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Date: 2024-12-08 Page is: DBtxt003.php L07-11-SEES-FLOW-ACTORS-190824
OVERVIEW #7
FLOW ... ACTORS
in the SOCIO-ENVIRO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM
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CONSIDER ALL THE PERSPECTIVES
EMPOWER ALL THE ACTORS
AND ACCOUNT FOR IMPACT ON ALL THE CAPITALS
TECHNOLOGY

Enabler of progress
ORGANIZATIONS
More than profit
PEOPLE

Men, women & children
PLACE

Where people live
PRODUCTS

Quality of Life
Some people are very fortunate, and others less so. The accident of birth should not be the main determinant of success and a happy productive life. There should be opportunity for everyone. The characteristics of the place make a big difference to quality of life. The choices people make regarding the products purchased and consumed impact the person, the economy and the environment.
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PEOPLE ... THE ULTIMATE ACTORS
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PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THE CONSUMPTION OF PRODUCTS
Food - Vegetables Food - Meat Housing Clothes Mobility Recreation
More consumption correlates to a better quality of life up to a certain level. Beyond that level more consumption may well have negative consequences, as for example too much food may result in obesity and diabetes or worse.
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PEOPLE AS CONTRIBUTORS ... AS DECISION MAKERS
AS INDIVIDUALS

Live life ... work & family
IN ORGANIZATIONS

Do the work ... make the decisions
AS INVESTORS

Allocate financial resources
EMPOWER THE INDIVIDUAL AND ENABLE BASIS FOR A BETTER LIFE
Every individual is different, both in what they are capable of doing and how they want to live their lives. People should have the freedom to succeed in all sorts of good ways, and should be helped so that they never fail. People need the facts about themselves and everything around them.
ESTABLISH ACCOUNTABILITY FOR PEOPLE WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS
Companies are important drivers of the economy. Within companies it is people that make the decisions, and for many decades the dominant metric for success has been profit without taking into consideration impact on society and nature. This must change. Profit performance on its own is not enough!
IMPROVE DECISION PROCESS FOR INVESTMENT DECISIONS
The allocation of capital shapes the future of the economy. People make the decisions about what investments should be made and have been guided mainly by the potential for growth of financial wealth without taking into consideration issues relating to society and the environment. These other issues matter.
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STREAMS / STRANDS / STRINGS
WHAT ARE ALL THE IMPACTS FOR THE LIFE CYCLE OF PRODUCTS?
NATURE EXTRACTION
SUPPLY CHAIN PRODUCTION
USE
WASTE
Everything that is used to support a high standard of living and quality of life has a long supply chain, then production and distribution, then use, and then a post use waste chain. For metrics to be meaningful, all of these stages must be brought into account.
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ROLE PLAYED BY TECHNOLOGY
PRODUCT CONSUMPTION IS A DRIVER OF THE MODERN ECONOMY
CONSUMPTION
PROCESSES
MATERIALS
ENERGY
PAYROLL
Consumption is driving the modern economy. It looks like success as long as the depletion of natural resourcs and the degradation of the environment is ignored.There is strong correlation between better quality of life and more consumption in poor economies, but less so in mature rich econmies. Rich economies are increasingly associated with waste, luxury and inefficiency.
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ROLE PLAYED BY CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS
ALL HAVE SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
DIGITAL TECH
Google
OIL & GAS
ExxonMobil
AERO ENGINES
Rolls Royce
BANKING
HSBC
ENGINEERING GE FOOD Unilever
Most of the global economy comprises products that are produced by very big organizations that are complex with multiple factories in many different locations, and supply chains that span the globe. It is not easy to understand these companies in a way that makes it possible to hold them accountable for their behavior. Nevertheless, despite their complexity, they are able to communicate their profit performance to investors, but not their social impact nor their environmental impact, even where these are material. This has to change.
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ROLE PLAYED BY PROCESSES & FACTORIES
WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT?
MINING
LOGISTICS ENERGY
ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION
OIL REFINERY
Every sector, every industry, has become very specialized and over a long period of time has been optimized for profit performance. Profit performance has been exceptional for decades, but too little attention has been paid to social and environmental issues. This must change. Process improvements are essential and must focus in improving social impact and environmental impact as well as merely being more profitable.
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MANAGE FOR THE SECTORS / INDUSTRIES
WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT?
MINING
LOGISTICS ENERGY
ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION
AGRICULTURE
HEALTHCARE RAIL
Every sector, every industry, has become very specialized and over a long period of time has been optimized for profit performance. Profit performance has been exceptional for decades, but too little attention has been paid to social and environmental issues. This must change. Process improvements are essential and must focus in improving social impact and environmental impact as well as merely being more profitable.
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PLACE
THE CRITICAL VALUE ADD FROM LOCATIONAL CAPITAL
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CITIES / COMMUNITIES
Cities and Communities are where people live their lives
MAIN ST.
SCHOOLS CHURCHES POLICE RECREATION HOSPITALS
SUBURB
UNIVERSITIES HOUSING FIRE RELAXATION PERSONNEL
Everything is needed in the place to enable Quality of Life. Everything is interconnected. Nothing important can be missing ... multi-sector is essential
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COUNTRIES
More than 200 countries ... with vastly different characteristics
Data at the country level useful for broad comparisons, not so much for management of performance
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PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS IMPACT PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS AND NATURE
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NEEDED FOR A DECENT QUALITY OF LIFE
Food - Vegetables Food - Meat Housing Clothes Mobility Recreation
More consumption correlates to a better quality of life up to a certain level. Beyond that level more consumption may well have negative consequences, as for example too much food may result in obesity and diabetes or worse.
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PRODUCTS START WITH NATURE AND HAVE A LONG LIFE CYCLE
NATURE SEA
STEEL
EATING
WASTE RECYCLING
NATURE ROAD
REFINING
CONSUMING
LANDFILL RECYCLING
EXTRACTION
RAIL
POLLUTION
DRIVING
FLOODS
NO WASTE
Products enable consumption that improves quality of life. The production of products is a critical economic activity and source of profit for companies. Production and products are only sustainable if they do not degrade the environment. Most modern industrial process are catastrophically unsustainable. Smarter processes are needed together with smarter products, smarter consumers and systems to enable a circular economic model.
NATURE AND NATURAL SYSTEMS ARE FOUNDATIONAL
SUN NATURE NATURE BIODIVERSITY
Everything starts with nature ... but the importance of nature is ignored in most of economics, business management and politics. Natural ecosystems make clean water and air, maintain the productivity of soil, stabilize the climate and so much more.
Energy from the sun provides the energy for all sorts of natural production, as well as agrticulture for food production
There are complex networks that link the lifecycles of animals (including fish) and plants and are essential for life to go on season after season.
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS PRODUCE AN ABUNDANCE OF GOODS
FARMING
MINING
STEEL
SEA
ENERGY
RAIL
REFINING
ROAD
The scale and complexity of the modern global economy is difficult to comprehend. It has been enabled since the start of the industrial revolution by impressive improvements in technology and this has accelerated over the years.
Customers have very little knowledge about the complete life cycles of the goods and services they buy and use. They know about price, and the messages associated with the product and the brand, but not much more.
Most companies optimize for profit and to generate wealth. Some companies know about the social and environmental impacts ... good and bad ... associated with the supply chains for what they produce and sell, but this information is closely held to the extent that it is known because almost all production is unsustainable into the future.
The flow of goods and services at the present level of economic activity is dangerously unsustainable, and will become more so as countries like India and China become more affluent and consumption increases. It is estimated that if everyone on planet earth had the lifestyle associated with the USA, it would require between 7 and 10 planets to be sustainable.
THE CONSUMPTION OF PRODUCTS IS CENTRAL TO QUALITY OF LIFE
EATING
MOBILITY
HEALTH
CONSUMING
RELAXATION EDUCATION
In a world of shortage, more is better ... and for most of history this has been the reality, but less so in modern times where productivity enables an abundance of material goods and services. The limiting factor is no longer production but the ability of nature to sustain such production without catastrophic degradation.
Quality of life improves when there is an abundance of goods and services from which to choose ... however too much results in negative impacts like obesity and diabetis.
For companies, more production and more sales results in more profits while at the same time more corporate responsibility results in more costs and less profits. Advertising is mainly about getting more sales, no matter the misinformation.
It is time for better metrics!
WASTE, INDUSTRIAL DETRITUS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
AIR POLLUTION WATER USE LANDFILL FLOODS
GHGs
POLLUTION PLASTIC HURRICANES
The modern economy produces a massive amount of waste. There is waste at every stage of the produce life cycle, and the costs of this waste are ignored in conventional financial management accounting.
Industry has a history of doing the minimum to reduce air pollution both as regards human health and the impact on the environment.
Agriculture and industry are using more water than the natural replenishment, and there are massive flows of polluted water into most major watersheds
Industry has also embraced the use of plastic ... including single use plastic ... without doing much about the way the plastic pollutes both land and seas and kills wildlife.
In addition industry has had little interest in ensuring that important ecosystems remain viable, both as regards biodiversity and also climate stability. Many scientists now consider that the climate situation has morphed into a climate crisis.

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