Ecotopia Collaboratory 1

Ecotopian Economics: The Rise of the Succession Economy

9.30am-1pm Friday 26^th February 2010

ICAEW

Chartered Accountants' Hall

Moorgate Place, London, EC2R 6EA

We are delighted to invite you to the first Ecotopia Collaboratory, to take forward the mission identified at the inspirational Road to Ecotopia Cineforum held in December 2009 (www.cineforum.co.uk). The objective of the Collaboratory is to showcase some positive projects already happening and to create and progress some real collaborations in the 'positive futures' sector. 

Ecotopians are a select network of innovators, communicators and corporates who are working together to create positive visualisations of the future. We hope this work will help to build the healthy, positive and rich future that our children will inherit.

FOR CONTEXT, PLEASE SEE BELOW.

Programme

9.30 - Arrival and coffee

10.00 - Welcome from Jobeda Ali, Founder of Ecotopia and Richard Spencer, Head of Sustainability, ICAEW

10.02 - Designing Ecotopia: the film

10.30 - Jobeda Ali, Evolution of Ecotopian Economics and the shoots of the Succession Economy.

And feedback from Ecotopia in Copenhagen and Ahmedabad

10.40 - Conversation with the audience

UK’s 2050 low carbon transition – roles for carbon trading and international markets

Chair: Nico Macdonald, co-author, BIG POTATOES Manifesto

Jan Ole Kiso, Strategy Officer, Department for Energy and Climate Change

Tejas Ewing, Carbon Markets Co-ordinator, New Economics Foundation

11.10 - Showcase 1

Bernard Lietaer, Chair, Access Foundation  (by video link from Belgium)

TERRA, a new currency for global trade

11.20 - Showcase 2

Ivan Massow, Director, Compare for Good

An online comparison site for positive spending

11.30 - Showcase 3

Sofia Bustamante – Director, London Creative Labs

Redefining jobs and employment

11.40 - Showcase 4

Melanie Robinson - CEO, MyBnk

Banking for the next generation

11.50 - GRAB A CUP OF TEA AND BISCUITS!

12.00 - Collaboratory round-tables around themes, to be decided by delegates.

1.00 - End or networking lunch

CONTEXT OF TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED

There is an economic system on the horizon that is about to succeed the one that we have now. If we have another one or two big financial crises, that system may be closer than we think. Our current paradigm is still based on a post-war capitalist model that has proved in many tangible ways to be unsustainable.

One of the grounds/foundations of the current system is a reliance on cheap, infinite fossil fuel. That foundation is no longer cheap and we know it is certainly not infinite. We are also starting to remodel what we consider cheap, i.e, we are factoring in 'real' costs. Real cost is the value placed on actual resources rather than what has been called the 'mass hallucination' that is modern ‘money’: derivatives, futures etc. Western examples include Fair Trade products and Organic products, where consumers are willing to (and sometimes insist on) paying for the real cost of production. This movement is small but growing and is very much here to stay – these are the 'Shoots' of the Succession Economy. We’ll be showcasing some other shoots, which you will see below.

Alongside actual resources, this new approach also starts to cost in behaviour and planning - so instead of technocratic solutions like sanctions, penalties and tariffs, (unwanted) behaviour itself becomes an economic unit that can be earned/exchanged, such as in carbon trading. As carbon becomes an economic consideration (rather than the moral and environmental one it's been for so long) it serves the purpose of waking us all up to the economic value of behaviour and attitudes.

Here’s some questions that we might explore:

Why and how have major historic economic changes taken place?

How much of your economic thinking is really new, for instance the idea of 'externalities'?

Is these something special about fuel (energy) in modern economies?

To what extent is regulation, eg: to enforce carbon trading, progressive and effective?

To what extent are there limits to (our ability to exploit) resources?

Are attempts to change individual behaviour appropriate and/or effective?

What is the nature of innovation today? Does it have different ends and are innovators in fact conservative?

PLEASE NOTE that all discussion are in the context of how we can all work together and the outcomes of the event are very much about creating and strengthening joint initiatives and mutual support. The event will end with small round table discussions where we can discover and support these collaborations.

CONTACT: JOBEDA ALI

jobeda(AT)fairknowledge.co.uk - 07809601366