Enhancing the Wellbeing and Prosperity of Humankind Exploring New Directions in a Time of Rapid Chan

1
Enhancing theWell-being and Prosperityof
HumankindExploring New Directionsin a Time of
Rapid Change

• Arthur Lyon Dahl Ph.D.
• European Bahá'í Business Forum (EBBF)
• http//www.ebbf.org
• International Environment Forum (IEF)
• http//www.bcca.org/ief
• 25 September 2009

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The challenge for business

• A leader in business is expected to meet
  short-term targets for growth and profitability
• Business operates in a rapidly changing and
  globalizing world reaching planetary limits
• How do you balance and integrate the short-term
  responsibility for business success and the
  longer-term economic, social and environmental
  risks to that success?
• Does business share any larger responsibility for
  human well-being?

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Outline of the presentation

• A time of rapid change
• What is the well-being of humankind?
• Exploring new directions for the ideal company
• The larger picture

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A Time ofRapid Change

• The economic system demonstrated it was
  fundamentally flawed, but everyone is hoping to
  return to business as usual
• Climate change requires rapid and concerted
  action, but everyone is defending their own
  interest
• Population growth and environmental degradation
  are reaching planetary limits
• The information revolution is transforming human
  relationships

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RISKSTO THEECONOMICSYSTEM
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The financial system gambled on our future and
lost
The Casinó in Monaco
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Collapse of the financial system

• The 2007-2008 collapse of the financial system
  was due to greed, herd behaviour, and
  over-confidence in scientific approaches to risk
  management
• Complex statistical models do not work for
  extreme events
• Each vulnerability was evaluated independently
• Future projections were based on past experience
• There was no evaluation of overall systems
  behaviour
• Jamison 2008

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The main danger

• "The main danger we face is... that by late 2009
  the global economy will be perking up again
  (because the housing sectors will have bottomed
  and the unwinding of commodity prices will boost
  consumption among oil importers) and governments
  will go back to business as usual, missing a
  once-in-a-life-time opportunity to address the
  serious vulnerabilities in the worlds financial
  system which the current crisis has revealed. In
  that scenario, the next crisis would find us with
  little ammunition left. That is the real danger."
• Augusto Lopez Claros, letter to the Financial
  Times, 4 December 2008

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Where is the Economy going?Still accumulating
debt

• Origins in American consumer society living
  beyond its means, accumulating debt
• Head of European Central Bank "We live in
  non-linear times the classic economic models and
  theories cannot be applied, and future
  development cannot be foreseen."
• Derivatives over 500 trillion by 2008 (x4 5y)
• Explosion in government borrowing European
  countries on brink of insolvency risk of loss of
  confidence in governments
• Warnings of hyperinflation

10
Only a minority benefitsfrom the
unsustainablemarket system

• All too many of these man-made
  ideologies...callously abandon starving millions
  to the operations of a market system that all to
  clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority
  of mankind, while enabling small sections to live
  in a condition of affluence scarcely dreamed of
  by our forebears.
• (Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World
  Peace, I, p. 6-7)

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RAPID CHANGE IN THEENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
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Population Growth
13
SYMPTOM Global land grab

• Wealthy governments and large companies are
  buying/leasing large areas of land in poor
  countries for export to ensure their own food
  security
• 10 m ha were bought in 2008, 20m in first half of
  2009 ( half all arable land in Europe)
• South Korea 690,000ha and UAE and Egypt 400,000ha
  each in Sudan Saudi Arabia 500,000ha in
  Tanzania Daewoo 1.3m ha in Madagascar Libya
  100,000ha in Mali South African businesses 8m ha
  in DR Congo China 2.8m ha in Congo and 2m ha in
  Zambia, with 1 m Chinese farm labourers in Africa
  in 2009

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We are alsoaccumulating massive socialand
environmental debt

• Climate change is already worse than worst
  predictions of IPCC 2007
• UK Chief Scientist (19 March) the world faces a
  'perfect storm' of problems in 2030 as food,
  energy and water shortages interact with climate
  change to produce public unrest, cross-border
  conflicts and mass migrations

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CLIMATE CHANGEWhat the models saidIPCC 2007
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Threat to Security

• If climate change goes unchecked, its effects
  will be catastrophic on the level of nuclear
  war.
• The security dimension will come increasingly to
  the forefront as countries begin to see falls in
  available resources and economic vitality,
  increased stress on their armed forces, greater
  instability in regions of strategic import,
  increases in ethnic rivalries, and a widening gap
  between rich and poor.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies,
  Strategic Survey 2007 (September 2007)

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Climate changeeffect on the economy

• The Stern Report estimated the annual cost of
  uncontrolled climate change at more than 660
  billion (5 to 20 of global GDP, as compared to
  1 for control measures for greenhouse gases).
• Climate change represents the greatest market
  failure in human history

18
Energyinvestment challenges

• The International Energy Agency estimates needed
  investment in energy infrastructure at 22,000bn
  by 2030 to replace ageing capacity and meet
  growing demand (2 global GDP, 130 per person
  per year)
• Responding to climate change would add 2,000bn

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The double economic challenge

• On current trends, ...humanity will need twice
  as much energy as it uses today within 35
  years.... Produce too little energy, say the
  economists, and there will be price hikes and a
  financial crash unlike any the world has ever
  known, with possible resource wars, depression
  and famine. Produce the wrong sort of energy, say
  the climate scientists, and we will have more
  droughts, floods, rising seas and worldwide
  economic disaster with runaway global warming.
• John Vidal in The Guardian Weekly, 9-15 February
  2007, Energy supplement, p. 3
• We may well do both at the same time.

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Adding up the figures

• A recent analysis of 40 years of data on human
  activity and environmental damage puts the cost
  of climate change, ozone depletion, deforestation
  and overfishing by rich nations at 47 trillion,
  more that the combined foreign debt of all poor
  nations
• The annual investment necessary to restore the
  planet's productive resources is estimated at 93
  billion
• The biggest shortage may be of capital to make
  investments and repair damage

21
This is a crisis of consumption, foundation of
the business model

• The economy is driven by consumption
• Anything increasing consumption was good for the
  economy planned obsolescence, aggressive
  advertising and marketing, encouraging addiction,
  carefully orchestrated changes in style, etc.
• Information technologies and media have
  globalized this and made it more effective
• People expect increasing purchasing power

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The consumer lifestyle in danger
23
Risk of collapse of civilization(Meadows et al.
(1992) Beyond the Limits)

• Business as usual Transition 1995
  Transition 2015

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End of the growth paradigm

• Is endless growth realistic?
• Economic growth has depended on population
  growth, energy growth, resource growth and
  technological innovation
• The first three all end in this century
• All that is left is our brains and heart

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Has business forgotten people?Is the problem
fundamentally ethical?
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Business has noinherent ethical framework

• Only statutory obligation is profit for
  shareholders
• Ethics dependent on individuals, especially at
  the top
• Globalization leaves business open to ethical
  challenges beyond national legislation

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Moral Failures in Business

• Madoff, Enron, Worldcom and other frauds
• Transfer pricing, creative accounting, offshore
  tax havens allow escaping taxation
• Exorbitant salaries of corporate leaders and
  bonuses of bankers
• Corporate funding of disinformation
• Corruption flourishing almost everywhere
• Privatization in some countries has allowed the
  powerful and wealthy to grab assets

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CORRUPTION

• The illegal economy from organized crime is now
  2 trillion/year, or twice all the world's
  defence budgets
• Bribery 1tr counterfeiting and piracy 520bn
  drug trade 320bn human trafficking 44bn
• Political corruption is everywhere the vast
  majority of bribes go to people in rich countries
• 10 of all public health budgets are lost to
  corruption
• Business participates to buy advantages, for
  efficiency, out of fear
• This results in market failures, capital loss

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The economy is rooted inself-centred materialism

• The early twentieth century materialistic
  interpretation of reality became the dominant
  world faith in the direction of society
• Dogmatic materialism captured all significant
  centres of power and information at the global
  level, ensuring that no competing voices could
  challenge projects of world wide economic
  exploitation

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It has sold us the consumer culture

• - Materialism's gospel of human betterment
  produced today's consumer culture pursuing
  ephemeral goals
• - For the small minority of people who can afford
  them, the benefits it offers are immediate, and
  the rationale unapologetic
• - The breakdown of traditional morality has led
  to the triumph of animal impulse, as instinctive
  and blind as appetite
• - Selfishness becomes a prized commercial
  resource falsehood reinvents itself as public
  information greed, lust, indolence, pride - even
  violence - acquire not merely broad acceptance
  but social and economic value
• - Yet material comforts and acquisitions have
  been drained of meaning (based on Baha'i
  International Community, One Common Faith, 2005)

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The materialistic basis of economic thinking is
itself an ethical challenge

• - we can no longer believe that there is no limit
  to nature's capacity to fulfil any demand made on
  it by human beings
• - giving absolute value to expansion, to
  acquisition, and to the satisfaction of people's
  wants is not a realistic guide to policy
• - economic decision-making tools cannot deal with
  the fact that most of the major challenges are
  global
• (The Prosperity of Humankind, Bahá'í
  International Community, Office of Public
  Information, Haifa)

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The failure of social and economic development

• - Development has been our largest collective
  undertaking, with humanitarian aims and enormous
  material and technological investment
• - While it brought impressive benefits, it failed
  to narrow the gap between rich and poor
• - The gap has widen into an abyss
• (based on Baha'i International Community, 2005)

33
The failure of present institutions to address
global challenges

• No politician will sacrifice short-term economic
  welfare, even while agreeing that sustainability
  is essential in the long term
• Deep social divisions within societies and
  between countries prevent united action in the
  common interest
• Our present economic system is incapable of
  addressing long-term issues

34
Like a navigator in troubled waters,an
entrepreneur has to practice adaptive management

• but you need a vision of where you want to go

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WHAT IS THE WELL-BEINGOF HUMANKIND?
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• How do we redefine our purpose as individuals
• and as a society
• and move rapidly towards sustainability?

37
Is our purpose only material?Do we also have a
spiritual nature and purpose?How do we become
mindful people?
38
Redefining Individual Well-being

• Man's merit lieth in service and virtue and not
  in the pageantry of wealth and riches. Take heed
  that your words be purged from idle fancies and
  worldly desires and your deeds be cleansed from
  craftiness and suspicion.
• Dissipate not the wealth of your precious lives
  in the pursuit of evil and corrupt affection, nor
  let your endeavours be spent in promoting your
  personal interest. Be generous in your days of
  plenty, and be patient in the hour of loss....
  Guard against idleness and sloth, and cling unto
  that which profiteth mankind, whether young or
  old, whether high or low.
• Bahá'u'lláh

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Should we put wealthabove all else?

• Know ye in truth that wealth is a mighty barrier
  between the seeker and his desire, the lover and
  his beloved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no
  wise attain the court of His presence nor enter
  the city of content and resignation....
• (Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words (Persian) 53)

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Poverty and Wealth

• Be not troubled in poverty or confident in
  riches, for poverty is followed by riches, and
  riches are followed by poverty. Yet to be poor in
  all save God is a wondrous gift, belittle not the
  value thereof, for in the end it will make thee
  rich in God...
• (Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words (Persian) 51)

41
Contentment

• The true seeker should be content with little,
  and be freed from all inordinate desire.... He
  should succour the dispossessed, and never
  withhold is favour from the destitute.
• (Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Iqán, p. 193-194)

42
Voluntary Simplicity

• Take from this world only to the measure of your
  needs, and forego that which exceedeth them.
• (Bahá'u'lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts,
  p. 193)

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What is Meaningful Work?

• Ye are the trees of My garden ye must give forth
  goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves
  and others may profit therefrom. Thus it is
  incumbent on everyone to engage in crafts and
  professions, for therein lies the secret of
  wealth...
• (Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words (Persian) 80)

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Work is Worship

• It is incumbent upon each one of you to engage in
  some occupation - such as a craft, a trade or the
  like. We have exalted your engagement is such
  work to the rank of worship of the one true
  God.... Waste not your hours in idleness and
  sloth, but occupy yourselves with what will
  profit you and others....
• (Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 33, p. 30)

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COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING
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Combining material and spiritual

• ... although material civilization is one of the
  means for the progress of the world of mankind,
  yet until it becomes combined with Divine
  civilization, the desired result, which is the
  felicity of mankind, will not be attained....
  Material civilization is like the body. No matter
  how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it
  may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like
  the spirit, and the body gets its life from the
  spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse.
• ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of
  'Abdu'l-Bahá, 227, pp. 303-304)

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Unityis essential for our well-being

• Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first
  fundamental prerequisite for the reorganization
  and administration of the world as one country,
  the home of humankind.
• (Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World
  Peace, p. 13-14)

48
Unity - applying the treatment

• Laying the groundwork for global civilization
  calls for the creation of laws and institutions
  that are universal in both character and
  authority. The effort can begin only when the
  concept of the oneness of humanity has been
  wholeheartedly embraced by those in whose hands
  the responsibility for decision making rests, and
  when the related principles are propagated
  through both educational systems and the media of
  mass communication. Once this threshold is
  crossed, a process will have been set in motion
  through which the peoples of the world can be
  drawn into the task of formulating common goals
  and committing themselves to their attainment.
• (The Prosperity of Humankind, Bahá'í
  International Community, Office of Public
  Information, Haifa)

49
JUSTICE - The active ingredient

• Justice is the one power that can translate the
  dawning consciousness of humanity's oneness into
  a collective will through which the necessary
  structures of global community life can be
  confidently erected. An age that sees the people
  of the world increasingly gaining access to
  information of every kind and to a diversity of
  ideas will find justice asserting itself as the
  ruling principle of successful social
  organisation.
• (Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of
  Humankind)

50
We are a privileged minority

• It is unjust to sacrifice the well-being of most
  people -- and even of the planet itself -- to the
  advantages which technological breakthroughs can
  make available to privileged minorities
• (based on Baha'i International Community,
  Prosperity of Humankind)

51
Unity through Solidarity

• - We should consider every human being a trust of
  the whole.
• - The goal of wealth creation should be to make
  everyone wealthy.
• - Voluntary giving is more meaningful and
  effective than forced redistribution.
• - The distribution of the planet's resources
  should be equitably regulated.

52
Our material civilizationmust be moderated

• The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned
  exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed
  to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great
  evil upon men.
• Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of
  Bahá'u'lláh, CLXIV

53
What should be thepurpose of the development of
society?

• That purpose must be sought in spiritual
  dimensions of life and motivation that transcend
  a constantly changing economic landscape and an
  artificially imposed division of human societies
  into "developed" and "developing".
• (Bahá'í International Community, The Prosperity
  of Humankind)

54
The true purpose of economics

• Economics has ignored humanity's broader social
  and spiritual needs, resulting in
• - Corrosive materialism among the wealthy
• - Persistent poverty for masses of the world's
  peoples
• Economic systems should give the peoples and
  institutions of the world the means to achieve
  the real purpose of development the cultivation
  of the limitless potentialities in human
  consciousness.
• (adapted from Bahá'í International Community,
  Valuing Spirituality in Development, 1998)

55
Wealth creation

• Wealth is praiseworthy in the highest degree, if
  it is acquired by an individual's own efforts...
  in commerce, agriculture, art and industry, and
  if it be expended for philanthropic purposes.
  Above all, if a judicious and resourceful
  individual should initiate measures which would
  universally enrich the masses of the people,
  there could be no undertaking greater than
  this,... for such a benefactor would supply the
  needs and insure the comfort and well-being of a
  great multitude. Wealth is most commendable,
  provided the entire population is wealthy.
• ('Abdu'l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization)

56
We need new economic models that

• - further a dynamic, just and thriving social
  order
• - are strongly altruistic and cooperative in
  nature
• - provide meaningful employment
• - help to eradicate poverty in the world

57
What is a reasonable salary?

• Overstep not the bounds of moderation, and deal
  justly with them that serve thee. Bestow upon
  them according to their needs, and not to the
  extent that will enable them to lay up riches for
  themselves, to deck their persons, to embellish
  their homes, to acquire the things that are of no
  benefit to them, and to be numbered with the
  extravagant. Deal with them with undeviating
  justice, so that none among them may either
  suffer want, or be pampered with luxuries.
• (Bahá'u'lláh to the Sultan of Turkey, Gleanings
  from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, CXIV, pp.
  235-236)

58
Sharing Wealth

• ...voluntary sharing of one's property with
  others... is greater than equality, and consists
  in this, that man should not prefer himself to
  others, but rather should sacrifice his life and
  property for others. But this should not be
  introduced by coercion so that it becomes a law
  and man is compelled to follow it. Nay, rather,
  man should voluntarily and of his own choice
  sacrifice his property and life for others, and
  spend willingly for the poor....
• ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of
  'Abdu'l-Bahá, 227, p. 302)

59
Distribution of Wealth through Taxation

• All must be producers. Each person in the
  community whose income is equal to his individual
  producing capacity shall be exempt from taxation.
  But if his income is greater than his needs he
  must pay a tax until an adjustment is
  effected.... if his necessities exceed his
  production he shall receive an amount sufficient
  to equalize or adjust. Therefore taxation will be
  proportionate to capacity and production and
  there will be no poor in the community.
• ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity, p. 37)

60
Profit-sharing

• ...the owners of properties, mines and factories
  should share their incomes with their employees
  and give a fairly certain percentage of their
  products to their workingmen in order that the
  employees may receive, beside their wages, some
  of the general income of the factory so that the
  employee may strive with his soul in the work.
• ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity, p.
  43-44)

61
Universal employment

• It is the duty of those who are in charge of the
  organization of society to give every individual
  the opportunity of acquiring the necessary talent
  in some kind of profession, and also the means of
  utilizing such a talent, both for its own sake
  and for the sake of earning the means of his
  livelihood. Every individual, no matter how
  handicapped and limited he may be, is under the
  obligation of engaging in some work or
  profession, for work, especially when performed
  in the spirit of service, is according to
  Bahá'u'lláh a form of worship.
• Kitáb-i-Aqdas NOTE 56. "to engage in some
  occupation" para.33

62
Well-being requires sustainable environmental
management

• Sustainable environmental management must come to
  be seen not as a discretionary commitment to
  weigh against other competing interests, but
  rather as a fundamental responsibility and
  pre-requisite for spiritual development as well
  as our physical survival

63
EXPLORING NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE IDEAL COMPANY
64
It is hard to be the ideal company in a
disfunctional societyThe need today is for
visionary business leaders to relate practical
business realities to a new framework of values
65
Challenges to responsible entrepreneurs

• - How can economic efficiency, profit and wealth
  creation combine with corporate social
  responsibility and respecting environmental
  limits?
• - How do we raise productivity and create
  employment?

66
Is bigger always better?

• What are the most appropriate scales for economic
  activities?
• Are there limits to increasing productivity?
• Should short term always win over long term?

67
What about a technological fix?

• The best "technological fix" lies in "human
  engineering" education, investment in human
  capital, development of human potential,
  sustainability across generations
• This should include ethics/values in balance with
  science

68
Business is essential to the solution

• Innovation and flexibility
• More financial means than most governments
• Not constrained by political frontiers
• But, it needs to add other goals beyond profit
  (examples Tata, Migros)
• There is nothing incompatible between
  competitiveness and social and environmental
  responsibility

69
Competitiveness vs. Social and Environmental
ResponsibilityDahl, in Global Competitiveness
Report 2004-2005, World Economic Forum
70
BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT ARE COMPATIBLE

• Business leaders consider good governance (strict
  environmental regulation fairly enforced)
  increases their competitiveness
• Countries with most advanced and competitive
  industrial economies also show the most advanced
  business thinking on environmental and social
  responsibility
• Strong regulations allow companies to compete in
  meeting their regulatory obligations, giving a
  competitive advantage to companies that innovate
  and increase their efficiency in environmental
  performance
• This creates new market niches for environmental
  services

71
JUSTICE AND CONSULTATIONin the workplace and
community

• At the group level, a concern for justice is the
  indispensable compass in collective decision
  making, because it is the only means by which
  unity of thought and action can be achieved....
• ... justice is the practical expression of
  awareness that, in the achievement of human
  progress, the interests of the individual and
  those of society are inextricably linked. To the
  extent that justice becomes a guiding concern of
  human interaction, a consultative climate is
  encouraged that permits options to be examined
  dispassionately and appropriate courses of action
  selected.
• (Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of
  Humankind)?

72
Equality between men and women

• ...the principle of the equality of the sexes is
  fundamental to all realistic thinking about the
  future well-being of the earth and its people....
  "Women and men", is Bahá'u'lláh's emphatic
  assertion, "have been and will always be equal in
  the sight of God...." A commitment to the
  establishment of full equality between men and
  women, in all departments of life and at every
  level of society, will be central to the success
  of efforts to conceive and implement a strategy
  of global development.
• (Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of
  Humankind)

73
Adaptative managementis necessary in times of
rapid change

• Faced with complexity, uncertainty, risks
• Define your goals
• Evaluate the options
• Take short-term action
• Monitor and evaluate
• Modify the action if necessary
• Avoid to much rigidity

74
Rapid change requires a new entrepreneurship

• We are in the middle of a major transformation in
  society
• The past is not a good predictor of the future
• Change is inevitable, and the rate of change is
  accelerating, requiring adaptive management
• Globalization cannot be stopped, but it can be
  transformed
• Institution building for international governance
  will continue
• We can consciously work for change, or wait for
  catastrophe to force us to change
• There will be new forms of wealth creation and
  business
• Creativity and innovation will be increasingly
  necessary for success
• Values and ethics will be fundamental to social
  and economic transformation

75
THE LARGER PICTUREOFNEWDIRECTIONS
76

• Business alone cannot change the present economic
  system, and an alternative has yet to be devised.
  Governments have an essential role to play. Civil
  society organizations are increasingly important.
  And presssure must come from individuals and
  communities at the grass roots.

77
What kind of institutions do we need to create
wealthand provide services?

• Public or private?
• Commercial or non-profit?
• Local, national or international?
• Private intellectual property or public license
  (open source)?
• Social enterprise, fair trade, environmentally
  sustainable?
• Limited liability or full responsibility?

78
IMPORTANCE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE

• Good laws and regulations not sufficient
• Inefficient or irregular enforcement and
  corruption allow businesses to escape from their
  responsibilities
• Companies that want to improve performance are at
  a competitive disadvantage
• Lack of progress at national level rebounds on
  international competitiveness
• Therefore good governance is essential

79
CHARACTERISTICS OFGOOD GOVERNANCE

• Some qualities of good governance
• Trust
• Collaborative spirit between business and
  government public participation
• Regulations clear and enforced fairly
• Confidence in business that their taxes will be
  spent effectively in their common interest
• Subsidiarity -multilevel governance
• Adherence to international agreements

80
MEANINGFUL WORKThe well-being of humankind
requires eliminating poverty

• Issues of food, nutrition, health and shelter are
  central to the challenge of providing an adequate
  standard of living for all members of the human
  family. These issues cannot, however, be tackled
  solely as technical or economic problems.
  Eliminating hunger and malnutrition establishing
  food security providing adequate shelter and
  achieving health for all will require a shift in
  values, a commitment to equity, and a
  corresponding reorientation of policies, goals
  and programs.
• (Bahá'í International Community, Valuing
  Spirituality in Development Initial
  Considerations Regarding the Creation of
  Spiritually Based Indicators for Development. A
  concept paper written for the World Faiths and
  Development Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London,
  18-19 February 1998)

81
Addressing Poverty

• The technologies and resources exist to meet the
  basic needs of humanity and to eliminate
  poverty.... While individuals must do their
  utmost to provide for themselves and their
  dependents, the community must accept
  responsibility, when necessary, to help meet
  basic needs. Access to development programs and
  their benefits must be ensured for all. The
  economics of food production and distribution
  will have to be reoriented and the critical role
  of the farmer in food and economic security
  properly valued. With regard to health the
  physical, spiritual, mental and social well-being
  of the individual access to clean water,
  shelter, and some form of cheap energy would go a
  long way toward eradicating the problems that
  currently plague vast numbers of individuals and
  communities.
• (Bahá'í International Community, Valuing
  Spirituality in Development Initial
  Considerations Regarding the Creation of
  Spiritually Based Indicators for Development. A
  concept paper written for the World Faiths and
  Development Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London,
  18-19 February 1998)
• What is the role of business in this?

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Well-being requires generating knowledge

• ... the central role that knowledge plays in
  human life and human society that it is the
  process of generating and applying knowledge that
  lies at the heart of civilization.... ...social
  advancement, including economic, political, and
  social change, flows from it.
• (External Affairs Strategy, 19 September 1994,
  prepared by an Ad Hoc Committee and approved by
  the Universal House of Justice, page 4)
• What is the role of business in this?

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Universal participation inscience and technology

• A central challenge, therefore -- and an enormous
  one -- is the expansion of scientific and
  technological activity. Instruments of social
  and economic change so powerful must cease to be
  the patrimony of advantaged segments of society,
  and must be so organised as to permit people
  everywhere to participate in such activity on the
  basis of capacity. Apart from the creation of
  programmes that make the required education
  available to all who are able to benefit from it,
  such reorganisation will require the
  establishment of viable centres of learning
  throughout the world, institutions that will
  enhance the capability of the world's peoples to
  participate in the generation and application of
  knowledge.
• (Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of
  Humankind)

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Where is rapid change taking us?
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A Bahá'í vision of the futureDesign Criteria for
World Order 1

• Central principle The unity of the human race
• Form world commonwealth
• Characteristics
• - all nations, races, creeds and classes closely
  and permanently united
• - autonomy of its state members safeguarded
• - personal freedom and initiative of the
  individuals safeguarded

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Design Criteria for World Order 2

• Structure
• World legislature
• - members will be trustees of the whole of
  mankind
• - control the entire resources of all the
  component nations
• - enact such laws as shall be required to
  regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust
  the relationships of all races and peoples
• World executive to safeguard the organic unity of
  the whole commonwealth
• World tribunal to adjudicate all disputes

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Design Criteria for World Order 3

• A mechanism of world intercommunication
• - embracing the whole planet
• - freed from national hindrances and restrictions
• - functioning with marvellous swiftness and
  perfect regularity.

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Design Criteria for World Order 4

• The economic resources of the world will be
  organized, its sources of raw materials will be
  tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be
  coordinated and developed, and the distribution
  of its products will be equitably regulated.
• ?

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Design Criteria for World Order 5

• - causes of religious strife permanently removed
• - economic barriers and restrictions completely
  abolished
• - inordinate distinction between classes
  obliterated
• - destitution and gross accumulation of ownership
  will disappear.

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Design Criteria for World Order 6

• The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war,
  whether economic or political, will be
  consecrated to
• - extend the range of human inventions and
  technical development
• - increase the productivity of mankind
• - extend scientific research
• - exterminate disease
• - raise the standard of physical health
• - prolong human life

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Design Criteria for World Order 7

• - sharpen and refine the human brain
• - exploit the unused and unsuspected resources of
  the planet
• - further any other agency that can stimulate the
  intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of
  the entire human race.

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Design Criteria for World Order 8

• A world federal system ruling the whole earth
• - exercising unchallengeable authority over its
  unimaginably vast resources
• - blending and embodying the ideals of both the
  East and the West
• - liberated from the curse of war and its
  miseries
• - bent on the exploitation of all the available
  sources of energy on the surface of the planet

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Design Criteria for World Order 9

• - a system in which Force is made the servant of
  Justice
• - whose life is sustained by its universal
  recognition of one God and by its allegiance to
  one common Revelation
• such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled
  by the unifying forces of life, is moving.
• (based on Shoghi Effendi (1936), The World Order
  of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 203-204)

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The Next StepA Green Economy

• An economic system that preserves and restores
  ecosystems, the backbones of economic and social
  wellbeing and essential for poverty reduction,
  while simultaneously creating new industries and
  employment.
• Environmental industries using clean and
  efficient technologies, and sustainable
  agriculture serve as major engines of wealth and
  job creation and poverty reduction.

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Green Economy

• Priority green economic sectors (UNEP 2009)
• clean and efficient technologies, including
  renewable energy technologies and rural energy
  access
• biodiversity-based businesses, including
  agriculture, forestry, marine, nature-based
  tourism, etc.
• ecological infrastructure, including nature
  reserves, protected areas, watersheds, etc.
• chemicals and waste management, including waste
  reduction, recycling and reuse and
• low carbon cities, buildings and transport.

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Guidelines for a global ethical framework for
business

• Combine economic efficiency and social
  responsibility
• Altruism, create wealth for everyone to eliminate
  poverty (and increase customers)
• Generate employment as well as productivity
• Find business opportunities in sustainable
  environmental management
• Work to strengthen global governance, peace and
  security
• Be of service to human society

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The goal an organically united world
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built by mindful peopleperforming meaningful
workenhancing the well-being and prosperity of
humankind
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The years ahead will be difficult, but there is
reason for hope

• Thank you