Corporate Responsibility in a Collapsing World Cranfield School of Management Jonathon Porritt 29...

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Corporate Responsibility in a Collapsing World

Cranfield School of Management

Jonathon Porritt29 October 2008

Forum For The Future

• A registered charity committed to accelerating the building of a sustainable way of life

• Solutions-oriented approach• Over 180 different partners from national, regional and

local government, higher education, and business• Green Futures magazine

Mission:To accelerate the building of a sustainablesustainable way of life by taking a positive solutions-oriented approach

PASSIONATE

about

Sustainable Development

Not passionate about Corporate (Social) Responsibility, Quality of Life, Corporate Citizenship, CSR, Liveability etc

etc

The Global Economy:nothing more thanA House of Cards

built onA MOUNTAIN OF DEBT

aided and abetted byGovernments’ in Retreat

From Masters of the Universe

to“A bunch of spivs and speculators”

Jack Welch

• CEO of GE (1981 – 2001)• In 1981, GE valued at $14bn.

In 2001, GE valued at $400bn

• “Manager of the Century”• “Neutron Jack”• Hudson River – Jack Welch’s

toxic legacy.

                                                                                                                                          

GE Ecomagination: a strategy for growth

•GE’s environmental innovation programme

•High quality products with increased environmental performance

•Renewable energy, hydrogen fuel cells, cleaner, quieter aircraft and locomotive engines, water purification and desalination technologies

•Part of GE’s growth strategy – target to increase revenue from these businesses from $10 billion in 2004 to $20 billion by 2010

GLOBAL

ECONOMY

SOCIAL EXTERNALITIES

ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES

Radical Discontinuities

Social Externalities

Population growthWorsening inequityInternational terrorism“Clash of Civilisations”Demographic timebombsDebt mountains/credit crunches

Environmental Externalities

Climate ChangeOil at $100 +Resource constraints (water/soil)Food shortagesWorsening air and water pollution6th “extinction spasm”

Capitalism today is the only economic show in town

“Creative Destruction”Joseph Schumpeter

Creative destruction as you have never seen it before as today’s unsustainable economic development gives way to genuinely sustainable economic development

IPCC Consensus

Staying below2°C

means stabilisingat 450ppm CO2

which meansc. 80% cut

by 2050

Canaries in the Mine

• Permafrost in Siberia• Arctic Sea ice• Greenland Ice cap• Antarctic ice sheets• CO2 absorption rates• Amazon Rainforest drying out• Acidification of the oceans

550

450

350

Stern Review

“Climate change is the

greatest market failure the world has ever seen”.

Get a realistic priceon a tonne of CO2

just as fast as possible

The Shrinking Earth

Five Capitals Framework:“interdependent and indivisible”

HumanCapital

SocialCapital

ManufacturedCapital

FinancialCapital

Natural Capital

The Five Capitals

• Natural Capital- any stock or flow of energy or matter that yields life, goods and services

• Human Capital- health, knowledge, skills and motivation required for

productive work• Social Capital

- the value added to any activity by human relationships and cooperation

• Manufactured Capital- material goods (tools, machines, roads) which

contribute to the production process• Financial Capital

- no intrinsic value itself but reflects the productive power of the other types of capital

Capitalism is Dead…

• Profits maximised, greed incentivized

• Macho CEOs rule the world

• Licensed cost externalisation, natural limits defied

• Deregulation of capital markets: risk and opportunity mis-priced

• Economic growth credit-fuelled, not earnings-based

This version of……

WEALTH WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS

- NOT BEYOND!

• DECARBONIZATION• DEMATERIALIZATION

• CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEMS

THE “LAWS” OF THE MARKET

MUST YIELD TO

THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS

Changes Ahead

• Prices tell the truth

• Governments reclaim their rightful role

• The Corporate “Licence to Operate” is re-written

“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the things that you did.”

(Mark Twain)

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