I really like the idea of Millennium Consumption Goals. Instead of fixating on what needs to happen in the developing world through the (failing) Millennium Development Goals, what about us in the rich world fessing up to our role in inequality and over-use?
The publication of two significant works within the past fortnight signposts a welcome shift in conversation about New Economics and ‘new’ business models in the wake of the great crises of our time.
A new report The Consumption Dilemma launched by the WEF last week in Davos has an interesting section talking about the shifts from ‘consumer’ to ‘citizen’ which we first discussed in Citizen Renaissance. The report quotes Citizen Renaissance co-author Robert saying “We are sensing a return to citizen, rather than consumer, values – proof positive that it is...
As Professor Tim Jackson says in his TED talk we live in times where we “spend money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last, on people we don’t care about.” As we have written in Citizen Renaissance, our hyper-consumerist lifestyles are fueled by unsustainable credit-bubble, debt-based growth which...
Today’s publication of the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer, also covered in The FT, confirms the re-alignment of Trust in the wake of the great crises of recent years.
I just read a tweet by someone who follows me on Twitter, via Solitaire Townsend, on a piece by New Scientist’s environment correspondent Fred Pearce which suggests that greed will save us from the impending perfect storm.
Great Edelman event this week all about the Big Society. Nick Hurd MP explained his view of what Big Society actually means. Peter Oborne journo'ed it out with Kevin Maguire while the other two panellists - Greenpeace's John Sauven and London 2012 Chair John Armitt CBE - both provided interesting perspectives.
It is, admittedly, early days but opinion is divided as to whether David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is a genuine commitment to citizenship and civic responsibility or a clever ideological play to dramatically reduce the size of the state, delivering a Grantham fist within a Notting Hill glove.
The government has announced a wellbeing review. What might this mean and why is this an important and welcome sign of progressiveness? In conventional wisdom, economic growth and higher incomes mean richer lives and improved quality of life. But, as the Happy Planet Index shows, true prosperity goes beyond material pleasures.
