A Sustainable Economy for the 21st Century (Open Media Series)

The earth cannot support five billion people (or twice that, by the next century) who are driving cars, eating meat, turning on the air conditioning when it gets hot, and throwing away a can every time they drink a soda. But what else have development and rising incomes meant but emulating the American way of life?

A key environmental problem is that current systems of housing and transport are unsustainable. In American suburbia, houses are large and costly to build. They are energy inefficient and cannot be kept cool without air conditioning. They have large lawns, often with ecologically destructive landscaping. Because of the distances and the land-use pa

the problems of the enterprise may ultimately be less an issue of size than of restructuring. We need new structures of governance, new models of behavior and new sets of incentives.

Long-term job security is being substituted with temporary and casual employment, the use of consultants, outsourcing, and a variety of other techniques which erode commitments to employees.

They put peace, meaningful work, and basic values above affluence.

which business is more tightly regulated and controlled.

giving more latitude to teams and people farther down the hierarchy.

social accountability, such as environmental sustainability, community revitalization, or global equity.

Countries would have to abide by international codes of conduct on workers’ rights and environmental protections which would stipulate basic protections such as minimum wages, maximum hours of work, rights to representation, and non-discrimination by race and sex, as well as the regulation of air and water emissions, toxic wastes, etc.