Ecological Economics What is the Economy? What is Economics? What is Ecological? What is...

Ecological Economics

What is the Economy? What is Economics?

What is Ecological? What is Sustainability?

What is Wealth?

Context

• Current & future impacts and crises.

• Emerging solutions: many already exist.

• Current crises: raise fundamental questions.

Important Issues• What do we want or

need to do?• How do we design

ways to achieve it?• What is Value?• Drivers• Scale• Invisibility• Social Power / class

What is Sustainability?

Bruntland: "…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Durability Definition

"…refers to the ability of a society, ecosystem, or any such on-going system to continue functioning into the indefinite future without being forced into decline through the exhaustion or overloading of key resources on which that system depends." - Robert Gilman, Context Institute

Wish List definition:

"Our vision for the future is of a region characterized by sustainable development, including economic vitality, justice, social cohesion, environmental protection and the sustainable management of natural resources, so as to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.“

-- Committee On Environmental Policy for the Economic Commission For Europe

More Qualitative

“Sustainable development is a dynamic process which enables all people to realise their potential and improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems.”

--Forum for the Future (used by Interface)

Postindustrial Most Qualitative:

“…development focused directly on human and environmental regeneration through both the unleashing of human creative potential, and the benign integration

within of economic activities natural systems.”

Ecological Economics ConceptsEmpty / Full world

Scale to stay within ecosystems

Cost-benefit threshold for growth

Different view of allocating scarce resources

Intergenerational Equity

Growth vs. Development

Visibility & Value of ecosystem services

Internalizing full costs

Substitutability & complementarity

Public goods & Commons

Principles of a Green Economy1. The Primacy of Human Need, Service, Use-

value, Intrinsic Value & Quality 2. Following Natural Flows 3. Waste Equals Food4. Elegance and Multifunctionality5. Appropriate Scale / Linked Scale6. Diversity7. Self-Reliance, Self-Organization, Self-Design8. Participation & Direct Democracy9. Human Creativity and Development 10. The Strategic role of the Built-environment,

the Landscape & Spatial Design

3-D’s of Green Development

• Dematerialization• Detoxification

• Decentralization

The Green Economy

• A Historical Transition: …from Quantity to Quality

• A Question of Potentials …not simply limits

• Key to Sustainability: Redefining Wealth

Industrialism: The Divided Economy

Invisible Visible Use-value Exchange-value “Consumption” “Production” People Things Unpaid Paid Women Men Informal Formal Private Public

Invisible Economy (1) Total Productive System of an Industrial

Society(layer cake with icing)

GNP-Monetized

½ of CakeTop two layers

Non-Monetized

Productive ½ of Cake

Lower two layers

GNP “Private” SectorRests on

GNP “Public” SectorRests on

Social Cooperative

Love EconomyRests on

Nature’s Layer

“Private” Sector

“Public”Sector

“underground economy

“Love Economy”

Mother Nature

All rights reserved. Copyright© 1982 Hazel Henderson

2

Invisible Economy (2)

Basics of a Green Economy

1. The Service Economy“Hot Showers and Cold Beer”

Nutrition, Illumination, Entertainment, Access, Shelter, Community, etc.

2. The “Lake Economy”Flowing with nature, Every output an input,

Closed-loop organization, Let nature do the work

The Economy in Loops

Industrialism: Accumulation

• Production-for-production’s-sake• Invisibility of key factors• Centralization of production, massive

upfront investment • Focus on labour productivity : resources

substitute for human energy• Cog-labour: humans as component parts• Regulation: controls as limits• Scarcity-based: role of waste since WWII• Globalization: free trade & intellectual

property

Postindustrialism: Regeneration

• New relationship of culture to economics: centrality of human development

• Substitution of human creativity for resources• Direct targeting of human need: conscious consumption• Human-scale technologies: production ‘distributed’ over

the landscape ; Integration: ALL places are places of production

• Qualitative Wealth is PLACE-BASED• Distributed regulation: incentives for positive action

throughout economy.• Self-reliance / interdependence:

Daly: “Trade recipes, not cookies”

Market Transformation

• Building full costs into market prices

• Making social & environmental values into market drivers:

“Mindful Markets”

The New Regulation

• Expanding importance of Commons:

social, environmental, electronic

• Importance of Design & Planning

• Rules & Regeneration

• Distributed Production & Distributed Regulation

• Embedded in Civil Society

Non-Market Non-State Production

• Spatial Commons / Public Space

• Environmental Commons

• Infosphere

Remuneration & Qualitative Wealth

• Sever work and income?

• Wages: tied to certain kinds of production & markets. Public goods not so well served by markets.

• Economic insecurity: closely related to environmental destruction.

Community as Central

Human creativity as key to development.

Expanding role of the Commons

Resource efficiencies of localization.

The place-based character of qualitative wealth

Value Revolution, Knowledge & Market Transformation

• Values-driven businessBALLE, GET

• Green/social EvaluationLCA, Eco-footprints,

Community Indicators• Green/social Certification

LEED bldg., FSC wood, LFP food

• Transformative /collective consumerism

Corporate Strategies• Corporations as financial, not

production, entities• Structural problems: the ‘bottom

line’ • documentary: The Corporation• Need to change corporate DNA• Need for outside help: regulation

(EPR), new enterprises networks, certification

• The Stakeholder Corporation & democracy

Community / Small Business • The realm of cutting-edge alternatives in almost

every sector• Need for new & stronger networks• Local market power based on solid knowledge• Import substitution • Regenerative finance• Necessity of empowering all sections of the

community• Community development Plans & Indicators

Social Change Today

• Strategic priority of ALTERNATIVES over opposition.

• Community as the key locus for change, but every level requires action

• Need for long-term VISION• Need for incremental change and

PIONEER ENTERPRISES in ecological economic succession.

• Need for incentives/disincentives thoughout the entire economy.