My Earth Challenge. ~ Enable the ESSENTIAL VALUE Economy.

The ONE-PLANET WORLD

Like the addicts we are, we must recognise that we can only cure ourselves if we first recognise our addiction, the hugely ineffective use of Energy and physical resources to create largely non-essential value and ‘Loss to Society’. The ‘cure’ lies in the First Law of Sustainability, as stated below, and the One-Planet Equation,

1 = P*EV*(RI+ ‘Loss to Society’)

Where P = population (growth), EV = Essential Value = ‘In the Limit’ consumption (growth) and RI = resource intensity of Essential Value.

‘Loss to Society’ is that loss of time and limited resources; forgone opportunity and misplaced ingenuity arising through the creation, use and disposal of non-essential value.

Essential Value is that which, under constraint, if equitably distributed, enables an adequate Quality of Life and maximises the spiritual fulfilment and wellbeing of all citizens.

Having accepted this then the explicit way forward is to apply research, legislation, incentives, and ingenuity to drive down, as fast as possible, the resource intensity of essential goods and services and eliminate the ‘Loss to Society’ it creates for itself. Only in this way can we have Essential economic growth and the increasing availability of Essential goods and services (Value).

From this point all decisions must be based on whether, on the balance of probabilities, actions will lead to the reduction of Resource Intensity + ‘Loss to Society ‘and contribute to the actual, rather than the perceived needs and well-being of society and citizens.

First Law of Sustainability

The One-Planet Equation is the First Law of Sustainability. In words it can be expressed?“In a resource constrained environment; in the limit, Essential Value can only grow at the rate at which its Resource Intensity + ‘Loss to Society’ can be reduced.” If the consuming population is static.

Note – That the One-Planet Equation is not to be interpreted as an exact mathematical formula but a Mind Model that relates the availability of resources and their consumption and in the real, inequitable world, different people are consuming at different rates and P*EV is an aggregated total.

It is only valid if a resource or sink is constrained (in extremis this can be just one source or sink such as the atmosphere) and when a resource is constrained then both sides of the equal sign must remain equal to 1

The implication is clear though, that if we want populations to have an increasing access to Essential Value; the amount of resource per unit of consumption, per capita, -?resource intensity + ’Loss to Society’,?must be continually reduced and leads to the first law of sustainability as defined above.

Inheriting the Future

It means, therefore, that organisations must consider the implications of the need to reduce their Resource Intensity plus their ‘Loss to Society’, in line with the One-Planet Equation. This requires transformational change brought about by QUALITY based Systems Thinking.

Strategic consideration of the appropriateness of a business model ?must be continually undertaken in the light of the First Law of Sustainability, which can be alternatively stated as – ‘in a resource constrained environment, Essential Value in goods and services can only grow at the rate at which they can be dematerialised’ in a static population with constant ‘Loss to Society’.

At the present time?this is not the way organisations are looking at the future – but wishing and hoping that things will return to a 'multi-planet ‘normal’. This is not possible as yesterday’s ‘normal’ has proved to be but a trick with smoke and mirrors.

Of course, underlying all this is the reality that?the?‘least resource intense process is the one that doesn’t exist’?and that in the future Doing the Right Thing will require ‘dematerialising’ many products and services to zero. (Eliminating non-essential value, i.e., waste)

The societies and organisations that recognise this and?‘keep ahead of the net useful energy curve’?will be the ones who inherit the future.

In a world where resources and waste sinks available are constrained, “societies and organisations must work to identify, maximise, defend, retain and equitably distribute, over time, the Essential Value needed for prosperity and growth.”

This must be the sole aim of Governance and it must do this at continually decreasing Resource Intensity, the resource use per person per unit of Essential Value created or retained, whilst continually decreasing the Failure Demand created (Loss to Society), caused by not doing the right thing, not doing it right or not doing it right every time.

The Democratic Process must be evolved to be a Virtuous Circle for Essential Value Creation, retention, and equitable distribution. It must be an in-process controlled system that takes a synergy and the knowledge and skills of its stakeholders to enable process learning.

After sensing external factors, it must apply the limited ingenuity and creativity within society to improve the process. In-process control is exercised by civil, regional, and local services and democratic accountability is exercised by Parliament, regional and local government.

There must be no direct connection between democratic accountability and in-process control. the connection is through a 'moderator' and political parties and their agents can only change control factors through an, independently moderated, Essential Value and Resource Intensity Impact Assessment." (This is the most contentious statement in a system that does not recognise it is under inexorable constraint. It is also what will destroy a system under constraint if the issue is not resolved. How does a system under constraint enable proactive, long-term action free of short-term, ad-hoc ministerial meddling?)

The Importance of reducing ‘Loss to Society’

From the above discussion, and the definition of ‘Loss to Society’ it should be clear that, as consuming population is largely fixed or continuing to grow, and the absolute Resource Intensity of Essential Value will only reduce at the rate it can be ‘dematerialised’ and improved. The burden of balancing the One-Planet Equation falls to the continual reduction in ‘Loss to Society’. That is, the identification and elimination of non-essential value; much of which lies in the way Governance, Civil and Private Institutions and enterprises, and Citizens, order and organise their affairs.

The GREEN Chimera.

The labelling of certain technologies, products, and processes as GREEN, is a dangerous chimera. All such technologies, products, and processes contain losses, non-essential value, that must be eliminated. The cosy GREEN label camouflages this fatal reality.