A green, restorative and steady-state economy is not a future vision - it already exists, at least in embryo. Social innovation is all around us in a million grassroots projects. Connected citizens, and new kinds of business, are taking practical steps to re-make our cities places, and tools. By innovating services for daily life that use far fewer resources, they help to rebuild natural and social assets. Many of these projects use new technologies in creative ways - but their positive energy derives most from the skills and imagination of the people involved. What is the opportunity here for Leicester? John Thackara is a writer, speaker, and event producer. Described by Business Week as "one of the great voices on sustainability", he is the author of In The Bubble: Designing In A Complex World (MIT Press) among thirteen books, and of a widely-read blog about design for resilience, doorsofperception.com. As director of Doors of Perception, John organizes festivals and encounters around the world in which communities imagine sustainable futures – and take practical steps to realize them. John Thackara lives in France. Useful Links: http://www.doorsofperception.com http://www.sustainable-everyday.net http://www.energybulletin.net/node/16859 http://www.transitionnetwork.org/about http://www.openfarmtech.org/weblog/ http://www.steadystate.org/discover/organizations-that-support-steady-state-principles/ artsandecology.rsablogs.org.uk

1. 1
the economy does not
need to be fixed
it needs to be replaced

2. A Doomsday Machine Economy

3. Climate change = sea level rise
60 centimetres - or 25 metres?

4. Peak Oil
< < “net energy cliff”

5. Renewable Energy

7. Peak credit

8. Peak Food

9. WHY?
Peak Food = Peak Fat

10. 1 kg Rice: 3,400 litres
1 kg Beef: 15,500 litres
1 kg chocolate:
24,000 litres
[ Hoekstra ])
Peak water

11. Resource
extraction

12. “US ICT industry to quadruple its
consumption of electricity between 2009
and 2020”
[Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics & Rice
University, 2010]

13. Climate change
Biodiversity
Energy
Water
Materials
Food
Fat

14. Doomsday Machine Economy [Adbusters]
Living Planet Index
GROWTH

15. "A thief who tells a judge
he is stealing less than
before will receive no
leniency. So why do
companies get
environmental awards for
‘polluting less’ - even
though they are still
polluting ? ".
[ Gunther Pauli ]
!

16. so, what is the alternative?

17. a green economy

18. a restorative economy

19. a solidarity economy

20. a happiness economy

21. a steady-state economy

22. green, restorative, solidarity,
happiness, steady-state ....
four design principles:

23. Design principle 1:
From human-centered to life-centered

24. Design principle 2:
From extractive to restorative

25. Design principle 3: from
productivity to solidarity

26. Design principle 4:
focus on system, not on symptoms

27. nice sermon, john - but:
what work will people do?
how will it be paid for?

28. answer:
prosperity based on
what we’ve already got

29. 2
5% SOLUTIONS

30. BY
CHANGING THE QUESTION

31. 5% mobility

32. “how are we to pay for transport
infrastructure and subsidies?”

33. 1,000%

34. 5%

37. existing
infrastructure

38. Load-
management
via ICT

39. £7k
smart paratransit

40. 5% schools

41. “what are we to do now the
government has cancelled new
school building projects?”

42. 45,000 euros per classroom seat $1 per child per year

51. 5% food

52. “how will the government stop us
eating the junk food that is making us
all ill?”

54. foodsheds

55. resources...

56. resources...

59. resources...

61. resources

64. DOTT £100k
> >
MEC £4m
[12/10/10]
FINALIST, BBC
Food & Farming
Awards 2010

65. 5% health

66. Text
“Cubans achieve the same
level of health with only 5%
of the health care
expenditure of Americans."
(SCIENCE, 30 April 2010)

67. Text
clean drinking water
low-income, high
well-being
primary health care
maternal care
nutrition

69. 5% health
HelloHealth
(Brooklyn, USA)

73. C ACTIONS
Map existing value
Connect the actors
Services for sharing
Social innovtion labs

74. Five Days Halifax : mapping the territory

75. map resources...

76. Ingrid Koivukangas

77. MARA ADAMITZ SCRUPE

78. talent-
spotting
social
assets

79. “we love our mash-up city” [10/10/10]
= social wealth

80. Dance of the BIG and
the SMALL

81. Connect the actors

84. Open Space meeting

85. [Connecting the actors]
Explorers Clubs

86. SOCIAL INNOVATION LABS
eg Designs of The Time

87. SOCIAL INNOVATION LABS
City Eco Lab (France)

88. LAB

89. LAB [Secret Garden Party]

90. THANKYOU
THACKARA.COM