News

Sustainability And The "White" Revolution

"Sustainability" is now a key factor in the strategies of business and other organizations. This is a reply to the "get rich quick" short-term thinking that has done so much damage in Australia and overseas.

This is not just an "environment" issue. While some of the interest in sustainability has come from environmental concerns, the underlying motivation is that of wanting to stay in operation.

We need to look afresh at how we conduct our economic affairs. One of the best books on this subject is by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins: "Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution".

An example is the change now occurring is the motor car industry - the world's largest manufacturing industry. The restructuring is not coming through government regulation and taxation but from the newly unleashed forces of advanced technology, customer demands, competition and entrepreneurship. The motor car is the highest expression of the old revolution in terms of efficiency of design, manufacturing and maintenance. Cars now cost less per pound than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder.

The next generation of cars will be ultra-light (weighing a half or a third of the current versions), with ultra-low-drag (so that they can slip through the air), and powered by some form of hybrid electric motor. Such a vehicle would need 92 per cent less iron and steel and one-third less aluminum. The vehicle could be maintained automatically by supplementing wireless remote diagnostics with technicians' house calls.

The Natural Capital Revolution - like the Industrial Revolution - needs to be led by business people and consumers. There are signs that business people are ready to do so. For example, on May 19 1997, John Browne (now Lord Browne) the chief executive of British Petroleum agreed with the concern over climate change. "We must now focus on what can and what should be done, not because we can be certain climate change in happening but because the possibility cannot be ignored". BP (which now also stands for "Beyond Petroleum") is seeking sustainability via new technologies, such as wind power. There will not always be petrol cheaply and easily available.

A new political colour is needed. "Blues" are the mainstream free-marketers; "Reds" support some form of socialism, and "Greens" see the world primarily in terms of ecosystems, and thus concentrate on depletion, damage, pollution and population growth.

"Whites" are synthesists. They do not entirely oppose or agree with any of the other three views. They have an optimistic view of humankind, preferring a middle way of integration, reform, respect and reliance. They reject ideologies whether based on markets, class or nature, and trust that informed people can solve their own problems.

If all this Natural Capitalism sounds too idealistic, the authors suggest we imagine a speech in the British Parliament in 1750, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Such a person could have spoken about the way in which within 70 years human productivity would increase so that a worker in 1820 could do the work of 100 people in 1750.

Such a prediction would have seemed crazy in 1750. But it happened thanks to the Industrial Revolution. For example, in just 51 years, English textile production increased by 120 times.

Therefore, instead of just focusing so much on the quest to be "green", people who advocate sustainability should be "white": to bring together all the best qualities of the other "colours".

Keith Suter Consultant for Social Policy
Broadcast Friday 21st November 2003 on Radio 2GB's "Brian Wilshire Programme" at 9pm.