Bursting the Green Bubble Takes Leadership

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat and a columnist for the New York Times, wrote an editorial piece in the New York Times recently about greentech and the green strategies of governments which ended with these words:

“We have a multigenerational problem that requires a systemic, multigenerational response, and that can happen only if we get our energy prices right. Only that will guarantee green innovation and commercialization at scale. Anything less is wasted breath and wasted money — and any candidate [for the Presidency] who says otherwise is only contributing to global warming by adding hot air.”

His point is that many of the “solutions” being touted to global warming are small scale and that the pace of change is too slow to make a difference.

Key to all of this, in his view, is the pricing of energy – changing behaviour through market is how real change will occur.

Several steps would be needed to make this happen. First, there would be a need to challenge energy producers to reduce carbon emissions significantly – adding costs to the supply chain, well to wheel. Second, it would be helpful to demand that cars can travel additional km’s from a litre of gas – creating better use of the gasoline or gas-ethanol blends. Third, there would be a need to increase gasoline taxes and reinvest the additional funds in public transport systems and infrastructure. Fourth, there would be a need to increase royalty rates from wells and oil production – adding yet more costs to the supply chain. Finally, a green tax on all forms of air transport – people and goods – would further demonstrate that CO2 emissions - e.g. a tax on air travel that went into a carbon offset fund.

When gas at the pump gets to be $4.50 to $5.50 a litre here in Canada, then social behaviour may change.

So too will other things. Poverty will increase – food prices and costs of almost all goods will increase significantly. Travel will become very expensive – a tank of gasoline for a trip to Calgary from Edmonton would cost $275 – economic activity would slow.

It’s a tough call. No one is willing to make it. But a true renaissance leader would show the courage and determination to do so - wouldn't she?

Energy - The 21st Century Renaissance

If we need evidence that a renaissance is taking place, look at the energy sector.

Since the emergence of personal transport felled by gasoline after the second world war and the installation of electricity in every home, burning carbon based fuels became a normative way on producing energy. We were not concerned about the green house gas effects of carbon emissions in the 1950's or 1980's and only started to become concerned in the early 1990's and seriously since 2000 as evidence mounted that global warming was occurring and that carbon had something to do with it.

As we move towards a zero carbon emissions economy as an ideal, energy is suddenly experiencing a renaissance, both in terms of technology and innovation but also in terms of how it is perceived. CleanTech energy - wind, solar, hydro and thermal - is emerging as a substantial industry, attracting very large amounts of investment. Integrated energy systems - using coal and other forms of energy supply in an integrated way - is an active discussion. Clean coal technologies, carbon capture and storage (sequestration), biofuels and bioenergy are all active conversations and developments.

Energy is truly an area where a renaissance is taking place and where leadership is required to ensure that the renaissance is sustained in a way that helps to continue to provide both affordable and clean energy.

To read more about what is going on in energy, take a look at the Energy Futures Network website by clicking here.

The Challenge

We are living through a new swing point in history, which began somewhere around 1970 with the coming together of a host of new realities (social and cultural, technological, economic, ecological, and political).

Some of the key drivers of change for this new era were the tremendous increase in global competition, the changing nature of competition, the explosion of new technologies (particularly information and communication technology) the emergence of global capital markets (made possible by the new information technologies) and dramatic changes in demographic patterns.

The arrival of this new economy has sparked a global, organizational revolution. Government policy-makers and business organizations around the world now find themselves needing to figure out the new rules of the game and quickly develop strategies and skills that will allow them to compete successfully. In essence, they need to get into shape to play the game.

The “playing field” is based on knowledge as a critical resource and is global in scale. The new economic challenges, however, are not simply faced by companies relying on international trade. They affect all firms in a country (and indeed throughout the world). More importantly, the challenges directly affect many other aspects of our lives. Our health care and education systems, social services, arts, and cultural activities all depend on the revenue obtained from the income of the market sector. Thus, organizations in all areas are being challenged to transform themselves to function successfully in this new knowledge economy.

Only nations (regions and cities) that continue to create new wealth can sustain high-quality physical, social, economic, political, and cultural environments.

The New Renaissance of the Knowledge Age
A thesaurus offers synonyms for “renaissance” such as regeneration, revitalization, rejuvenation, and reawakening. Antonyms (opposite meaning) include words such as failure, decline, decay, decadence, and deterioration.

The word “renaissance,” in modern times, has come to denote new energy, new thinking, and new initiatives in a wide variety of areas. The term is also used to refer to people who have the capacity to integrate important elements from a range of disciplines and from a variety of sectors (manufacturing, retail, high tech, health, sports, education, nonprofits, and the arts).

In the 1980s, prophetic voices began to speak of the need for “Renaissance Leaders”. (One of the first business leaders to speak in these terms was Walter Light of Northern Electric – now Nortel). Slowly leaders have been appearing who demonstrate many of the required new skills such as:

• Exhibiting insight (into globalization and the knowledge economy)
• Practising innovation (putting new knowledge into action in a manner that makes a difference in performance)
• Utilizing imagination as the foundation for innovation (the ability to apply out-of-the-box thinking in dealing with complex challenges)
• Nurturing collaboration and co-creation (helping diverse groups to work together efficiently and effectively to co-create new products and processes)
• Practising Systems Thinking (the ability to see the big picture and to integrate content, development concepts, implementation processes, learning, and leadership skills to utilize new information and communication technologies)
• Inspiring others (ability to excite others to function in this manner)
• Honouring diversity (acknowledging the critical need for diverse ideas and approaches to support breakthrough innovations)

Our Global Innovation Network is an attempt to help people get into the spirit of this kind of leadership. So we are looking to connect successful and aspiring innovators from a variety of sectors (business firms, non profits, government agencies). In searching globally for these modern day Renaissance leaders, we are posing intriguing questions such as: Where is the modern day Florence, Venice or Rome? Which communities (physical or virtual) are exhibiting the ability to function as rich enabling environments for the new renaissance leaders, for the breakthrough innovations they are trying to stimulate, and for the new style organizations they are creating? What is the nature of these new wealth creating organizations and what is the nature of the supporting organizations necessary to nurture growth in the knowledge economy?

This is our exciting challenge!

Donald Simpsons Thinking...

This from Don Simpsons's 2002 writing:

The term “Renaissance” literally means rebirth and was coined initially to describe a major transitional period in Europe between medieval and modern times.

The rebirth was initially focused on culture and learning but these focal points led to breakthroughs in the arts, in science, in business and in the transformation of organizations.

Our driving assumption is that we are in the midst of another one of those great swing points in history (such as the 15th century Italian Renaissance) when a whole new view of the world is emerging and is sparking an organizational revolution which is impacting on all sectors increasingly throughout the last decade and dramatically since the infamous events of September 11. We are all gaining sense that we are living through a period in which the incredible has become the inevitable. In periods of fundamental change, such as the one in which we are living, it is the innovators who help our organizations survive and thrive.

The Innovation Expedition has been engaged in a global search for breakthrough innovators, or what we might refer to as modern day Renaissance Leaders – those individuals with an unusual capacity for viewing the world holistically, for drawing on ideas and best practices from diverse disciplines and for using their imagination as the foundation for innovative initiatives that create breakthrough solutions and help build high performing organizations that can make a significant difference in developing sustainable prosperity and quality of life in communities.

Concept of Renaissance Cities (regions)

In the Italian Renaissance the enabling environment for nurturing and supporting the emergence and testing of the new ideals was centered in a few outstanding cities. Florence provided the cradle for this rebirth but by the early 16th C Venice and Rome had emulated this energy and become its equal. Rotterdam through the leadership of Erasmus became the major Renaissance city in northern Europe.

We have been suggesting for a decade that we might benefit by drawing on lessons from the Italian Renaissance and that metaphorically that we are engaged in a modern day renaissance. As it was in Florence so it is true again today. Economic growth depends on innovation, and innovation depends on creative, enterprising people. But creative people want to engage with other creative people and need an environment that nurtures innovation.

So in some exploratory activity with the Foresight Group in Sweden the Innovation Expedition in 2000 has engaged leaders from eight different countries in pursuing, intriguing questions such as “Where is the modern day Florence, Venice or Rome, which cities (or regions) in the world are exhibiting the ability to function as rich enabling environments for the new renaissance leaders and for the new style organizations they are creating?” What is the nature of these new wealth creating organizations and what is the nature of supporting organizations necessary to nurture growth in the new knowledge economy?

The Challenge

If you have not seen the video/slide show called "Shift Happens" you should - it speaks to a rapidly changing world in which knowledge and access to knowledge will change rapidly and, in doing so, so will the balance of real power. Take a look at this video by clicking here.

But that's not all. The world is being changed by climate change, technological innovation and instant communication. Think about these likely developments:

• Demographic shifts changing the pattern of work, leisure, retirement
• Health care demands rise faster than our ability to pay for the system
• Innovations in health include robotic medicine and personalized delivery of drugs matched to our DNA
• Global warming impacts on water, crops and food supply
• Moves to a clean carbon economy increase fuel and transport costs by 40%
• By 2015 an iPod should be able to carry all the books in the library of congress and all movies ever made..
• Russia, Brazil, India and China will become the major engines of economic growth in the world

So the future isnt what it used to be.

In fact, the future is already here, it is just not widely distributed yet,