Changing for the Planet

The Lift Conference #11 is taking place from 6 to 8 July 2011 in France.

In 2009, Gunter Pauli, the Belgian entrepreneur and visionary made a compelling exposé of how we can change to stop polluting. Not reduce our polluting habits but rethink radically our ways of building, fishing, eating, interacting and innovating to stop waste and pollution altogether.

So you may be thinking he is a crazy granola living in lala land but, in 1982, Pauli created and ran a successful enterprise manufacturing biodegradable soaps. The factory itself was entirely recyclable and he paid his workers 50 Euro cents for each mile travelled if they used their bicycles. He was sued by the Belgian government for not paying social security taxes on that expense. He lost the case but eventually won when, in 1994, Belgium became the first country in the world to offer tax deductions for riding your bike to work.

“The wisdom of the past will not take us into the future,” he contends and whilst we may agree, it seems we are still seeking the wisdom of the future.

In this hour-long presentation, he presents numerous examples that make his stance perfectly reasonable and attainable. In his view, the new sustainable business models we seek must begin with refusing to accept “unintended consequences” or “collateral damage”. He calls it “Nature’s MBA” and the four case studies he presents illustrate that the contempt we have for Nature has prevented us from identifying some of its systems as obvious solutions to our troubles. It may not be too late.

“We have to engage in creative learning all the time and make it happen.” Words to live by.

Gunter Pauli on Biomimetism (Lift France 09, EN) from Lift Conference on Vimeo.