Sustainable Future: Towards 9 Billion A Vision For Positive Change; How might we build a sustainable future using the tools of today's business, economics and capitalism? Our Towards 9 Billion vision, published in Revolve Magazine, outlines how we could be positive about a future that works for all of us.

1. 1010
Towards 9 Billion provides a vision for a sus-
tainable and equitable future. We believe that
some simple yet radical changes to the pur-
pose and processes of modern international
capitalism could produce innately sustainable
outcomes.
The human population is set to grow to more
than 9 billion people by 2050. What sort of
world do we want them to arrive into? One of
scarce resources and extreme competition for
the basic elements of survival, or one in which
they are able to build stable and meaningful
lives for themselves and their children?
Rather than seeing a growing population as a
fundamental threat, might we rather see it as a
global opportunity of epic proportions?
Writer: Joss Tantram is a founding partner at
Terrafiniti LLP, a pioneering sustainability and
systems consultancy. Terrafiniti’s Towards 9
Billion thought leadership and R&D initiative
develops big, playful and hopeful ideas for a
sustainable future.
Towards
9 Billion

2. 11
Images (from top left to bottom right):
(1) VIII Gay Pride in São Paulo, Brazil, 2004. [Nearly 2 million people in 2004; 4
million in 2011.] Source: Rose Brasil/ABr.
(2) Maha Kumbh Mela, 2013. [Est. 12 million people]. Source: Roshan Raj /Flickr.
(3) Large crowd after a Muse concert, Parc des Princes, Paris, 2007. [± 60,000
people]. Source: James Cridland /Flickr.
(4) Mexico City, 2011. [According to the most recent definition agreed upon by
the federal and state governments, the Greater Mexico City population in the
2010 is 20.1 million people]. Source: Eeliuth/Flickr.
(5) Metro station during rush hour, Shanghai, China, 2005. [Shanghai is the
largest most populous city in the world with 23,7 million people in 2012].
Source: Marc van der Chijs/Flickr.
(6) Glastonbury Festival, Somerset, England, 2003. [The largest greenfield
festival in the world, now attended by around 175,000 people]. Source: Andy
Wright/Flickr.
(7) Tokyo, 2012. [The greater Tokyo metropolitan area, which spreads over 3
prefectures, has an estimated population close to 35 million. That means the
greater Tokyo area is home to 25% of Japan's population, and it's the most
populous metropolitan area in the world]. Source: Nacho/Flickr.
(8) Costco on a Saturday, 2011. [Costco Wholesale Corporation is the second
largest retailer in the United States with a net income of US$1.709 billion and
employing 174,000 people (2012)]. Source: Ines Hegedus-Garcia/Flickr.
(9) Al-Haram Mosque at the start of Hajj, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 2008. [The total
number of pilgrims to the Hajj in 2012 was estimated at 3 million according to
Saudi Foreign Embassy]. Source: Al Jazeera/Flickr.

3. 12
Today even the world’s largest companies
only supply goods and services to a pro-
portion of the planet’s population. Increas-
ing the total number of economically active
people would be in the interests of busi-
nesses, citizens and society as a whole
– driving greater productivity, long-term
value creation and providing an in-built
incentive for social and market stability.
Perhaps the most significant challenge to
achieving this future lies in the ability of the
market to act in a strategic and coordinated
manner and to value activities and behavior
which pay off over the long-term. Meeting
this challenge would require an evolution of
some of the fundamental mechanisms of
market economics and capitalism so that
sustainable decisions and behaviors can be
innately valued and prioritized rather than
considered as an afterthought.
A Larger
Piece of a
Larger Pie?
Left (top+bottom): Darfuri refugees in
Eastern Chad. Farchana Camp (22,887
refugees, UNHCR figures, 30 September
2011). The camp is located 56 km from the
Sudanese border, and was opened in January
2004. A young refugee contemplates the
southern part of Farchana's Camp from a hill
that cut the refugee's site in two.]
Source: European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr.
Right (top): Zaatari refugee camp, August
2013, Jordan. [Zaatari refugee camp
was first opened on July 28, 2012 to host
Syrians fleeing the violence in the ongoing
Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011.
On July 4, 2013, the camp population was
estimated at 144,000 refugees, making it
Jordan's fourth largest city.]
Source: Foreign and
Commonwealth Office/Flickr.
Right (bottom): View of the Zaatari camp for
Syrian refugees as seen on July 18, 2013,
from a helicopter carrying U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry and Jordanian Foreign
Minister Nasser Judeh.
Source: U.S. Department of State/Public Domain.
We Need New
Concepts of Economic
and Social Success
Our current economic models, with con-
ceptual roots dating back centuries, were
not designed to deal with the universal
challenges presented by resource scarcity,
population growth, globalization and the
decline of natural systems.
Dominant global approaches to assessing
and pricing what is valuable are no lon-
ger fit for purpose. The scale of economic
externalities which have arisen represent an
existential threat to the continuing function
of our economic system, our social stability
and the health of our planetary home.
In light of such threats, current industrial pro-
cesses are increasingly recognized as unfit
for meeting the demands of the majority of
the Earth’s current 7 billion people, let alone
the expected rise in population numbers.
If we are to sustain and thrive together as a
species we need to imagine and deliver new
ways of meeting our needs and desires.

4. 13
The route to a sustainable future lies in reco-
gnizing and valuing the dimensions of inter-
dependence we have with each other and
with the natural world:
Ecological interdependence – the natural
environment is the foundation of human
existence, the bedrock of social stability and
the basis of all financial value. Humans are
fundamentally dependent upon the Earth as
our only home for now.
Financial interdependence – our markets
are massively complex and interdependent.
Resource and logistics systems are global
and the rise and fall of market actors can
mean success, failure, feast or famine
across the world. The narrow financial suc-
cess of one party must not continue to come
at the common expense of many.
Social interdependence – nothing happens
in our modern world without the involve-
ment of others. We need to recognize and
re-balance this interdependence so that our
quality of life is not bought at the expense of
others and is not at risk if those we depend
upon decide to withdraw their subsidy.
Valuing Interdependence
The vision is simple.To build by 2050:
A world of 9 billion capable citizens
living in healthy, thriving ecosystems.
Such a world would represent a market
for business unparalleled through human
history. It would align the interests of indi-
viduals, societies and businesses organi-
cally, through “common-self-interest”.
Two key changes....
A. Subscribe to a Common
Intent
Markets lack common strategic intent
beyond the generation of short-term profit.
Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is more a
post-hoc rationalization of the sum of a
multitude of individually-motivated market
actions than any strategy.
This lack of common intent makes the
delivery of strategic outcomes difficult and
the likelihood of systemic risk and unin-
tended consequences more likely.
Towards 9 Billion is designed to address
this issue by introducing a clear and eco-
nomically meaningful purpose to market
and business activity; the achievement of a
vastly larger and more sustainable market.
Over the next 40 years to 2050, markets
should seek to deliver:
• A global human population
of 9 billion capable citizens.
• Healthy and thriving ecosystems.
B. “Hack the Price Function” –
Economic Price Should Equal
Sustainable Value
Economic behavior flows principally from
the price function, the ability to generate a
price for a good or service which allows it
to be bought, sold and traded.
Towards 9 Billion
The Vision

5. 14
"...reality must take precedence over public
relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
– Richard P. Feynman
Prioritizing the vision for a world of 9 billion
capable citizens would be a major step towards
the integration of environmental and social
value with economic opportunity and cost.
It would provide a significant drive towards a
sustainable world and inherently deliver reduc-
tions in systemic risk and market failure.
In addition, the motivation for businesses
would move towards a positive sum (win-win)
view.It would become an economic benefit to
design industrial production activities around
resources which are more likely to have lon-
gevity of supply and which enhance, work
alongside, utilize or borrow from naturally
productive processes and capacity.
In the social dimension, valuing and bal-
ancing interdependence would result in
increasing global equity and help ensure
a more even spread of economic develop-
ment and increased quality of life.
Companies and markets would, as a natural
aspect of market capitalism:
• consider the longevity and safety of sup-
ply of the resources they depend upon;
• act to value and enhance the quality and
diversity of the natural capital upon which
human life depends, and:
• prioritize mutual equity in relationships
with suppliers, customers and other
stakeholders.
It makes sense to connect the capability of
our social, economic and industrial models
to the viability of our home planet.
To quote Arthur C. Clarke: “Over suffi-
ciently large periods of time, private inter-
est should be indistinguishable from the
common interest”.
Towards 9 Billion
Bridging Price and Value
What is a healthy,
thriving ecosystem?
Ecosystems provide raw materi-
als and ‘services’ (such as food
production and clean water) vital
to our existence. Healthy ecosys-
tems are able to maintain their
structure and provide these func-
tions over time while bearing the
demands of sustainable harvest-
ing and other stresses.
What is a capable
citizen ?
Capable citizens are those who
have the opportunities and abilities
to make sovereign social, eco-
nomic and personal choices, for
themselves and their families. They
have access to advanced educa-
tion, are equitably rewarded for the
use of their lives in other people’s
employ and are able to raise chil-
dren without fearing for their future.
Capable of contributing to and
accessing commercial and public
services, they make conscious
and informed decisions about the
goods and services they buy.
Three principles for putting sus-
tainable value at the heart of eco-
nomic price:
Subtle but radical changes in the gen-
eration of price would allow ecological and
social sustainability to become a natural
outcome of economic behavior. Price
should not simply be based upon supply
and demand but also upon:
• Abundance rather than scarcity –
scarce things are only of marginal utility
in a world of 9 billion capable citizens
– either natural (biologically-based) or
managed (through closed loop steward-
The present price function fails to reflect,
value and therefore sustain the funda-
mental ecological and social interdepen-
dencies that our way of life is built upon.
It reduces the physical reality and mind
boggling complexity of ecological systems
to the simplistic binary metrics of supply
and demand, profit and loss. This fails to
adequately reflect or consider long-term
human or ecological value and represents
an existential threat to the continuation of
our current model of capitalism.
ship) abundance is inherently more valu-
able in this context.
• Natural vitality – making use of the plan-
et’s natural rejuvenative and productive
abilities, learning from and utilizing natu-
ral production techniques as the basis for
our technological and industrial models.
• Balancing interdependence – nothing
happens in our modern world without
the social and economic involvement of
others. We need to recognize and bal-
ance these dependencies to maximize
economic and human potential and
remove imbalances and subsidies.