History: sustainable future

Source of version: 1 (current)

Our mission: Sustainability is a simple idea. It is based on the recognition that when resources are consumed faster than they are produced or renewed, the resource is depleted and eventually used up. In a sustainable world, society's demand on nature is in balance with nature's capacity to meet that demand. The Foundation for a Sustainable Future (FSF) is committed to a sustainable future for us, our children, and generations yet to come, for all life-forms on Spaceship Earth. We seek market-based approaches to achieving global sustainability. Our invitation: We invite you to participate in the creation of a sustainable future for the next millennium, and beyond. The opportunity: Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr says "...greentech is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century ...the next big thing". There are many fantastic new technologies that thousands of entrepreneurs are taking to market. But while there are a number of examples of promising technologies, in renewable energy production (biofuels, storage, solar, wind, tides, gasification, algae, CCS, powertrain efficiency etc), carbon capture, biotech, transportation, engineered materials etc, the world needs to be developed and deployed with higher velocity, by entrepreneurs who recognize the problems, and consequent opportunities and rewards for those who solve them. The venture community seems to have understood this, judging by the rapidly increasing investment into sustainable technologies. FSF works towards informing and involving the business, political and academic communities, to catalyze the process of integrating sustainability into the design of the economic structures and systems of tomorrow. Our concern: Humans have quite completely dominated nature. The human race is using the Earth’s resources much faster than they are being regenerated. Economic activities with a predictable ROI meeting the investment hurdle rate are typically approved. Since externalities and boundary conditions are not part of the equation, overshoot (consuming nature’s capital account, rather than living off the interest) has been the predictable result, and it will occur within the next several decades, certainly within our lifetime. The signs are evident and abundant. The eventual consequences could result in some unappealing situations. In 2001, humans consumed 49% of the biosphere's renewable resources. Over 40 years, this has increased over 250%, to the point that we now consume significantly more than the earth's annual renewable resources, and are now consuming its capital stock. In order to construct an alternate future, we need several paradigm shifts to reduce humanity’s Ecological Footprint, our impact on the planet’s biosphere. The choices we make now will determine whether we have acceptable options far into the future. The context -- Putting the Jigsaw Puzzle Together: Comprehending the bigger picture of global sustainability encompasses inextricably interconnected issues such as geometric population growth, escalating increases in per capita consumption, toxic environmental pollution, global warming and climate change, externalities which are not incorporated into economic and business models, rapidly depleting non-renewable natural resources and materials, damaging ecological impacts of activities such as monoculture, aquifers sucked dry, animal/ecosystem habitat destruction and population collapse, soil erosion and desertification, exhausted ocean fish-stocks, wholesale mammal species extinctions, rainforest logging and clearing – the biomass capital of the world being rapidly consumed, following encroachment of apex-predator humans into every part of the world – these are all pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]--> The extinction of most other life forms on the planet is the price being paid for increasing per capita consumption by untrammeled increases in human populations. At this rate, its unsustainable. So, how will it end? Humans need to change to holistic social, political and economic paradigms in conducting our activities on the planet, both for the survival of the planet earth as an ecosystem, and for every species in it, including humans, so succeeding generations can live into a future that is worth living. Our postulates: * to date, few governments have made the systemic changes needed, even though the data are widely known * private citizens and citizen-led institutions therefore must take the lead, by default * business organizations are efficient, self-correcting, non-coercive mechanisms for solving problems * business can be used as a engine for creating global sustainability * to be sustainable, an enterprise must be profitable * solutions to today's problems should not create bigger problems tomorrow. Our credo: * sustainability can be consistent with profitability * self-interest can be congruent with the public interest * doing good” can be synonymous with “doing well” ^ each one of us can make a difference; and working together, we can succeed in building a sustainable future Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs into the indefinite future, using currently available technology, and that also respects other species need to survive and thrive. Sustainability is humans turning junk into resources faster than humans turn resources into junk. Let’s lay the Foundation for a Sustainable Future!

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Sun 14 of Sep, 2008 19:54 GMT anonymous	1

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