Point of crisis... Changing the rules...

[Winston Kinch]

Hallo friends:

Whether we are at a "point" of crisis, or approaching one, or are already sliding down the hill, is moot.  But as some of you have pointed out, we do have the choice of how we respond.

Something that has been rambling around in my mind recently is the old saying which goes something like "if you don't like the game, change the rules".

My sense is that even well meaning projects/programs like "The Natural Step" - which attempt to educate and cajole corporate leadership into more "responsible" or "sustainable" or " restorative" behaviours - will fail as presently constituted because they do not pay attention to this axiom. And although I have only read excerpts so far, it seems likely that "Natural Capitalism" may also be guilty of this omission since it appears to approach the issue of valuation of natural capital but then bypass it in favor of programs like "radical resource productivity improvement" (I'm currently reading Korten's "When Corporations rule the World" so maybe I'll find all the answers there - but I doubt it...)

It seems to me that a related possible winning strategy, which could be positioned as not inimical to anyone's interest, is to change the way we keep score: to work toward a situation where the environmental effects of our actions are not "off balance sheet" but are in fact mandated on the books of corporations and play a direct part in determining the bottom line - which in turn determines behaviour (put another way, I can imagine a "novum organum" in which debits and credits reach beyond the proverbial wall and window to include the whole outdoors!).

I can further imagine a transitional world in which both "old" and "extended" sets of books are required (the old both/and) and where significant financial benefits (in particular) would accrue - say via tax implications - from differential, salutary environmental actions. What tickles me about this is that it seems as though... but I ramble... 

Friends, I know this is not new stuff. But I wonder if any of you has pondered it as a way forward or might point me to recent writings/work/organizations active in the arena...

Respectfully submitted,
Winston
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