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There is this political meme spreading all over the world: “Go green = rescue the economy, create jobs and save the planet!”. Politicians and CEOs alike have a high demand for simple messages like this, especially in times of economic recession. It is no surprise, that lobbyism and political gutlessness is diluting some measurements. But don’t lose faith in the green turnaround, – thanks to the new “State of Green Business” report you have reasons for optimism. There are some nice facts and forecasts in Joel Makover’s (GreenBiz.com) report. Here are just some of them.
Green design
Just have look at the steep curve with certification as an indicator ( State of Green Business, p59 ). More stuff: greenerdesign.com
Chart from "State of Green Business Report" 2009 (stateofgreenbusiness.com)
Green investments
- Venture capital investment in green technologies soared to a record $7.6 billion
- There were about 350 “funding events” in 2008 ( State of Green Business, p28 )
Chart from "State of Green Business Report" 2009 (stateofgreenbusiness.com)
Early switchers at earth2tech.com
Fears and hopes
Guess you know Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (youtube). When the wall came down in Berlin some 19 years ago it happened that this easy swinging a cappella sound was the somehow perfect soundtrack for the ambiguity in the mood of the reunified Germans. Ambiguity of fears and hopes – and what followed really was political “change management XXL” – with the inevitable pains of transformation.
Now, this is end of October 2008 and I feel a certain resemblance to the situation of 1989. In these days a lot of commentators suppose that the financial crisis is just the beginning of a longer lasting downturn of the global economy.
One last look back
Futurists and scenario planning people are prepared for the discontinuities of complex systems. This time the wild card was to expect. Warnings date back to 2006 (nypost.com) and even 2004 (abajournal.com). By the way recession cycles of market economy are observed since its beginnings. And Talebs book about the improbable “black swan” has been written in 2007. But who wants to hear bad news? We have to. That’s why we are implementing early warning systems and pay experts, even futurists.
Looking forward – Opportunities in times of transformation
This is the time of cutbacks and layoffs, but that is only the one side. At O’Reilly’s Web2Expo Europe some days ago I heard Robin Daniels (Salesforce.com / Cloud Computing: Freedom to Focus on Innovation”). One of the messages was: “Don’t optimize, but innovate!”. So don’t worry to much, Read the rest of this entry »
