melissa clark-reynolds on the role of entrepreneurship, hillary symposium

The Real New Deal

June 2009Melissa Clark-Reynolds

melissac@minimonos.comwww.minimonos.com

Why listen to me?

• 20 years as an entrepreneur• Multiple financial crises• Multiple environmental movements• Masters in Environmental Health• Ambassador for The Climate Project

Cast of characters

Act I: The ‘Infinite Resource’ Paradigm

If fish in a depleted ecosystem grow by 5% a year and the catch expands by 10% a year, the fishery will collapse. If the global economy keeps growing at 3% a year (or 1700% a century) it too will hit the wall.

Monbiot.com

Act II: The ‘Either/Or’ Paradigm

OR

• Stock market down more than 34% from October 2007 high

• U.S. Consumer Confidence at all-time low

Source: CNNMoney

Source: Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle Design

Source: Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle Design

We all go down together

We’re asking the wrong questions

• What is wealth?• What does ‘sustainable’ mean?• Oikos – Ecology and Economy

– Home?

Act III: A Sustainable Paradigm

‘Sustainable’ means

‘you can keep doing it’

Sustainability is smart

• Henry Ford paid his staff well enough for them to become customers

• Those customers kept his company growing

Sustainability is no luxury

• Forget about minimising footprint

• Any entity that only takes out of a system will ultimately fail

• Businesses must contribute to overall system

Sustainability is big business

• The Durst Organization has focused on the environment for nearly 100 years

• One Bryant Park: 2.1 million s.f.

• World’s most environmentally responsible high-rise office building

"Wealth consists of physical energy (as matter or radiation) combined with metaphysical know-what and know-how."

Buckminster Fuller "Critical Path", p.198

Beyond ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’

• Old ‘minimise everything’ thinking leads to zero• New ‘cherry tree’ thinking leads to sustainability

Image source: Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle Design

Not ONLY for profit

Not ONLY for profit

We need new questions

The answers are not just environmental.

They are social. Economic. Military. Lifestyle.

Ready or not, it’s happening

Get real or go home

• Individuals are moving• Businesses are moving• Government needs to catch up

There is no finish line

Kyoto was a starting pointCopenhagen is a starting pointNow is a starting pointWe all win or we all lose

Act IV: The Next Paradigm?

Thank you.

June 2009Melissa Clark-Reynolds

melissac@minimonos.comwww.minimonos.com