Breakthrough… to What? Green Economic Strategies and the Environmental Movement by Brian Milani

Breakthrough... to What? Green Economic Strategies and the Environmental Movement by Brian Milani

Quoted from the article:

“Postindustrialism is all about closing resource loops and directly meeting human need–for nutrition, access, shelter, illumination, entertainment, community, and self-actualization–in the most elegant and efficient ways possible.”

“… we want ‘hot showers and cold beer’ and not necessarily power plants and fossil fuels. The latter are just means-to-the-end, and usually not very sensible means… by focusing on real needs, and working backwards to find the most elegant and efficient ways of meeting those needs, one could routinely dispense with lots of unnecessary supply.”

“… a core characteristic of green development [is] to substitute human creativity for resources. Some have described a green economy as labour-intensive. But “people-intensive” better suggests that green work is a very different, more developmental, kind of labour than the body- and soul-destroying cog-labour endemic to capitalism.”

“A holistic focus on end-use takes us beyond simple efficiency to questions of the purpose of production… In the eco-service economy, manufacturing would be kept local and subordinated to service; stuff would simply be means to the end of satisfying needs for nutrition, shelter, entertainment, illumination, communication, etc.”

“Postindustrial or qualitative wealth–in contrast of the quantitative industrial wealth of standardized mass production–is specific to place and circumstance… Community is the nexus through which a green economy’s qualitative wealth, organizational efficiencies, and participatory democracy revolve.”

“Just as a green economy features distributed or decentralized food, energy and goods production, so also it needs distributed regulation, expressed in finance, certification, communication, education, community design, civic culture, and many forms of participation. The scale of a green community-based economy is, in itself, a key factor encouraging democracy, participation and accountability. It is no panacea, but it makes most of the other positive elements more possible or effective.”

“Small values-driven businesses, while they can put social and eco-values in command, need support networks, access to finance and information, and markets. Big business has more resources and access to information, but it is far more constrained by the single bottom line. So it too needs help from the outside–be it via regulatory rules, new enterprise networks, stakeholder pressure, or certification systems.”

“Absolutely fundamental to creating ecological or knowledge-based economies are measures of qualitative value. It’s an apparent paradox that qualitative development requires more quantification than old-line accumulation which was a pretty simple matter. Qualitative wealth requires complex information on ecosystems, communities and economies: from mass-balance accounts, to eco-footprints, genuine progress indicators, to life-cycle assessment, to social and educational indicators, to local economic multipliers, to sustainable community indicators, and many more.”

Read the full article >>

Other writings by Brian Milani

  1. From Opposition to Alternatives: Postindustrial Potentials & Transformative Learning (read >>)
  2. Mindful Markets, Value Revolution and the Green Economy: EPR, Certification and the New Regulation (read >>)
  3. Beyond Environmental Protection: Ecological Alternatives & Education for a Green Revolution (read >>)
  4. (Book) Designing the Green Economy, The Postindustrial Alternative to Corporate Globalization (read review >>)

(Photo: Some rights reserved by kenwood)


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