Gerd Leonhard, Green Futurist and Keynote Speaker,

Hosting a two-day conference for forest scientists at St James’s Palace in London, the Prince of Wales satirised those who stand in the way of climate action, characterising them as “the confirmed sceptics” and “the international association of corporate lobbyists”. Faced with these forces of opposition, “science finds itself up the proverbial double blind gum tree”, he added.

You’d like to see that happening again now. But the data show that it just isn’t happening as fast. We’re having the automation and the job destruction; we’re not having the creation at the same pace. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to find these new jobs. It may be that machines are better than that.

That said, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, because ultimately the purpose of economic progress and technological progress is to be able to create more wealth with less work. I mean, isn’t that what we want? More wealth with less work? So, if we are in a Star-Trek economy, where replicators create all the essentials that we need, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing if we can have an economic system that matches to it and find a way that people can share in that benefit. And people can still continue to find meaning and value in life.

O’Reilly argues that the concept of a business that exists solely for the purpose of making money for its shareholders is fundamentally flawed. Every business has an obligation to create value.

Gerd adds: great summary of where the future of capitalism is going !

Can someone remind me why this is ‘progress’ ?

For Savitz, the work “comes from the heart and then through the head.” In addition, it is rooted in the practice of Tikkun Olam — the Jewish teaching that each individual must do her or his part to repair the world.

In fact, 71% (that seems to be the magic number here) of people surveyed said that they wished companies would do a better job in communicating environmental terms. But that’s not say companies should go too far in their messaging; 78% of consumers say they’ll boycott a product if they find out that its environmental claims are misleading.