Who is genuinely wealthy?

A Longer View

People with low-impact material wealth and a healthy environment?

Or people with expensive, high-impact possessions – and a degraded environment?

Another example:

Who is wealthier?

The person with $1 million, who must live in a high-crime society with poor public services and

polluted ground water?

Or the person with $50,000who lives in a peaceful society with good public

services?

Society needs new tools to understand these distinctions.

Increased GDP might tell us that we’re eating more beef, driving bigger cars, living in bigger homes.

It doesn’t tell us that run-off from fertiliser is destroying oceans, that emissions from bigger cars are giving more kids

asthma, and that using more land and wood carelessly is causing deforestation and the destruction of whole species.

GDP doesn’t tell us that inequality is driving up levels of crime, mental illness, HIV, over-consumption, levels of

imprisonment, obesity, teenage pregnancies and addiction – while destroying social mobility, trust and life expectancy. 

Markets. Currencies. Commodities. These are the numbers we give most of our attention to. They’re important. But they’re

just a part of a much bigger story. A story we don’t tell so well.

Sustainability indicators are rarely reported.

And when they are reported, usually given low priority by the media...

So how about we start paying attention to these numbers as well?

Atmospheric carbon dioxide – 398 ppm

Human development – 0.619

SA unemployment – 25,2%

Ecological overshoot – 4%

What if these numbers, the numbers we need to check

on people and planet, were to be right up there with the

market numbers? Every day...So we can’t forget them.

Business is running blind when it ignores or forgets sustainability.

‘The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around.’

– Gaylord Nelson (Earth Day founder)

To truly understand our economic prospects, we have to know what’s happening to the environment and in society, at all levels – regional,

national and global.

A Longer View• A bridge between environmental data providers and

publishers (news providers, websites, etc)

• Starting in South Africa

• Small non-profit international secretariat

• Lead partners in business in each country

• Creation and management of web and data distribution tools

• The biggest and most important part of our work will be lobbying and publicity – getting high-profile publishers to  

use our data.

We’ve got most of the numbers needed to guide us to safer, more

prosperous societies. . .

Let’s make sure people see them. Every day.

A Longer ViewThe numbers that will guide us to prosperity –

where we can see them, all the time.