Growth & Sustainability: how do we do that?
It was quite a contrast. My first meeting last Wednesday was organised by the Royal Society for Arts in Birmingham entitled “Creating a Democratic Economy”, with a number of presentations about sustainable finance, and a back drop of discussion about sustainability. In short – can we as a “developed” society continue to focus on economic growth measured by GDP?
On the way back to the railway station, noticing I had half an hour before my train, I went across the road to the new Primark store – all 5 storeys and 161,000 square feet of it. This included a number of recycling bins, clothes made from recycled polyester, and plenty of posters including the “s” word.
A meeting to discuss sustainability attended by around 20 people, with much thought provoked about the future, followed by a visit to a fast fashion outlet with the same number of people at the checkout every minute I was there.
I passed on the £2 T shirt, but had a quick view of the mountain we have to climb if we are to move beyond GDP as our principle economic measure.
Buzzwords of the Week –Tangible Assets
Definition – assets that have finite monetary value and usually a physical form. Tangible assets can typically always be transacted for some monetary value, though some will be easier to turn into cash (e.g. stock) than others (e.g.property)
Alternate View – in some businesses you need huge amounts of tangible assets to produce things – steel is such an example. But the longer term trend is the increase in the amount of intangible assets (which have a theorised value and no physical form). Think hardware and software: which enables the most value creation in your business?