How to grow, for real
Per Espen Stoknes’s latest book outlines a possible path towards a sustainable and balanced development
How to grow and generate value, and as such development, well-being and fairness (also in environmental terms). A theme that has risen to global prominence – rightly so, and even more significantly, after war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, this work not only discusses political balance but also the development models we might want to adopt.
These are the topics explored by Per Espen Stoknes – a psychologist and economist who researches strategies to tackle climate change, as well as an entrepreneur in the field of green technologies. His recent book, translated into Italian as L’economia di domani. Una guida per creare una crescita sana e green (Tomorrow’s economy: a guide to creating healthy green growth), aims to reframe the delicate issue of economic growth.
Stoknes goes beyond proponents and opponents’ contentions to argue for a healthy growth, that is, a regenerative growth that does not waste resources, solves problems rather than hiding them behind a coat of greenwashing, and asserts the principles of fairness instead of exacerbating inequality. He believes that modern society already has the tools to achieve this kind of growth, yet also emphasises how its success depends on how innovations, governmental policies and individual behaviours are managed.
As such, the book begins with a discussion on the need to reframe the concept of growth, starting from innovation. The author then provides a kind of “growth compass” based on a few key principles: the need to avoid waste, the requirement to properly identify what kind of growth we want, the obligation to attain an inclusive growth that does not just affect a few. The last section of the book is dedicated to a number of operational tenets that allow to successfully reach a balanced development, compatible with the environment as well as, of course, people.
A healthy growth, Stoknes believes, reconceives value creation as a smart and inclusive asset. A healthy growth generates measurable profits, as well as increasing the productivity of better distributed resources. Of course, the path outlined by Per Espen Stoknes is a rather complex, yet achievable, one – and to do so successfully, the basic message remains the same as always: individual actions can turn into community actions.
L’economia di domani. Una guida per creare una crescita sana e green (Tomorrow’s economy: a guide to creating healthy green growth)
Per Espen Stoknes
Franco Angeli, 2022
Per Espen Stoknes’s latest book outlines a possible path towards a sustainable and balanced development
How to grow and generate value, and as such development, well-being and fairness (also in environmental terms). A theme that has risen to global prominence – rightly so, and even more significantly, after war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, this work not only discusses political balance but also the development models we might want to adopt.
These are the topics explored by Per Espen Stoknes – a psychologist and economist who researches strategies to tackle climate change, as well as an entrepreneur in the field of green technologies. His recent book, translated into Italian as L’economia di domani. Una guida per creare una crescita sana e green (Tomorrow’s economy: a guide to creating healthy green growth), aims to reframe the delicate issue of economic growth.
Stoknes goes beyond proponents and opponents’ contentions to argue for a healthy growth, that is, a regenerative growth that does not waste resources, solves problems rather than hiding them behind a coat of greenwashing, and asserts the principles of fairness instead of exacerbating inequality. He believes that modern society already has the tools to achieve this kind of growth, yet also emphasises how its success depends on how innovations, governmental policies and individual behaviours are managed.
As such, the book begins with a discussion on the need to reframe the concept of growth, starting from innovation. The author then provides a kind of “growth compass” based on a few key principles: the need to avoid waste, the requirement to properly identify what kind of growth we want, the obligation to attain an inclusive growth that does not just affect a few. The last section of the book is dedicated to a number of operational tenets that allow to successfully reach a balanced development, compatible with the environment as well as, of course, people.
A healthy growth, Stoknes believes, reconceives value creation as a smart and inclusive asset. A healthy growth generates measurable profits, as well as increasing the productivity of better distributed resources. Of course, the path outlined by Per Espen Stoknes is a rather complex, yet achievable, one – and to do so successfully, the basic message remains the same as always: individual actions can turn into community actions.
L’economia di domani. Una guida per creare una crescita sana e green (Tomorrow’s economy: a guide to creating healthy green growth)
Per Espen Stoknes
Franco Angeli, 2022