The Sustainability Agenda

In this interview with Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris, we explore the Gaia hypothesis or metaphor of a living earth, integrating physics, biology and spirituality. Indigenous cultures have long viewed the earth in such a way. Treating the earth and universe as living means we can develop a richer relationship with them than what traditionally happens with Western scientific views. Care for the earth leads to resilience and will give a greater chance of survival through the coming climate crisis.She sees the climate crisis as very real, imminent, and irreversible, but believes humanity will survive and adapt, though maybe at much smaller scale. We should all be working for well-being of our mother earth and global family.Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris is an internationally known evolution biologist, futurist, professor, author, speaker and consultant on Living Systems Design. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an advisor to EthicalMarkets.com and the Masters in Business program at Schumacher College, also affiliated with the Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s MBA program for sustainable business.Dr. Sahtouris has convened two International Symposia on the Foundations of Sciences. Her books include A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us, Biology Revisioned, co-authored with Willis Harman, and EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution.The post Episode 71: Interview with evolutionary biologist, Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

The scale of human impact on our planet is not easy to engage with – even scientists often have a narrow focus on the specific problems they’re trying to solve. In this episode, we talk with Professor Mark Maslin about humanity’s impact on the planet and the new geological epoch into which we are entering as a result – the Anthropocene.The Anthropocene is the scientific definition of the geological time frame in which human impact has become so large that we’re now in a new geological epoch. It only identifies the “when” without ascribing causation, but will allow us to move forward to discussing specific causes.In this interview, Mark first of all presents the scale of our environmental impact with powerful data. First there is the tremendous impact from the vast amount of concrete we need for buildings and more, in fact we’ve already made enough to cover the entire planet with a 2mm layer. In addition, we’ve already destroyed what should be normal ecology on land, with only 3% of land mammals being wildlife (the other 97% being humans and domesticated animals). Not to mention the deforestation – we’ve already harvested effectively half of the trees on the planet.Mark talks about an inherent contradiction between the environmental problems we’re facing and continued economic growth. We’re currently on track to double the size of our economic system, but we desperately need to break our obsession with consumption, question the Western model and rethink the way we define economic systems to account for impacts to society.Mark believes there is hope that we now have enough knowledge to do something about our predicament, but argues we need several big changes. One is effective leaders who can make real change by leveraging crises to implement balances and checks. We need to take advantage of win-win situations where there is a positive impact that will also happen beyond addressing global climate impacts. Mark suggests we should tackle reforestation, as people move to urban centers and we have available land. He argues we should adopt Universal Basic Income so that people have breathing room to truly innovate and become entrepreneurs and problem solvers. And last but not least, that we should empower the next generation who is already motivated and engaging with climate strikes.Mark Maslin is leading scientist with particular expertise in past global and regional climatic change. He is published in over 165 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet and authored 8 popular books including most recently, The Human Planet. He is Professor of Earth Systems Science at University College London, a Royal Society Industrial Fellow, Executive Director of Rezatec Ltd and science advisor to the Global Cool Foundation.The post Episode 70: Interview with Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth Systems Science, UCL, author of The Human Planet appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Solutions to many of the major problems in the world have been identified in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, funding these SDGs remains an immense challenge, in the region of $5-7 trillion annually. In this episode, we talk with Marc Ventresca and Michele Scataglini, two experts in economic systems and emerging technology, to explore the potential application of crowdfunding as a solution to bridge the funding gap.While today’s donation-based crowdfunding amounts to less than a half billion US dollars –global philanthropic giving is $500 billion–Ventresca and Scataglini believe that utilizing best practices and innovating on crowdfunding platforms can unlock significantly larger sums. In Marc and Michele’s research, they look at three key areas. The first focus is upon the intricacies of crowdfunding technology to learn how it disrupts traditional economic systems thinking. Second, they consider how the platform of crowdfunding could be applied to funding the SDGs. Finally, they look at crowdfunding from a system-building perspective.Marc Ventresca serves on faculty at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and is a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College. His research and teaching focus on innovation, institutions and infrastructure. His current research investigates comparative infrastructure and governance in digital platform technologies and on systems change in the context of 4IR. He advises Oxford alumni ventures and sits on the Advisory Board for Global Thinkers Forum and for Participatory City. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Technology and Management for Development Centre, QEH, and he is a member of the Management Committee of the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs, DPIR. @marcventresca.Michele Scataglini is an innovation strategy advisor with more than 20 years of international experience in the management consultancy industry, including 10 at EY. He specializes in public policy and innovation strategy. Scataglini is also the founder of INSTA Associates, an innovation and strategy consulting practice. He received a post graduate diploma in strategy and innovation from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. @michelescatta. The post Episode 69: Interview with Marc Ventresca and Michele Scataglini appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (www.ciwf.com) is a leading international charity working to improve farmed animal welfare around the world. Its mission is to end factory farming and advance the well-being of farmed animals globally. CIWF’s undercover investigations have exposed the reality of modern intensive farming systems and brought the plight of farm animals to the attention of the world’s media. It has a long track record of political lobbying and campaigning–facilitating, for example, EU legislation to recognise animals as sentient beings, capable of feeling pain and suffering. CIWF has also secured landmark agreements to outlaw the barren battery cage for egg-laying hens, narrow veal crates and sow stalls across Europe. Increasingly CIWF’s team is working with some of the world’s biggest food companies – retailers, producers and manufacturers towards achieving a more ethical and sustainable food supply.As Executive Director, Rachel leads CIWF’s USA’s initiatives to forge a more humane and sustainable food and farming system through measurable farmed animal welfare improvements and protein diversification. Rachel also serves as board member of Global Animal Partnership, and the Regenerative Organic Alliance, and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies to incorporate and strengthen animal welfare within corporate sustainability programs. Prior to Rachel becoming Executive Director, she served as CIWF’s Head of Food Business where she oversaw the growth and development of the organization’s corporate engagement program. A graduate of Northeastern University’s School of Business, Rachel has guest lectured at Stanford and University of Delaware, and has been featured in Bloomberg, Fortune Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, amongst others.  The post Episode 68: Interview with Rachel Dreskin, US Executive Director at Compassion in World Farming appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Since the 1970s, credit has become increasingly easy to acquire. We have become a consumption-based society driven by our wants, supported by credit, rather than a sustainable society driven by our needs. In this compelling interview, renowned economist and author Ann Pettifor discusses the impact of deregulation of credit on consumption, and the environment, and shows how the globalization of our financial system undermines our ability to solve the climate crisis. She also discusses the impact of credit, and more particularly, interest rate levels, on the environmental problems in the global south. Ann argues that the monetary system is a vital public good which needs to serve society, rather than a small financial elite. She suggests that the way in which central banks responded to the financial crash, creating trillions of dollars credit overnight to bail out banks, has drawn public attention to the power central bankers have—and the very secretive way the financial system operates. Ann also shares her vision for a future with high levels of public investment, low real rates of interest, and government support for a green economy.Ann Pettifor is a UK-based analyst of the global financial system, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), a network of economists concerned with Keynesian monetary theory and policies; an honorary research fellow at the Political Economy Research Centre at City University, London (CITYPERC) and a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, London. She is an influential political economist with a record of achieving real changes in public policy, especially in relation to sovereign debt. She correctly predicting the global financial crises in several publications including in a book The Real World Economic Outlook, and summarised later in the New Statesman. This was followed by her September, 2006 book The Coming First World Debt Crisis. Ann is currently working on the relationship between economic policy and the climate, and her next book will detail how it’s possible to finance a Green New Deal.The post Episode 67: Interview with Ann Pettifor, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is a pioneer of the ‘new economy’ movement. Through writing and public lectures over more than thirty years, Helena has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on communities, local economies, and personal identity, and is a leading proponent of ‘localization’, or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts. Local Futures is a non-profit organization “dedicated to the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”Helena’s book, Ancient Futures, has been described as “an inspirational classic”. Together with the film of the same title, it has been translated into more than 40 languages, and sold about half a million copies. She is also the producer and co-director of the award-winning film, The Economics of Happiness, and the co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home and From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. The Earth Journal counted Helena among the world’s ‘ten most interesting environmentalists’, while in Carl McDaniel’s book Wisdom for a Livable Planet, she was profiled as one of ‘eight visionaries changing the world’.  The Post Growth Institute counted Helena on the (En)Rich List, a list of 100 people “whose collective contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures.”  The post Episode 66: Interview with author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of Local Futures appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Martin Kirk is co-founder of /The Rules, a global collective of activists of all types dedicated to challenging the root causes of global poverty and inequality. He is also a consultant for the NoVo Foundation, helping advise their work on supporting communities to transition to new economic models. Prior to /TR Martin was the Head of Campaigns at Oxfam UK, and Head of Global Advocacy for Save the Children. He has written extensively on issues of poverty, inequality, and climate change, including in The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, The Independent and Fast Company.In this provocative interview, we get a perspective on issues of poverty and environmental breakdown that is very much outside of the norm. Drawing on his previous experience trying to understand attitudes towards poverty, Martin explains how harmful psychological narratives around poverty have become deeply embedded, so much so that they are inadvertently replicated by major development bodies. Martin analyses why this is the case and outlines the need for alternative narratives rooted in history and economics that show that extreme poverty is in fact a political choice.In discussing sustainability, Martin highlights how the current economic system is unsustainable in its very nature. Martin talks at length about the climate crisis, what implications this could have for global poverty and how the severity of the crisis has failed to be communicated to us. By way of explanation, Martin discusses structural flaws in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the primary international scientific body for studying climate change and political flaws in the organisation (as its final report is scrutinised by diplomats representing the world’s governments, some of which have vested interests in downplaying the severity of the situation). He also points out that the lengthy processes by which new scientific reports are vetted by the body mean that their reports are reliant upon studies that are at least five years old; an eon in the context of the rapidly changing climate. On a more hopeful note, Martin also outlines how recent events have given a cause for optimism as just in the past twelve months, an alternative economic narrative and vision for the future around poverty and environmental issues is starting to take shape.If you are interested in Martin’s interview, we also recommend that you listen to our interviews with Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel and the Drawdown Agenda Podcast, our podcast exploring the solutions behind Project Drawdown.The post Episode 65: Interview with Martin Kirk, co-founder /The Rules appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

When we think about the magnitude of global emissions and the scale of the decarbonisation challenge, it is easy to feel that our individual actions are inconsequential. In this episode, we talk to Brett Jenks, President and CEO of the conservation organisation Rare, to look at the crucial role of behaviour change in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Brett tells us about the practical insights Rare has gleaned on how to facilitate behaviour change– and talks us through a recent report by Rare which found that 30 key carbon dioxide reduction solutions –as outlined in Project Drawdown — depend on behaviour change, altogether amounting to one third of the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions modelled. While different solutions are applicable to different parts of the world, it is clear that behaviour change is crucial. As Brett puts it: “socially we need to change our lifestyles faster than our climate is changing or we’re no longer going to be in control”.With over twenty years’ experience in harnessing behaviour change for conservation and sustainability efforts, Brett stresses that typical strategies revolving around logic and hard facts are broken and rarely go beyond creating a small but committed constituency. Instead, creating climate smart behaviour is dependent on emotional appeals, social incentives and choice architecture, approaches found in nudge theory. Drawing parallels with the societal changes that have occurred in much of the western world around attitudes to racism, homophobia and sexism, Brett points out that rapid changes in societal norms are possible. Drawing on Everett Rodgers’ theory of the diffusion of innovation he explains how change happens and emphasises the importance of early adopters in making change visible and desirable. In particular, he points to a growing acceptance for plant-rich diets and the rise of Tesla as examples of climate smart behaviours that are starting to move towards an early majority.Brett also emphasises the importance of building momentum around behaviour change in order to encourage policy shift. He notes that advocacy work by organisations tends to overemphasise the importance of politicians at the expense of social movements, which are often what drive policy change. He also points to how shifting consumer preferences, particularly among eco-conscious millennials are encouraging the market to react accordingly. He also points out that much of this is being facilitated by the radical transparency provided by new technologies, such as blockchain, which are empowering consumers and may eventually allow us to see our carbon footprints as accurately and readily as we see our bank balances.Brett Jenks is the President and CEO of Rare, a global conservation organization whose mission is to inspire change so people and nature thrive. Rare’s work stems from the belief that the root causes of environmental dangers stem from human behaviour and draws on marketing techniques and technical interventions to equip people in biologically diverse areas with the tools and motivation to protect their natural resources. Under Brett’s leadership the organisation has grown substantially so that it now operates in 56 countries and has reached over ten million people. He has written for The New York Times, Huffington Post, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and other publications. He is a Catto Fellow, Braddock Scholar, and McNulty Prize laureate at the Aspen Institute and serves on the Closed Loop Fund investment committee and Rare’s board of directors. Prior to Rare, Brett was a journalist and filmmaker, and he served as the Costa Rica Field Coordinator for WorldTeach, a non-profit based at Harvard’s Center for International Development.You can find out more about the report Climate Change Needs Behavior Change: Making the Case for Behavioral Solutions to Reduce Global Warming here. This is an edited version of an interview for the Drawdown Agenda podcast.The post Episode 64: The importance of behaviour change to reduce CO2. Interview with CEO of Rare, Brett Jenks appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Peter Barnes is an innovative thinker and entrepreneur whose work has focused on fixing the deepest flaws of capitalism. He has written numerous books and articles, co-founded several socially responsible businesses, and started a retreat for progressive writers. His most recent books are With Liberty and Dividends for All and Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. Peter lives in northern California with his wife, dogs and vegetable garden. In this wide-ranging and compelling interview, Peter discusses his work over recent decades, exploring the workings and evolution of capitalism, and looks to the future. Peter believes that capitalism started as a highly effective solution to the problems of scarcity, but has become the central problem of our day, highlighting how it has driven the environmental crises we are now facing. Peter emphasizes the importance of managing the commons, a central concern in his recent work, as well as the role of property rights, and identifies a number of innovative ideas which he believes will make capitalism work better at the same time as deal with the environmental crises we are now facing.The post Episode 63: Interview with Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0 appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this interview with author Daniel Pinchbeck, we explore the ultimate meaning of the psychological and civilizational crisis we are facing today. As humanities rapid evolution has disrupted our fragile ecosystems, we must consider a transition between an old world and way of living to the next world, our future societies. Daniel describes his ideas for regenerative or post-growth societies, where an emphasis is placed on the things we can grow together, indefinitely, rather than our current systems that do not produce happiness. We consider ways to enhance regenerative practices and question whether core issues in love have led to corruption.Daniel Pinchbeck is a writer, author and blogger. His works include Breaking Open the Head (2002), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006), and most recently How Soon is Now (2017). He was the executive director of the think tank Center for Planetary Culture, and launched the web magazine Reality Sandwich and co-founded Evolver.net.The post Episode 62: Interview with Daniel Pinchbeck, author of How Soon Is Now: From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.