Thinking

Clarasys view of a sustainable world - how can it be created?

Written by Sam Maguire | October 07 2021

At Clarasys we believe that we are in a climate and ecological crisis, which is greatly influenced by the way that we do business today. We need a fundamental rethink with systemic change to ensure that people and the planet are put ahead of, but not excluding, profit. We believe in creating a sustainable world. 

A sustainable world is:

Healthy

All people have what they need in order to support their well-being as they live on a planet with thriving ecosystems. This means that everyone has access to affordable healthcare and we ensure that the way people live work and grow is conducive to a healthy mind and body. We need to reverse the biodiversity crisis that we have created and ensure the planet’s natural systems are restored.

Equitable

We want to live in a world with justice at its heart. To do this we need to share our resources with greater equity. This will ensure that we don’t have the ridiculous gulf in wealth from billionaires to absolute poverty that we have on the planet. Equity is particularly important in the context of climate as we see the worst impacts of the crisis affect those who have done least to contribute to it. It is also critical as we change our system that we enable working people to find better work in our new economic system as we create a just transition.

Secure

We need to ensure that our planet is secure with reduced risk from climate and ecological breakdown. We must come within the thresholds of planetary boundaries. People should be able to live where they have for centuries without increasing fear of warming and natural disaster. To do this we need radical change, it will be expensive but it is much more expensive both financially and from a cost to humanity not to. 

Connected

We need to ensure our globalised model is more connected. This will result in people and organisations seeing how their actions impact those beyond their local areas. Greater connections will enable us to share experiences and solutions. At Clarasys we have always valued collaboration and we believe the best route to collaboration is real human connection. 

While a world like this may seem like a Utopia, we believe that it can be created.

A sustainable world can be created through: 

New metrics that account for national and organisational success that move us past the growth mindset and enable us to put environmental and social outcomes on the same level as the economy. We need to inherently embed external costs and value to our planet and people into our pricing model. 

Ambitious international and corporate targets that are backed up by practical implementation programmes and supported by aggressive funding models. We need to go past long-term targets that rely inherently on off-setting. Truly radical changes that may require sacrifice and definitely require investment are needed.

Organisations adopting sustainable business models and radically transforming the way that they operate. We need to move past peripheral initiatives and put sustainability centrally in the way that we operate. 

Greater transparency so it is easy for consumers, employees and investors to make decisions with sustainability in mind. Let’s move past greenwashing. Let’s demonstrate to our system where we need to change in order to create a truly sustainable world.

New skills and mindsets we are limited by the way that things have been done throughout the majority of our lives. We need to create new ways of thinking that link natural and social sciences. Where people understand the importance of people, planet and prosperity working together. This needs to be supported by the embedding of technical environmental and social skills across all organisations. 

At Clarasys we are trying to contribute to this world, if you want to join us then get in touch