The tipping point challenge: SDC e-bulletin
The great tipping point challenge, by Jonathon Porritt.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name, a tipping point is described as “that magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviours cross a threshold, tip and spread like wild fire.”
As we - the Sustainable Development Commission - see it (with ideas presented in no particular order, and with no compulsion for everybody to agree with anyone else’s tipping point!), we will have reached that “point of no return” on our journey to a sustainable society when:
1) Government aid for developing countries hits that long sought-after threshold of 0.7% of GDP.
2) “Less is more” is adopted as the watchword of a whole new generation of designers, innovators and marketeers, causing the old guard of sustainable development pioneers to bemoan the fact that “doing sustainable development” has now become so cool.
3) The fall of the House of Saud, and the severe disruption in oil supplies that follows, leads to a dramatic and irreversible interest in demand for hybrid vehicles, which soon become practically the only cars on the market in the United States, Europe, Japan and China.
4) The top 500 restaurants in London reach their ambitious target of only selling fish that comes from certified and genuinely sustainable fisheries.
5) Every new house generates its own electricity.
6) More people receive monthly payments from their energy supplier (in return for the electrons they’ve sold the company from their own domestic renewables) than make payments to their energy supplier.
7) The majority of school children are able to walk or cycle to school.
8) More species are coming off the list of severely threatened and endangered species every year than are going on it.
9) The vast majority of consumers not only say they would like to buy food that is healthy, environment-friendly, fairly-traded and kind to animals, but start doing so in practice.
10) Inspired by the “big idea” of sustainable development, politics becomes again a place for moral, ethical and philosophical enquiry – and heated debate.
11) Every new infant in the UK receives not just the well-established “baby bond” (to promote the habit of saving in later life), but a one-off carbon credit (which matures after sixteen years) to encourage children to start thinking about their own carbon footprint from an early age.
12) The recycling facilities in Albert Square become one of the most familiar and much-loved features in the ongoing saga that is East Enders.
13) B&Q makes an even better margin on the PV panels it is now selling in large numbers than on its patio heaters.
14) The performance contracts of all health managers and executives in the NHS include a substantial sustainable development component and bonus scheme, focusing particularly on the health inequalities agenda.
15) The concept of “fuel poverty” is finally eliminated from the English language, simply because there are so few people anywhere in the UK whose lives are still blighted by a lack of affordable electricity and heating.
16) The UK Government achieves its ambition of securing more than 50% of all electricity generated in the UK from renewable sources.
17) The UK tops the European league for percentage of farmland under organic cultivation.
18) Recycling is frowned on as an inefficient use of resources given that most people are now reusing things or getting them repaired.
19) The Environment Agency declares that there is no longer any gender-bending danger in the UK (for us or for any other species) as all endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been phased out.
20) Treasury develops a comprehensive Life Satisfaction Index, which features prominently in the Chancellor’s pre-budget and budget statements, and is fiercely fought over in all General Elections.
21) Visits to GPs are massively reduced as “wellness” rather than illness becomes the principal measure of success in the NHS.
22) The vast majority of UK companies have work/life balance, or ‘family-friendly’ policies in place, keeping the UK bang in line with the EU average of number of hours worked annually by employees.
23) A MORI opinion poll shows that more than 60% of people in the UK roughly know what sustainable development is, and more than 60% of them feel either “positive” or “very positive” about it.
24) Jeremy Clarkson wins unparalleled critical acclaim as the presenter of Channel 4’s “S&M Club” (“The Sustainable and Mobile Club”).
25) The UK Small Business Service is restructured so that its core funding is substantially enhanced by an incentivised bonus scheme based on reductions in CO2 achieved by SMEs acting on its advice.
26) Ford derives a higher percentage of its profits from hybrid, hydrogen and hyper-efficient cars than it does from the gas-guzzling monsters that currently fill its showrooms.
27) The UK tops the EU league table for resource productivity.
28) The difference between average life expectancy in the UK’s poorest areas and richest areas is reduced to zero.
29) Voting becomes all the rage again, with turnout in parish, district, county, regional, parliamentary and European elections never dropping below 60%.
30) The Little Green Tractor (a fully integrated Assurance Scheme for sustainable food and farming in the UK) finally sees off the discredited and clapped out Little Red Tractor.
31) China’s own fuel cell car is launched, using its novel hydrogen storage technology; by 2010, this is the only type of new car purchased in China and India.
32) Lastly, almost every child in the land reaches the age of six feeling radiantly happy about themselves, their family and the world around them.
