december 2013 lecture wageningen university on sustainability, business models, energy

“The reasonable man adapts himself

to the world; the unreasonable one

persists in trying to adapt the

world to himself. Therefore all

progress depends on the

unreasonable man.” G.B. Shaw

sustainability?

…or “lariekoek”…

what is “sustainability”?

“Tsukuba (…), the site of perhaps the

world’s worst electricity wind

farm: in the 12 months it has

operated, its windmills have

consumed 43 times more power than

they have generated.” www.econbrowser.com

when I led an energy company I

learned…

• more awareness

• increasing

independence and

ownership

• sustainable value

creation

• improving our

world

• more awareness,

less margin

• more independence,

less turnover

• put it on fire and it’s

gone

• well, ok, we had a

CSR program, one

day per year

…and I learnedthat all energy companies werepretty much like

that…

I wanted

another sort

of business…

• increase awareness

• increase independence and

ownership

• create sustainable wealth

• bring benefit to the world

“in nature, nothing is created or

lost. things are only transformed.”Lavoisier, French Scientist, 1743-1794

let’s start with a question:

Fossil fuel consumption (8000BC to 12000AD)

You are here

Source: Lawrence Staudt, 2007

Until 200 years ago, humans did not use more energy than the

earth could produce, and within 200 years this will be the same again

Source: international energy agency

and another question:

what is

energy?

erm… well…

uhh… …que?

energy is:

the ability to

do work

energy is:

now, let’s

make this a

bit less

scientific

if this guy cycles for 8

hours…

…he can lift this car all

the way up

…and he just so happened

to offer his services to

you!

…to cycle for your

laundry…

…for your heating…

…or for your lighting…

…but what’s that 8 hour

job worth?

is it worth more than €

100?

…is it worth less than €

10?

…is it worth less than €

1?

…this underpayed poor

fellow cycles 8 hours

for…

€ 0,05(or € 0,006 per hour excl.

taxes and levies)

…and how long does he have to work

for your home energy consumption?

2000 hrs?

20000 hrs?

200000 hrs?

every year, this person

cycles…

…160.000 hours foryou!

…but wait a minute: a year does not have that many hours, does it?

at any moment, 24/7, 19

cyclists are at work for

you!

and these 19 cyclists feed

on:

we have found ourselves the

cheapestlabour in the

world

congratulations!

…but is it

really that

cheap?

…we gotourselves usedto finite fuelresources…

…and we

deplete them

quickly…

…a bit too

quickly…

…for everybarrel of oil

our earthproducestoday…

…we extract 5

million barrels

in the same

amount of

time…

99,99998%

…the required saving on ourfossil fuel consumption is:

to regain ourbalance…

…or 5 million times less than

we consume today…

…let this

marinate for

a minute…

abundance…



ownership



“You never change things by fighting the

existing reality.

To change something, build a new model

that makes the existing model obsolete.”Richard Buckminster Fuller, critical path, 1981

Path to Zero

with the Path to Zero,

we achieve a 30%energy cut in 4

years

Filmpje Landrust (niet meegewetransferred)



ownership



“We can be richer than industry as

long as we know that there’s things

that we don’t really need”Willy Mason – Oxygen – 2004

create sustainable

wealth

problem

• the price of labour

is extremely low

• but this “present

happy progressive

condition is a thing

of limited

duration”William Stanley Jevons, 1865

• and we forgot

what

“sustainability”

solution

• regain control

over our energy

needs

• indepence and

ownership lead to

sustainable wealth

what change

do we wish to

see in te

world?

we decided to start with

the end of things:

a

100 year

plan

why?

food heat

light motion

basic need

no control

our mission is, by 2110, to

increase wealth and

independence by creating an

abundance of energy from

renewable resources to an

extent where energy is freely

available to everybody

I believe that energy should be included in the universal declaration of human rights

this 100 year plan is based on

the following factors

Internal (easy to

influence)

• Social

• Organizational

• Financial

• Technical

External (hard to

influence)

• Economical

• Awareness

• Societal

• Ecological

…and it remains work in progress

for instance, a snippet from our

social framework:

to create a company culture:

• …in which a learning attitude holds a central

position

• …where the focus is always on the goal

• …where there is no gap between company

image and company identity

• …where roles, rather than tasks, define co-

workers’ activities

• …where “you just have to do what I tell you”

is replaced by “you just have to do what you

tell me”“a strong company culture is essential. It will set the framework within

which goals will be attainable. Throughout BAS’ endeavours to change the

world, its culture should be nourished, maintained and developed”

"The mission of a manufacturer is to overcome

poverty by producing an abundant supply of

goods. Even though water from a tap is a

processed product with a price, no one objects

if a passerby drinks from a roadside tap. That

is because the supply of water is plentiful and

its price is low. The mission of a manufacturer

is to create material abundance by providing

goods as plentiful and inexpensive as tap

water. This is how we can banish poverty, bring

happiness to people's lives and make this

world into a paradise.”



ownership



“The reasonable man adapts himself

to the world; the unreasonable one

persists in trying to adapt the

world to himself. Therefore all

progress depends on the

unreasonable man.” G.B. Shaw

who do we influence?

It’s all

about being:

Beneficial

to

All

Stakeholde

rs

• 101: Shareholders

• 102: Suppliers

• 103: Employees

• 104: Employees’

families

• 105: Customers

• 106: Society

• 107: Ecology

it’s not aboutbalancing economy

and ecology, but about fitting ourlittle and finite

economy into an ever-existing ecology

…there is no

substitute for

action

…and finally:

december 2013 lecture wageningen university on sustainability, business models, energy

Education