Sustainability and economic opportunity

24 July 2009 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

In a recent Op Ed in the Observer, English Prime Minister Gordon Brown made what we think of as the obvious connection between sustainability and economic opportunity. He said: "The global environmental sector will be worth £4.3 trillion by 2015 and sustain tens of millions of jobs. So the countries and companies that develop the technologies and services fastest will, as with the industrial revolution, reap the richest rewards."

Nothing revolutionary here, plenty of other politicians are making the same point, but every little bit helps. There remains a disconnect about the humanness of climate change / sustainability because the discourse has for so long been framed as an environmental issue. And, if it's only environmental, some people are able to think 'there's nothing I can do about it'. Sustainability is both a human problem, and a human solution. The economic frame, the weight of change that will come, is perhaps the most powerful way of making this point in a time of global recession.

Tags: Economy, England, Opportunity

Got something to say?

Discuss this article. We reserve the right to delete flames, trolls, and wood nymphs.

Subscribe to this articles comments

Case Study

Greensulate

Ecovative Design

Agricultural waste is combined with mushroom roots to literally grow a new form of wall insulation that competes with foams and plastics.

NextPlays blog

#SB10 - Biolite wins Sustainable Innovation award

We're stoked that Biolite won SB10's Sustainable Innovation award, announced on the last day of the conference. Jonathan Cedar, co-inventor and the nascent company's CEO delivered a great presentation that made clear the significant impact that could be achieved if Biolite (and stoves like it) replace traditional wood-fired stoves in the developing world. The Biolite stove reinvents stoves used for home cooking in Asia, Africa and Latin America by making the burning process more efficient. The greater efficiency the less fuel is used and less smoke is generated. Less smoke, the less harm to the health of the cooks. Biolite has an additional feature; they've developed a process that converts a small part of the thermal energy into electricity. This means that users can recharge electrical devices while cooking, and that's got to be good for developing world users facing regular megacity brown outs, or for those who are off the grid completely.