PRINCIPLE 8

Scale Matters; Only Business Can Save the Planet

In brief: The environmental challenge has reached the point where consumer-driven change is insufficient. While for-profit firms were the main cause of the problem, they are also the main hope for a solution. Scale is vital and large firms must do much more if we are to create a sustainable economic system.

When we begin to internalize Principle 7, we begin to understand the scale of the changes that are necessary. This leads to two conclusions: First, we cannot get there via higher levels of consumption—at least, not with our current economic model that equates progress with waste.1 A more dramatic change is necessary. At the end of his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Al ...

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