Disruptive Innovation To Save The World
Published October 15, 2009 @ 01:21AM PT
Today is Blog Action Day, a global network event in which bloggers from more than 100 countries are writing about climate change through whatever lens makes sense to them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my post relates to innovation. I believe we need nothing less than a radical shift in sentiment and a radical shift in our perception of the responsibilities and opportunities of business to put our planet back on the right track.
Climate change was chosen as the theme for this Blog Action Day for the simple reason that it is an issue that threatens all of us, and an issue which we are all responsible for contributing to solving. Philanthropic organizations and relief groups can help mitigate some of the deleterious impact of climate change we're already experiencing in the form of famine, drought, and natural disaster. Governments can and must take action for setting bounds in the way we consume the earth's limited resources. They need to act multilaterally to take more dramatic steps than they are used to, in the process figuring out how to reduce emissions while not unfairly punishing developing nations. It's heartening to see UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown participating in Blog Action Day.
The future prosperity of our earth requires a major shift in sentiment. Individuals in Western nations have grown use to the idea of growth and that more is always better. Consumption has become easy, fast, customizable, and ultimately unsustainable. In the process, we've come to connect having with meaning.
However there is a major opening for a shift in understanding. More and more, we are questioning the 20th century's version of success. I believe that my generation in particular has a gnawing gut sense that high salaries don't always (or even usually) correlate to fulfillment. I think we need to capture this opportunity to change the conversation about meaning entirely, and in this, I think faith organizations have a particularly important role to play in helping people move away from raw, unending consumption.
I think, however, that entrepreneurs and the business sector have both a particular opportunity and a particular responsibility. The responsibility comes from the simple fact that climate change is inextricably linked to the 200 years of an industrial age which achieved ever greater economies of scale, ever lower prices, ever more disposable products, at an ever greater cost to the earth. When the environment moved off the bottom of the balance sheet and became an "externality" - a cost that someone else would have to pay - it set the clock ticking on a debt that would one day have to be paid.
That debt has come due. Society can no longer reasonably bear the cost for the mode of production. I hate the phrase "saving the world," but those are really the stakes. Something has to give. And when the choices are our way of doing business or the earth itself, I'll take our way of doing business. Therein lies the opportunity.
There are many businesses that are taking steps to reduce their environmental footprint. There are some, like Better World Books, finding creative ways to reuse resources. There are even some, like Walmart, that are taking extremely proactive steps to shift the way their products are made. These are immensely powerful. Taken as a network effect, they can increasingly make it the norm, rather than the exception, that the things we consume are made at with high environmental efficiency.
But there are some businesses that are trying to fundamentally shift industries that are destroying the planet. Companies like 1Block Off the Grid are trying to align the incentives to make it easy to harness solar power. Companies like Better Place are trying to entirely up end fossil fuels as the energy for our transportation.
Some entrepreneurs succeed because of their unique, patentable technology. Some entrepreneurs succeed because they have a gift for aligning incentives between nontraditional partners to create new opportunities. Some entrepreneurs succeed largely because they're in the right place at the right time and the world is clamoring for what they have to offer.
Right now, it's going to take all three of those types of entrepreneurialism to succeed. And unlike traditional business, this risk is not held by the owners of the company, but by everyone. The whole world are shareholders and the stakes couldn't be hire.
Entrepreneurs, now is not the time for thinking little. There are a million historical quotes that would be appropriate here - from Chicago planner Daniel Burnham's "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood," to Lincoln's "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present," - the point is largely the same: go big or go home. Let's get to it.
(Photo: Jasmic)
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Comments (8)
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Author
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Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.
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I am tirelessly working on this...
http://behelpfulnothurtful.blogspot.com/
I could really use some help. My hope is that with enough positive reinforcement, we can collectively restore the health of the Planet as a priority to all! The positive reinforcement being giving away green homes, businesses and jobs. No one will want for anything they need to survive or thrive!
Lets Choose To Evolve!
Be Helpful, Not Hurtful
http://behelpfulnothurtful.blogspot.com/
Posted by Charles Hancock on 10/15/2009 @ 09:30AM PT
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A couple of comments about disruptive innovation.
I never fail to be amazed at how most of those who advocate solar or wind power, don't say anything about energy storage. I live in a state with huge mountains, and I don't see the utility companies moving to build pumped hydroelectric storage. Nor do I see any effort to make those 25KWH flywheel devices pushed by companies like Beacon Power, consumer goods that can be bought at a reasonable price.
Where are the entrepreneurs with sufficient energy to make things happen in this area? If nothing happens, I suspect we're going to see another generation of nuclear plants like those being offered by Hyperion. Perhaps this is better than letting CO2 goto 450ppm?
Posted by Edward Arnold on 10/16/2009 @ 09:34AM PT
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My hope is that as we build more effiecient ways to harness green energy that we are not taking more land away from wildlife. Conserving land, conserving forest where wild life live is progress and good for the environment. I hope new, green energy businesses think along the lines of recycling land that is already developed rather than building new plants and taking more land.
Posted by sandy wilson on 10/16/2009 @ 10:03AM PT
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I have been working on a book about quantum physics for about 10 years and continue to be surprised with the politicization of "global warming".
Almost all energy that drives the various systems found on Earth, such as climate, waves, etc., comes from the Sun. There is a significant amount of debate over climate changes which is a waste of time and here is why. The Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, which automatically means that the distance from the Earth to the Sun is constantly changing. The inverse sqare law applied to solar radiation "guarantees" there will be cycles in the climate. So it is a given that our climate will and does change.
The next question is regarding how much of that radiation is absorbed? Why? Because this is what causes heat. From 1984 until 2009 the Federal National Renewable Energy Labaratory has measure radiation striking the surface of the Earth and found there was no change in the amount of radiation - except for the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. Even then, the levels returned to normal within 3 years.
The bottom line is that there is very little change in the amount of energy actually being absorbed - and perhaps more importantly - there is significant evidence that the Earth is self correcting.
There are a lot of scientists on payrolls that might be in danger if global warming was not being sold as a "crisis" but the common sense evidence does not prove it.
Posted by Mike Graybear on 10/16/2009 @ 01:53PM PT
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Where did you get these claims:
"there is significant evidence that the Earth is self correcting"
and
"there is very little change in the amount of energy actually being absorbed"
I'm always interested in the evidence of "the other side". Here's what I was looking at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:All_palaeotemps.png
The recent change in global temperature seems pretty direct and clear. Estimates I've heard say that humans are responsible for at least 50% of the forcing.
Posted by Alexander Volfson on 11/04/2009 @ 05:35PM PT
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Great thoughts here, but we to take it even further. We need to disrupt the entire growth/prosperity paradigm under which we are all operating. We need to either redefine prosperity or stop seeking it, and we need to get in touch with what will truly improve our well-being. We need to improve the system, not just its parts.
Technology won't save us. Changing the way we live can save us, but only if we change the way we think. We must stop worshipping at the church of growth everlasting; we need to embrace what really makes "the good life." (hint: it's not the good life advertisers are depicting on TV).
Dave Gardner
Director, Hooked on Growth
http://www.growthbusters.com
Posted by CITIZEN-POWERED MEDIA on 10/16/2009 @ 03:43PM PT
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Here in South Korea, not enough is being done to promote clean energy (well, if you don't count those rather large nuclear power plants they have...scary!). With the stanch conservative government in place for the next 3 1/2 years the only hope is that businesses will wise up and go green. Unfortunately the chabol (big businesses) are even worse then those in the US in terms of their bottom line and profit.
Posted by David English on 10/17/2009 @ 02:05AM PT
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I agree, growth in the name of progress is killing us. But the animals suffer the most.
Posted by sandy wilson on 10/17/2009 @ 10:38AM PT
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