With the plants, animals and people living very closely, very locally,

Such as some of the children of the first peoples live today.

In these times people existed by hunting and gathering.

This was the time of the hunting/gathering society.

And from this background agriculture slowly emerged, and with it came cities and money.

And with this also came the time of herding and farming.

This was the time of the agricultural society and the beginnings of true economic life.

The agricultural economy was all about producing, harvesting and using the raw products of Nature.

And as it matured, agriculture completely transformed all the prior practices

of the hunting and gathering life.

And from this background industry slowly emerged, bringing in the industrial economy.

This was the time of industrial mining and farming, of textile factories and machine works.

So the industrial age began.

The industrial economy was all about producing finished goods from the raw products of nature.

And as it matured, industry completely transformed all the prior practices

of the agricultural life.

And from this background services slowly emerged, bringing in the service economy.

This was the time of transport and packaging, of utilities and travel, of law and accounting.

So the service age began.

The service economy was all about producing non-tangible goods

in, around and throughout the products of industry.

And as it matured, service completely transformed all the prior practices

of the industrial life.

And from this background data processing emerged, bringing in the information economy.

This was the time of computation and programming, mainframes and minicomputers.

So the information age began.

The information economy was all about producing processed data

in, around and throughout all service and all the products of industry.

And as it matured, information completely transformed all the prior practices

of the service life.

And from this background, an explosion in knowledge and coordination emerged,

bringing in the knowledge/network economy.

This was the time of the internet, cellphone, and wireless networking,

of PCs and laptops and PDAs,

of the digitization of all media and communications.

So the knowledge/network age began.

The knowledge/network economy was all about producing know-how and coordination

in, around and throughout all the activities of data processing, service and industry.

And as it matured, knowledge/networking completely transformed all the prior practices

of the service/industrial life.

And now comes sustainability.

So, from this background now is emerging the global sustainable society and the sustainability economy.

This will be the time of convergence and integration between biologic and economic life;

the time of monetizing Nature’s ecological services;

the time of true and continual coordination between Society and Nature.

So the Sustainability age is beginning.

The sustainability economy produces the assurance of the continuance of society and nature.

And as it matures, sustainability will completely transform all the prior practices

of our prior knowledge/network, information, and service/industrial life.

And here are the patterns of change that characterize the emergent stages of human economic life:

• Each new stage penetrates into and transforms all practices of all previous stages.
• Each new stage grows to become larger in value than the sum of all preceding stages.
• Each new stage accelerates the rate of change in Society and Nature.
• Each new stage realizes entirely new ways of living.
• But only the Sustainable Society realizes the fully mature coordination of Humans and Nature.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

- Aurthur C. Clarke

Nature is only the most incredible technology.

-         R. Buckminster Fuller

Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from Nature.

- J. David Armistead

Blog Date 06/25/2007

By David Armistead

The global sustainable society is emerging now all around us.

It’s been developing for as long as civilization has been around, but the really obvious beginnings date back to the early ecology and “back to nature” movements that extend all the way back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. However, today we can see the emergence beginning clearly in every aspect of everyday life.

The New Consumer – We can see this new society in the emerging mass consumer trends that have been labeled with terms like “cultural creatives” and “LOHAS” (lifestyles of health and sustainability) and which now encompass over a quarter of all consumers in the developed world.

The New Investor – We can see it in the “socially responsible” investment trend that is now the fastest growing segment of investment in the developed world, and we can see it in the new shareholder activism that produced the recent confrontations between minority equity and management over climate change policies at companies like ExxonMobile.

The New Manager – We can see it in the new corporate management culture (especially post Enron) that is reflected in the explosive growth of business ethics courses throughout the B-schools of the developed world, and in the continuing flood of new management book titles covering a host of related subjects ranging from “corporate responsibility” to “triple bottom line” planning and corporate reporting.

The New Politician – We can see it in the political strategies of the left as reflected in Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” and in the Clinton Climate Initiative. We can see it in the political strategies of the right as reflected in California Arnold Schwarzenegger’s aggressive policies to “lead by example” in the areas of clean and efficient energy, green buildings, and sustainable business.

The New Government – We can see it in the acceptance of a need for climate change policies by every sovereign attendee at the current G8 summit in Europe, and we can see it in the fact that for the first time ever all major announced candidates for US president from both parties have offered statements to the press recognizing the need for national climate change and sustainability policies.

The New Corporation – We can see the emerging new global sustainable society in daily policy pronouncements from the world’s largest multinational corporations, such as the recent transformation of British Petroleum into “Beyond Petroleum,” and the Wal-Mart announcement of their “Sustainability 360” program to carry sustainability beyond their own stores and out into their suppliers and customers.

The New Global Economy – We can see it in the rapid emergence of an entire new global economy, the “sustainability economy,” which is concerned with the production of the sustainable society. As the industrial economy produced finished goods from the raw products of Nature; as the service economy produced the intangible products; as the information economy produced data processing; and as the knowledge economy has produced the network society and internet commerce – so the sustainability economy will produce sustainability, i.e. – the assurance of the continuance of Society and Nature. As with the emergence of all prior basic economic sectors, the new Sustainability Economy will back-act to transform all aspects of all prior economic sectors, such as the services and industry, and it will be larger than all prior economic sectors, just as the information economy is larger than the service economy, and the service economy is larger than the industrial economy.

Indeed – the emergence of the sustainability economy firmly promises to be the largest economic event of our lifetimes, constituting the biggest economic growth event in human history.

These events, and their implications – like making money in the new era of global sustainability – are what we will be discussing over the weeks ahead.

- David Armistead

Up Soon –

• The exploding global sustainability spend
• The Emerging Sustainable Society and associated Sustainability Economy (SE)