We only have a decade to change our behaviour

I have been going to a few non-design talks recently, but these have been overshadowed by one held earlier this month by Tomorrow’s Company at the House of Lords.

Entitled Qualitative Growth, it launched a paper by the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales and was supported by the World Wildlife Fund.

The paper set the agenda for businesses and the paradigm shift that is required within the next ten years.

I also went to the Tomorrow’s Company Al Gore lecture a while back, before his film An Inconvenient Truth, which again gave a ten-year deadline. This in itself was eye-opening, but watered-down corporate social responsibility, sustainability and climate-change initiatives haven’t really tackled the issues.

Unlike many at the ICAEW launch, I had not heard of Hazel Henderson or Fritjof Capra, but they were the key speakers. Their revelations and recommendations were quite shocking, but cover the issues that we must all be looking at, whether we agree with them or not.

I’ll be trying to find ways that, as designers, we can help this transformational change take place. There is a lot of disparate information out there, but a bit more focus on this by Design Week and the Design Business Association will really help people like us advise and influence our clients.
Simon Hutton, Managing director, To The Point, London SE1
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