Action

A is for Action

Three revolutions will drive dramatic change in most countries over the next several decades.
The automation of decision-making, the transition to renewable energy, and the emergence of the bioeconomy are already creating extraordinary opportunity and substantial risk.

We provide below a range of perspectives and resources to help you navigate these shifts, drawing on our experience working on related initiatives with individual businesses, communities and industry sectors, as well as at a global scale.

Recent articles and reports

By Cassandra Kelly & Nigel Lake

Nigel is a contributor to Earth for All, co-author of one of the supporting deep dive papers, and part of the campaign team responsible for story development

Beyond the Metacrisis:
Delivering Earth for All

“Millions of people around the world are suffering deeply as a result of climate chaos,
environmental degradation and perverse inequality. For way too long, the multilateral
system and civil society have defined and described those multiple crises as separate,
each with their own unique set of solutions, often in competition with each other. In
fact, they are different aspects of what we might understand as the metacrisis.

Earth for All shows how we address these crises together, and that’s what makes
it such critical reading. There is a path of possibility, infused with stubborn, urgent
optimism.” Christiana Figueres

Almost every month for the last two years, I’ve leapt out of bed in the small hours of the morning and been deep in concentration at my desk by 4am. Those that know me will appreciate that this is entirely unprecedented. At last, I can share why. <<Read on>>

For Nigel Lake's deep dive paper: Planetary Turnaround: an investment banker's perspective on climate change action, please visit the Club of Rome website here.

For the full Pottinger Perspectives series, please click here.

“An extraordinary book at an extraordinary time” Ban Ki-Moon
“Essential reading” Thomas Piketty
“Thought-provoking analysis” Kate Raworth
“A road-map that cannot be ignored” Sharan Burrow
“Collapse is still avoidable. Here's how” Bill McKibben

Earth for All is published in English on 20th September - order from your local bookshop or online.
The German edition is already a best-seller - Chinese, French, Japanese and Korean versions will be released shortly.

A brief introduction to Earth4All,
narrated by Per Espen Stocknes.

Launch event livestream, New York
19th September/20th in APAC

Earth for All - Public policy briefing
20th September/21st in APAC

Just A Little Bravery, by Cassandra Kelly

Every business leader – indeed most employees in most businesses – must face up to significant change at some point in their careers. Whether this comes through a financial crisis, or through the creeping effects of increasing competition or technological change, the same imperative remains: don’t shy away from change.

The lexicon of 21st century business is awash with excuses to ignore change, allowing leaders to “defer a decision until the landscape becomes clearer” and enabling them to be “too risk averse to act… That’s why the decisions to be made in 2022 are so important. There are huge opportunities to be seized as three parallel revolutions unfold with increasing pace. Read on>>>

For the full Pottinger Perspectives series, please click here.

ESGX Live: Australia 4.0, with Adam McKissack, Robyn Elliott and Mara Bun

Co-hosted by Nigel Lake in New York and Paul Herman in Chicago
Three parallel revolutions are already having a profound impact on economies and are changing where and how capital should best be invested to create prosperity for all. In this special episode of ESGX Live, we will explore these issues through the eyes of Australia and its neighbours in the Asia Pacific region, considering questions such as:

Which technological shifts will have the largest impact this decade?
Will this drive polarisation of wealth, including between nations?
Where and how countries should invest to address these shifts?

To register to join future episodes, please visit www.ESGX.org.

The Future of Society and the Earth For All initiative

In 2018, our co-founder Nigel Lake and Prof Jorgen Randers published a seminal paper on "The Future of Society". Looking beyond the common topic of 'the future of work', they explored the huge risks to our economies, environment and societies posed by the relentless focus on short term financial outcomes. Importantly, they also offered a vision that a much brighter future could be unlocked with more efficient and informed use of our worlds resources.

Global: A new paradigm for decision-making

Traditional economic analysis has focused almost entirely on optimising how we use our financial resources. New thinking is needed to relieve the growing pressure on environment and to defuse increasing tension within many societies. We share both our own perspectives and those of other leading thinkers below.

The Future of Society

By Nigel Lake and Prof Jorgen Randers

Impact-adjusted return on capital

By Nigel Lake

Breaking Boundaries

By Johan Rockström and Owen Gaffney, and narrated by Sir David Attenborough

Over the last two years, we have supported the Club of Rome's Earth For All Initiative, which is designed to accelerate the systems-changes we need for an equitable future on a finite planet. For further information, please visit the Earth For All website or click the image below to view the TED talk at the COP 26 Countdown Summit.

Inspiring collaboration and action around the world

Our team members contribute to a variety of initiatives that share knowledge and experience and which are designed to inspire collaboration and action. In may areas, both the problems to be overcome and the solutions that are needed are well understood. As with our client work, our emphasis is resolutely on helping to breaking down the barriers to action.

The EU's Global Tech Panel

Cassandra Kelly is a founding member of the EU's Global Tech Panel, launched in 2018

UK Turnaround Guide

A guide to navigating change, published by Caxton Business on behalf of Lloyds Bank, one of the UK's leading banking groups

Visions 2100

Nigel Lake contributed to Visions 2100, launched at COP 26 to provide inspiration that action can and does change the world.

On 31st March 2020, our co-founder Nigel Lake launched ESGX.org, a platform for sharing information and experience designed to inspire collaboration and action on a wide variety of matters related to long-term thinking sustainability. This has featured live discussions with guests from every continent bar the Antarctic. Some are well known – such as the primatologist Dr Jane Goodall and the economist and author Dr Stephanie Kelton - and others we are certain will be. All share one thing in common: that they are doing extraordinary work and demonstrating that there is a better way to live, work, invest and contribute in this amazing world.

The Book of Hope, with Dr Jane Goodall, hosted by middle school student Julia Drainville

MMTransformational Impact, with best-selling author Dr Stephanie Kelton and Ambassador Moses

Power Shift, with entrepreneur Jigar Shah (now director of the DoE's loans program) and Chris Castro

National: Turnarounds and transformation

The three parallel revolutions - in automation of decision-making, renewable energy and the bioeconomy - create enormous risks and opportunities for most industry sectors, and imply that almost every business will need to navigate a rapidly shifting environment. We continue to develop and share resources to support businesses of all sizes, both through our commercial engagement with industries and government agencies, as well as through pro bono contributions to other projects.

Community Pharmacy 2025

A national initiative with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to guide the development of the industry nationally

The Small Business Review

Pottinger undertook an independent review of the definition of small business under Australia's Banking Code of Practice in 2020

Future-Proofing Farming

A national initiative with the National Farmers' Federation to improve the resilience of Australia's agricultural sector