“As a result, and for several years, I have used a “fish-and-water” metaphor to toggle between businesses and markets. I queried whether we were in danger of cleaning up individual “fish” (our business clients and partners) but then releasing them back into dirty, polluted waters (their markets and prevailing politics)—where their original single bottom line obsession often resurfaces, undiluted.
The obvious solution would be to design—or redesign—markets in such a way that we are less reliant on the morality (or passing passions) of individual CEOs and other business leaders. Our challenge, it seems, is to redirect market pressures so that they routinely and inexorably drive healthy decisions and outcomes at every level in our economies.”
My sense is that you should be clearer about what makes the water polluted and collaborate with others who are focused on the system dimension.
In my country Denmark we use taxes to serve different political purposes and have many good experiences with that. This system is however also sensible to backstepping sentiments like with the businesses you mentioned. And it is not necessarily easy to introduce new taxes to improve our environment. An present challenge is the wish to CO2 tax the agricultural sector, which until now has been exempted. The EU elections also seems to be influenced very much by the farmers protests against environmental legislation.
Thanks, Richard. Our CEO is Danish, so am hopeful we will capture more if that experience. Though, as you say, politicisation is complicating matters considerably.
This is definitely in the right direction
“As a result, and for several years, I have used a “fish-and-water” metaphor to toggle between businesses and markets. I queried whether we were in danger of cleaning up individual “fish” (our business clients and partners) but then releasing them back into dirty, polluted waters (their markets and prevailing politics)—where their original single bottom line obsession often resurfaces, undiluted.
The obvious solution would be to design—or redesign—markets in such a way that we are less reliant on the morality (or passing passions) of individual CEOs and other business leaders. Our challenge, it seems, is to redirect market pressures so that they routinely and inexorably drive healthy decisions and outcomes at every level in our economies.”
My sense is that you should be clearer about what makes the water polluted and collaborate with others who are focused on the system dimension.
The whole process is designed to identify those we should be working with, Gillian, in addition to people we are already collaborating with.
In my country Denmark we use taxes to serve different political purposes and have many good experiences with that. This system is however also sensible to backstepping sentiments like with the businesses you mentioned. And it is not necessarily easy to introduce new taxes to improve our environment. An present challenge is the wish to CO2 tax the agricultural sector, which until now has been exempted. The EU elections also seems to be influenced very much by the farmers protests against environmental legislation.
Thanks, Richard. Our CEO is Danish, so am hopeful we will capture more if that experience. Though, as you say, politicisation is complicating matters considerably.