The stability of our planet is at stake
Our economic and demographic growth and development are taking humanity on planet Earth on a dangerous path. Since the middle of the 20th century, our environmental footprint has become so important that the entire Earth system is influenced by our activities: we have entered the Anthropocene era. At scaling4good we are aware that there are planetary boundaries -as defined by Johan Röckstrom and other researchers- that limit the capacity of our planet to keep the ecosystems and our environment in a “safe operating space” for humanity. Among these boundaries feature in particular the concentration of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, the health of terrestrial and ocean ecosystems, the consumption of freshwater, the transformation of nitrogen and phosphorus cycles related to agriculture practices.
Beyond rhetoric, action
As we are overstepping or approaching these boundaries the urgency to act is immediate. Keeping our planet and societies in a safe operating space requires speeding up transitions in several domains, economic, financial, social and in turn speeding up changes in our individual behaviours and lifestyles, in policies and social equity. These transitions will affect our societies in their foundations. We believe that our values, our belief systems, and with them, our aspirations and behaviours are main drivers of the mentioned phenomena and play even a greater role than technology.
But rhetoric is here less important than action. Thinking and talking of the problems has the tendency to bring pessimism and reduce the capacity to solve the problems. Action is much more likely to generate a positive (yet realistic) spirit that is a prerequisite to the transition.
The good news
On the road to this required transition, a lot is already happening. Many local actors, individuals, NGOs, political leaders, entrepreneurs have embarked in a journey to transform the way we use our resources, the way we produce and consume. Circular economy, the sharing economy, renewable energy, new and more ethical entrepreneurial and financial models pave the way to a new era. As shown by Jeremy Rifkin, this 3rd industrial Revolution is facilitated by information technologies and accompanied by emerging values. It will also lead to a significant increase in the energy efficiency.
These local actors remain however often isolated. We are convinced that we could accelerate the pace of transformation if the lessons gained could be more easily shared, if more effort could be devoted to coordinating efforts in order to avoid “reinventing the wheel”.
“Scaling for good”
Scaling4good is an attempt to address this issue. It is about identifying and sharing lessons on these existing solutions. how to grow, connect, replicate all the great ideas, initiatives and projects, so as to increase their impacts and reach beyond their current scope.
We are facilitating and ensuring that the lessons learnt through a myriad of local experiences can be shared easily and we want to support or facilitate their development or replication. We distinguish:
- scaling up: the growth or expansion of an initiative, of a project, of a change in behaviour in the area and context where it has been tested;
- scaling out: quite often, the local growth can and needs to be supplemented by a replication of the initiative in another area, in a different context in order to accelerate the transitions
At scaling4good what interests us specifically is the scaling of ideas beneficial to society beyond an individual company. Our goal is not to add to the discourse on how to create exponential organisations but rather to find ways to replicate by adapting to the local specific contexts the numerous successful initiatives that pave the way to a better future for humanity.
Scaling is not easy, it is not simply copying!
Scaling needs to be both bottom-up and top-down. It requires connections, dialogue and overall the capacity to assess the success (or failure) and the reason for it. It generally requires “systemic thinking” i.e. the capacity to connect any action to the human, environmental and economic systems in which it is implemented and to understand how these systems operate. A successful project cannot be simply replicated in most of the cases. It needs to be carefully adapted.
Take, for instance the case of urban agriculture. Several types of innovations are being tested in many cities such as rooftop gardens, in-door production, symbiotic systems using principles of circular economy. What are the lessons learnt? How long does it take to create a new local value chain? Which models function in which type of environment? What is the actual impact achieved and could it be increased?
Take also the case of the German model of cooperative production of renewable energy. To what degree is this model replicable in other countries and what are the prerequisites to its success? What are the barriers encountered? To what degree is it also sometimes required to “reinvent the wheel” to allow for identification and true ownership?
Canvassing different approaches
Beyond scaling up and scaling out, many different approaches need to be canvassed. And we ambition to collect and analyse them and help you select the most appropriate ones.For instance:
- Classical scaling is the growth of an initiative such as a new company or start-up. Here there is a lot of experience available since economic and financial tools are well adapted to this case. What are the learnings we can draw from these experiences to grow beyond individual companies?
- Connecting and developing synergies between similar initiatives within a given territory makes sense in many cases. But how many of these initiatives are required to ensure scaling can be triggered? How connected should they be?
- An important barrier to scaling is the lack of continuity of value chains: several innovations depend on a series of stakeholders that need to be connected to create a value chain. A typical example is the electric car that cannot scale if the infrastructure, the battery management tools are not in place (as well understood by Tesla).
- In many cases also, the disruptive nature of a number of innovations requires to address the human issues: how can we accelerate the change of behaviour, aspirations and values of citizens, consumers or local communities? Who are the first movers and what levers can be used for that? Are there political or regulatory issues that need to be addressed?