This is an important book for businesses and organisations. Moving from the expansionism of GDP grow to harmonisation is basically the message of Jason Hickel in “Less is More”.
There are a number of obvious technologies which need to be replaced and quickly (ranging from, for example, factory farm agriculture, mass fossil fuel aviation, shareholder value maximisation, and the interest-bearing debt based monetary system) – basically rapid system change.
Le Flufy asks what should an economy of harmonisation look like? He suggests:
• Systemic adaptability – many industries will have to shrink or close.
• Environmental responsibility – we need to begin to regenerate our environment.
• Global solidarity – equity is needed across regions and peoples.
• Local sufficiency – “we should increase our regional resilience by building more self-sufficient local economies that are connected to the global economy without being completely dependent upon it.”
• Material security – everyone must have their basic needs met.
I was delighted to see that Le Flufy started with Doughnut Economics and Kate Raworth with her seven doughnut principles of practice and the DEAL. It was particularly interesting to see how the social thresholds/biophysical boundaries model was used to imagine moving to humanity’s sweet spot. (A to D, B to D, C to D in Figure 4). The concept of city doughnuts (eg Amsterdam) may take off more quickly that country wide doughnuts.
The next technology was the circular economy “embedding circularity throughout the product lifecycle, including product design, business models and consumer behaviour.
Circular pioneers were the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and other examples were the Toronto Tool Library, Ecovative – using natures materials, Miniwiz – inventing new materials
Teemill – making materials circular in t-shirt manufacture and Riversimple – extending sale or service into the supply chain.
Riversimple was also used as the example of the Future Guardian model of governance “which redefines the purpose of business, so that businesses balance and protect the interests of all their stakeholders rather than simply making money for shareholders.”
In the Regenerative Organisations chapter Fab Labs, Transition Network, Bendigo Community Banks, and Open Source Ecology helped local economies while facilitating global networks.
Positive Money, a not-for-profit organisation based in London, propose a new sovereign money system where private banks are not allowed to create new money at all. Instead, a public institution (Monetary Creation Committee) creates commercial money. Digital cash is electronic money only created by the central bank (and not as a loan) in the form of account balances. If every adult individual had an account with their central bank this would be an ideal way to introduce a global universal basic income.
To prevent the amount of money in the economy ever increasing in the SMS it is possible to create and destroy money. The government (central bank/ MCC) will be able to put new money into the economy (a) by increasing government spending, (b) by cutting taxes, (c) by making direct payments to citizens (UBI) and (d) by paying down the national debt. Broadly speaking, the amount of money in the economy should match the amount of goods and services to avoid inflation/deflation. When the economy is shrinking, the money supply should shrink with it (discontinue loans from the central bank or remove money from the government account at the central bank). I like the fact that implementing a SMS is a way in which smaller countries could positively affect the global financial system by moving first and perhaps transition to a globally applicable model.
“SMS creates a more stable financial system, and it gives us new tools with which to navigate the transition to a decarbonised economy. At a more local level, complementary currencies show how we can design new types of money to strengthen specific areas of local economies and protect communities from the shocks to the global financial system.”
In his conclusion, Le Flufy shows how implemented together each of these technologies become more than the sum of the parts. Using Teemill as the example of circular clothing, the Fab Cloud database, 3D printing technology and regenerative organisational structures “would allow companies in the Global South to leapfrog the most environmentally damaging parts of development.” Communities will want to contribute to the capital costs of their own development, but I wonder if a global central bank working in conjunction with a world parliament could use SMS ideas to drive system change faster.
A very readable book and informative about one of the most important, and most ignored, perils: Sparing Nature: The Conflict Between Human Population Growth and Earth's Biodiversity, by a recognized authority. I will be nominating it and encourage others to do the same.
Sadly, It's Not 'Just Another Summer.' We Must End the Fossil Fuel Industry. It's not likely that humanity will go extinct, but I do think we are on a sociopolitical pathway—fossil fuel expansion—that will end civilization as we know it, cause billions of human deaths, and further worsen widespread ecological collapse and mass extinction—damage that will take millions of years for Earth to recover from.
This is an important book for businesses and organisations. Moving from the expansionism of GDP grow to harmonisation is basically the message of Jason Hickel in “Less is More”.
There are a number of obvious technologies which need to be replaced and quickly (ranging from, for example, factory farm agriculture, mass fossil fuel aviation, shareholder value maximisation, and the interest-bearing debt based monetary system) – basically rapid system change.
Le Flufy asks what should an economy of harmonisation look like? He suggests:
• Systemic adaptability – many industries will have to shrink or close.
• Environmental responsibility – we need to begin to regenerate our environment.
• Global solidarity – equity is needed across regions and peoples.
• Local sufficiency – “we should increase our regional resilience by building more self-sufficient local economies that are connected to the global economy without being completely dependent upon it.”
• Material security – everyone must have their basic needs met.
I was delighted to see that Le Flufy started with Doughnut Economics and Kate Raworth with her seven doughnut principles of practice and the DEAL. It was particularly interesting to see how the social thresholds/biophysical boundaries model was used to imagine moving to humanity’s sweet spot. (A to D, B to D, C to D in Figure 4). The concept of city doughnuts (eg Amsterdam) may take off more quickly that country wide doughnuts.
The next technology was the circular economy “embedding circularity throughout the product lifecycle, including product design, business models and consumer behaviour.
Circular pioneers were the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and other examples were the Toronto Tool Library, Ecovative – using natures materials, Miniwiz – inventing new materials
Teemill – making materials circular in t-shirt manufacture and Riversimple – extending sale or service into the supply chain.
Riversimple was also used as the example of the Future Guardian model of governance “which redefines the purpose of business, so that businesses balance and protect the interests of all their stakeholders rather than simply making money for shareholders.”
In the Regenerative Organisations chapter Fab Labs, Transition Network, Bendigo Community Banks, and Open Source Ecology helped local economies while facilitating global networks.
Positive Money, a not-for-profit organisation based in London, propose a new sovereign money system where private banks are not allowed to create new money at all. Instead, a public institution (Monetary Creation Committee) creates commercial money. Digital cash is electronic money only created by the central bank (and not as a loan) in the form of account balances. If every adult individual had an account with their central bank this would be an ideal way to introduce a global universal basic income.
To prevent the amount of money in the economy ever increasing in the SMS it is possible to create and destroy money. The government (central bank/ MCC) will be able to put new money into the economy (a) by increasing government spending, (b) by cutting taxes, (c) by making direct payments to citizens (UBI) and (d) by paying down the national debt. Broadly speaking, the amount of money in the economy should match the amount of goods and services to avoid inflation/deflation. When the economy is shrinking, the money supply should shrink with it (discontinue loans from the central bank or remove money from the government account at the central bank). I like the fact that implementing a SMS is a way in which smaller countries could positively affect the global financial system by moving first and perhaps transition to a globally applicable model.
“SMS creates a more stable financial system, and it gives us new tools with which to navigate the transition to a decarbonised economy. At a more local level, complementary currencies show how we can design new types of money to strengthen specific areas of local economies and protect communities from the shocks to the global financial system.”
In his conclusion, Le Flufy shows how implemented together each of these technologies become more than the sum of the parts. Using Teemill as the example of circular clothing, the Fab Cloud database, 3D printing technology and regenerative organisational structures “would allow companies in the Global South to leapfrog the most environmentally damaging parts of development.” Communities will want to contribute to the capital costs of their own development, but I wonder if a global central bank working in conjunction with a world parliament could use SMS ideas to drive system change faster.
Mark Dick
A very readable book and informative about one of the most important, and most ignored, perils: Sparing Nature: The Conflict Between Human Population Growth and Earth's Biodiversity, by a recognized authority. I will be nominating it and encourage others to do the same.
The health community is now viewing climate and biodiversity crises as one and the same and also a heath emergency
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2355
World breaches key 1.5C warming mark for record number of days.
On about a third of days in 2023, the average global temperature was at least 1.5C higher than pre-industrial levels.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66857354
Sadly, It's Not 'Just Another Summer.' We Must End the Fossil Fuel Industry. It's not likely that humanity will go extinct, but I do think we are on a sociopolitical pathway—fossil fuel expansion—that will end civilization as we know it, cause billions of human deaths, and further worsen widespread ecological collapse and mass extinction—damage that will take millions of years for Earth to recover from.
https://www.newsweek.com/sadly-its-not-just-another-summer-we-must-end-fossil-fuel-industry-opinion-1832188