• expansion of employment in speculative industry– Wall St.: more advanced technologically than
the military.
• Bubble Economies: last ‘frontiers’ for capitalist growth.
-stock crash of 1987
-tech stock bubble of late 90s
-housing bubble of 2001-07• Housing speculation: most destructive &
exploitative of the poor & average people.
The Soft Energy Path
• A flexible diverse mix of energy supply • Primacy of Renewable energy sources • Focus on END-USE, on Conservation, and on
efficiency of use • Energy matched to the task at hand in both
Quality and Scale • Participation-oriented structure--in both
production and consumption • People-intensive development and Job-
creation
End-Use & the Green Economy
1. The Service Economy“Hot Showers and Cold Beer”
Nutrition, Illumination, Entertainment, Access, Shelter, Community, etc.
2. The “Lake Economy”Economic Biomimicry, flowing with nature,
Every output an input, Closed-loop organization, Let nature do the work
The Economy in Loops
Industrial Ecology & Service• Ecosystem model: nature-imitating• Industrial ecostructure: Reuse-based Manufacturing• entails new levels of producer liability• reduces both the flow of resources and their speed through the
economy• encourages local/regional economies, and• facilitates high skill levels
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• designing ownership patterns to achieve stewardship
• a positive form of accountability that can “change the DNA” of corporate entities
• closes loops and encourages service production
• takes different forms in different industries and situations.
Expressions OF EPR
• Product take back for waste management• Life-cycle partnerships for waste management• Materials selection• Materials management• Extended environmental management programs• Leasing systems• Delivering service and function instead of products• Design-for-the-environment programs• Environmental purchasing
Market Transformation
• Social & Environmental Values become drivers of “mindful markets”
• Money & capital increasingly a means (not the end-goal) of economic development
• Involves the transformation of regulation —incentives & disincentives built into everyday economic life
Distributed Regulation• Need for incentives &
disincentives embedded in everyday production & exchange.
• 3rd Party certification systems as non-state regulation.
• Finance & taxation as regulation• Power of “collective consumerism”• B-Corp: certification of corporate
governance: changing corporate DNA
• Ownership tailored to stewardship and democracy.
A Dashboard for the Cockpit
The ‘Family’ of indicators:– Urban Metabolism or regional mass balance– Green GDP (e.g. Genuine Progress Indicator—GPI )– Ecological Footprint– Carbon accounting / carbon footprint– Life-cycle Assessment (products, processes, landscapes)– Industry-based accounts: food, building, forestry, etc.– ISO 14000– Local Development Standards– 5 ‘capitals’: personal, professional, spiritual, environmental
and financial– Firm sustainability accounting– Risk Assessment, EIA, etc.
– Sustainable Community Indicators
Dimensions of ‘Real’ Economic Strategy
• Focus on production for needs; devise means to do this
• Integrate formal / informal economies: home-based production—food, energy, craft, reuse, and community-design to support it
• Target key areas of conventional waste and inefficiency for paid work: retrofit, renovation, deconstruction, reuse centres, local-sustainable food, horticulture.
• Transform conventional work on green principles—every job and sector
• Downsize destructive & parasitic sectors: financial, advertising/propaganda, incarceration
Dimensions of Strategy II• Transform unionism: based on the
purpose of work and nature of wealth--community-based
• Transform business & markets: – new drivers for regeneration (based on real
rather than financial objectives)– new forms of stewardship– new forms of ownership & participation
• disarm the totalitarian power of money scarcity
• end debt-based money system, erode speculative finance
• decommodify knowledge: strengthen the electronic commons
Living in De-Material World
Redesign not simply controlsDirect focus on human (& environmental) need
The Service Economy:Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
encouraging provision of services not stuff.
Servicizing (voluntary EPR).
The “Lake Economy”: economic biomimicry:sectoral orientation: regenerative food, energy,
manufacturing, c ommunications.
New forms of economic security
Conscious support of the Commons
Disarming the autonomous power of money
Building a community/ecosystem base: localization.
Knowledge-based / Quality-based development
• Greater focus on the ‘human factor’– From mindless to mindful markets:
• Centrality of end-use & purpose of production• Integrated design: multi-dimensional goals
• Greater levels of democracy/participation– From hierarchical to decentralized regulation– From external to internal self-regulation– Greater stakeholder involvement– Greater integration with everyday exchange & civil
society– Role of The Commons: ecological, physical,
electronic; Sharing & saving
Varieties of EPR• liability where responsibility for environmental damages
caused by a product—in production, use, or disposal—is borne by the producer;
• economic responsibility where a producer covers all or part of the costs for managing wastes at the end of a product’s life (e.g. collection, processing, treatment or disposal);
• physical responsibility where the producer is involved in the physical management of the products, used products or the impacts of the products through development of technology or provision of services; one common expression of this would be…
• ownership where the producer retains ownership of the product over it entire service life, and
• informative responsibility where the producer is required to provide information on the product and its effects during various stages of its life cycle.
(Thorpe and Kruszewska,1999; Linquist, 1998)
Strategic Modes of Regulation
• Civil Society-based Certification systems• Ecological Tax Reform / tax shifting• Subsidies / green scissors • Green Procurement• EPR legislation• Guidelines for Green Finance: green
development plans, etc.
The Crisis of Markets
The Swing to Regulation
3-D’s of Green Development
• Dematerialization• Detoxification
• Decentralization
Manufacturing & the Ecological Service Economy
• Subordination to Mission / end-use / need / quality• Waste Equals Food • Dematerialization of Production and Higher
Resource Efficiency• Reduction of the Speed of Resource Flow through
the Economy• Appropriate Scale• Regenerative Work is Created• New Rules & Closed Loops: LCA and EPR
Indicators & real wealth• Qualitative Wealth is far more complex:
requires more quantification
• Qualitative Wealth is place-based or specific to circumstances
• Qualitative Wealth is needs-based, requiring examination of consumption.
• Accounting takes place on many levels in terms appropriate to that level
Industrialism: Accumulation• Production-for-production’s-sake• Invisibility of key factors• Centralization of production, massive upfront
investment • Focus on labour productivity : resources
substitute for human energy• Cog-labour: humans as component parts• Regulation: controls as limits• Scarcity-based: role of waste since WWII• Globalization: free trade & intellectual property
Postindustrialism: Regeneration• New relationship of culture to economics: centrality of
human development• Substitution of human creativity for resources• Direct targeting of human need: conscious consumption• Human-scale technologies: production ‘distributed’ over
the landscape ; Integration: ALL places are places of production
• Qualitative Wealth is PLACE-BASED• Distributed regulation: incentives for positive action
throughout economy.• Self-reliance / interdependence:
“Trade recipes, not cookies”
Structural obstacles to sustainability
• Nature of the Corporation
• Centrality of Economic Growth
• Ownership patterns inconsistent with Stewardship
• Alienated relationship to human need– Creating rather than responding to it
Corporate Strategies• Corporations as financial, not
production, entities• Structural problems: the ‘bottom
line’ • documentary: The Corporation• Need to change corporate DNA• Need for outside help: regulation
(EPR), new enterprises networks, certification
• The Stakeholder Corporation & democracy
Community / Small Business • The realm of cutting-edge alternatives in almost
every sector• Need for new & stronger networks• Local market power based on solid knowledge• Import substitution • Regenerative finance• Necessity of empowering all sections of the
community• Community development Plans & Indicators
Companies that provide products or services that improve the quality of life in their communities
Companies that operate more responsibly
Companies that invests their profits in
social or environmental causes
Values-Driven Business
River (Industrial-Linear) vs. Lake (Green-Cyclical) Economy
• resources: Life cycle approach• human need: end-use approach• EPR and design for environment• is industrial capitalism a form of quantitative
development or accumulation?– explains why efficiency or even profit isn't
enough: question of self interest
• Stahel: issue of liability• Beyond Capitalism & Socialism:
What forms of Ownership support
Stewardship?
Entrepreneurial Value Creation
Local Food Plus:
valuation
regulation
marketing
education
Indicators & Trends in Regulation
• Raw material for certification systems
• Regulation as more civil society-based
• Markets as ‘values-driven’• FSC wood / LEED building /
etc.• integrated evaluation /
regulation / marketing systems
Historical Trends in Regulation
• Early industrial capitalism: – Unconscious-decentralized / focus on material needs /
subordination of state to markets: Invisible Hand / focus on production / unbridled exploitation of nature / theoretical democracy
• Fordist & state-socialist industrialism: – Conscious-centralized / new (and disguised) focus on non-material
needs / Need for more planning: political intervention / More concern with consumption & (quantitative) demand / managed exploitation of nature / representative democracy
• Postindustrial Potentials (today):– Conscious-decentralized / direct focus on non-material needs /
integration & transformation of state & markets / integration with nature / direct democracy
– Super-industrialism: Post-Fordist globalization: avoidance, suppression or channeling of the above. Crisis.
Localization
• LOIS vs. TINA
• Local First not “buy local”
• Multipliers
• Employment
• Stability / security – Peak Oil / Corporate Mobility
• Quality of Life
• Efficiency
Markets and MaterialConnection between needs,
wealth & markets.
the Invisible Hand: worked...
1. for an economy focused on meeting primary needs—simplicity.
2. in a situation of relative scarcity
3. in the absence of sophisticated information technology
Class Society
...based in relative scarcity:
1. control of scarce resources & ...
2. monopoly of high culture
...by a minority.
Industrialism: The Divided Economy
Invisible Visible Use-value Exchange-value “Consumption” “Production” People Things Unpaid Paid Women Men Informal Formal Private Public
Invisible Economy (1) Total Productive System of an Industrial
Society(layer cake with icing)
GNP-Monetized
½ of CakeTop two layers
Non-Monetized
Productive ½ of Cake
Lower two layers
GNP “Private” SectorRests on
GNP “Public” SectorRests on
Social Cooperative
Love EconomyRests on
Nature’s Layer
“Private” Sector
“Public”Sector
“underground economy
“Love Economy”
Mother Nature
All rights reserved. Copyright© 1982 Hazel Henderson
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