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.