The newest kids’ movie is in the theatres – a remake of The Lorax, a Dr. Seuss title from 1971. One of Seuss’ most pointed and topical stories, The Lorax is an environmental fable. And although we’ve made some progress, it’s a story that – 40 years later – business still has not really taken to heart.
In case you haven’t read the story, the Lorax is a concerned critter who “speaks for the trees” when a profit- hungry antagonist – the “Once-ler” – starts to cut them all down. The Once-ler doesn’t look ahead at the inevitable, as forests disappear and animals depart, but the day of course arrives when there is but a single tree left – and industry, too, collapses.
Which is where we’re still stuck. Our most noted and tracked measure of economic success is heading us straight into Once-ler territory.
What gets measured gets overblown
“There’s nothing in GDP or economic measures that really looks at sustainability,” said Dave Batker, co-author, along with John de Graaf, of What’s the Economy For, Anyway? (Read more about his book in my February column, “The economy: time for a serious reno” – BIV issue 1163; February 7-13.)
“One day the GDP said, ‘Go, go, go; more, more, more,’ and the next day it’s all fallen apart. Fishing looked great on the Grand Banks when we were overfishing cod, and then it collapsed.”
The problems with GDP as an overarching measure of societal well-being have been well documented. Still, the arguments have caused little shift in our constant reporting on, and obsession with, this perpetual focus on unsustainable growth. Batker points out a few reasons why this is absurd.
“If you go for a daily walk for exercise, it doesn’t count for anything unless you go to a gym and pay for it – but the diabetes care you might need if you never exercise does count. Social connection, which is so valuable – the amount of time you spend with your family and kids – that doesn’t count. In fact it’s bad news; you should be working more overtime.
“Volunteering doesn’t count, housework doesn’t count. If your cell phone does twice as much as the last cell phone but costs half as much, it’s only worth half as much. The GDP shows a decline when you’re actually getting more value; it doesn’t count quality.
“Then look at what we count as positive in the GDP: if we pollute our groundwater and have to buy bottled water, that counts positively. Oil spills count positively.
“Increases in crime count positively because you have more property loss claims and you need more prisons and you have to put people in the prisons and pay for it all. The GDP counts cigarette sales as positive, and cancer treatment for lung cancer as positive.
“It’s like you took your business and you said, ‘Okay, I’ll add all my revenue plus all my costs into one big number.’ If the number keeps growing, is it really an indication that your business is successful? The trouble is, you don’t know whether costs are growing faster than revenues. GDP lumps costs and benefits together, and that is an enormous mistake.”
All good comments – but what’s business to do? We’re all stuck in a system larger and more complex than any single company. And of course, this system has had its benefits and allowed us to make significant progress in some areas.
But it’s time for business leaders to step outside the boxes of their individual companies and start to champion sustainability on a systemic level – the level of economic policy, the level where we all face the absurdity of seeking endless growth in a finite life support system, the level where, even though a child’s story can point out flaws, we have not challenged our best minds to come up with fixes.
The Ray Anderson example
That business can take a leadership role was impressed on a roomful of people in Vancouver recently at a screening of the film So Right, So Smart, which documents the story of Ray Anderson, the sustainability-pursuing CEO of Interface Inc.
Anderson spent 20 years building a highly successful company in a new market niche: modular carpet tile. That his company used toxic chemicals, was intensely oil-dependent and had little care for waste or emissions was not an issue until, in 1994, his staff asked him to describe his “environmental vision” for Interface.
Knowing, as he said, that “meeting regulations didn’t constitute a vision,” Anderson was sweating the challenge. By happenstance, he read Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce, experienced an epiphanic moment when he realized his business model was “the way of the plunderer” and began to entirely remake his company on a mission to zero waste and full sustainability.
In recent years (he died last year), Anderson devoted much of his time to telling his story and urging others to join his quest. The film tracks the corporate story of Interface, but it also focuses on the incredible power of one person, motivated and willing to call for change. Go to sorightsosmart.com to view a trailer or order a copy. It’s worth playing for others in your workplace.
The Lorax is calling, as he has been since 1971. We won’t get many more chances to turn this grand experiment around. The idea of a limitless planet – able to sustain limitless growth – is beautiful and alluring; but it’s false.
It’s time to grab the courage of Anderson to not just see the problem but act on it; time for business leaders to call for better measurement and a smarter understanding of success. Until we do, we’re merely tinkering with the system, not transforming it. And the Lorax’s warning still stands. •
