Chapter 4
Mapping an Emerging New Economic
Paradigm in Practice
Recognizing the importance of mind-sets in the sustainability transition allows an opportunity to reflect and examine underlying assumptions, identify shared values and cultivate
common ground. Each of these contributes to defining the shared goals and the compelling
visions necessary to bring these changes about.
UNEP, GEO-5 (2012: 422).
Driving the system to do more will not be enough if something different is needed. When
the goals and ends of the system are in question, then systems innovation has to focus not
merely on new means but on a new purpose.
Leadbeater and Mulgan, Systems Innovation (2013: 46).
Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the
steps, we must step up the stairs.
Vaclav Havel
Transformation research is close to innovation research and practice in its emphasis
on experimentation and the role that pioneers play when it comes to testing new
solutions. Many corporations have similar prototype programs or cross-finance one
unit to explore different practices. In recent years in particular, this has also been
about making things more sustainably. But no corporation manages to make sustainable production the core benchmark of their business model. Instead, most of
the 1000 Global Compact CEOs interviewed by Accenture in 2013 have lamented
that sustainability is “not bankable.” The Global Compact is a UN initiative that
was launched by Kofi Annan as Secretary General with the goal of improving
reporting by big corporations on their contributions to sustainable development and
human rights. Unlike 2009 respondents, during the first round of interviews many
of the CEOs of participating corporations were ‘frustrated’ that market, investment
and reporting structures made the business case for sustainability nearly impossible.
Without state regulation, the company bosses stated, they could not get out of what
they called “pilot paralysis,” in which some small-scale individual projects or units
become champions for sustainability but can never scale up. Business therefore
seems to have reached its “plateau in advancing sustainability” before “radical,
structural change of markets and systems” make further reaching reorientations of
investments and restructuration of value chains possible (Accenture 2013: 5).
© The Author(s) 2016
M. Göpel, The Great Mindshift, The Anthropocene:
Politik—Economics—Society—Science 2, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43766-8_4
119
Mapping an Emerging New Economic
Paradigm in Practice
Recognizing the importance of mind-sets in the sustainability transition allows an opportunity to reflect and examine underlying assumptions, identify shared values and cultivate
common ground. Each of these contributes to defining the shared goals and the compelling
visions necessary to bring these changes about.
UNEP, GEO-5 (2012: 422).
Driving the system to do more will not be enough if something different is needed. When
the goals and ends of the system are in question, then systems innovation has to focus not
merely on new means but on a new purpose.
Leadbeater and Mulgan, Systems Innovation (2013: 46).
Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the
steps, we must step up the stairs.
Vaclav Havel
Transformation research is close to innovation research and practice in its emphasis
on experimentation and the role that pioneers play when it comes to testing new
solutions. Many corporations have similar prototype programs or cross-finance one
unit to explore different practices. In recent years in particular, this has also been
about making things more sustainably. But no corporation manages to make sustainable production the core benchmark of their business model. Instead, most of
the 1000 Global Compact CEOs interviewed by Accenture in 2013 have lamented
that sustainability is “not bankable.” The Global Compact is a UN initiative that
was launched by Kofi Annan as Secretary General with the goal of improving
reporting by big corporations on their contributions to sustainable development and
human rights. Unlike 2009 respondents, during the first round of interviews many
of the CEOs of participating corporations were ‘frustrated’ that market, investment
and reporting structures made the business case for sustainability nearly impossible.
Without state regulation, the company bosses stated, they could not get out of what
they called “pilot paralysis,” in which some small-scale individual projects or units
become champions for sustainability but can never scale up. Business therefore
seems to have reached its “plateau in advancing sustainability” before “radical,
structural change of markets and systems” make further reaching reorientations of
investments and restructuration of value chains possible (Accenture 2013: 5).
© The Author(s) 2016
M. Göpel, The Great Mindshift, The Anthropocene:
Politik—Economics—Society—Science 2, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43766-8_4
119