Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism

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I’ve been asking myself these questions for a while now about Future-Fit, as I try to identify gaps in our efforts to accelerate adoption of the Benchmark. The four-year-old Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) now has 91 members in territories covering 88% of the world economy and 85% of global emissions, NGFS chair Frank Elderson told the event. If there was a consistent narrative throughout the book focussed on wicked problems and how they can be overcome, I think the book would have been better. As Elkington adds, “Too often, Black Swans take you exponentially where you don’t want to go, whereas Green Swans take you exponentially where you do want to go. Black Swans are dramatic events which few, if any of us, see coming even though they are often “inappropriately rationalised after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.

They deliver “exponential progress in the form of economic, social, and environmental wealth creation. John Elkington is careful to warn us against misusing the term ‘Green Swans’ to mean simply black swans caused by climate change. Are others encouraged and rewarded for contributing enhancements, which then become available to everyone?Thierry Philipponnat of the NGO Finance Watch warned, however, that the data gap should not become an excuse for non-action. He is the founder of several businesses and thinktanks advocating corporate social and environmental responsibility and he has widely published on green consumerism and sustainable development.

Essential reading for those in business or exploring how we save capitalism from itself, or simply questioning how our current economic model can continue to serve us now or in the future. Building on the foundation of the inaugural Green Swan Conference in 2021, which brought together a wide range of high-calibre policymakers, experts and practitioners from different sectors, Green Swan 2022 offers a deeper dive into the topics of (i) monetary policy setting and operations in the context of climate change, and (ii) the role of finance in the climate transition, including transparency and disclosures, transition plans and financing green innovation. According to his book, Green Swans are “solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough” or “systemic solutions to global challenges, solutions that tap into positive exponentials.

The Observatory, run by Jenny Poulter, collates practical, verified examples of market shifts, businesses, policy innovation, technologies and individuals with demonstrated potential to drive rapid and radical change across issues, themes and geographies. It is the tale of the accelerating transformation of capitalism, markets and business—a process likely to reach a critical inflection point in the 2020s. I'm still waiting to participate with the new GSO app to become the Trusted Platform of Green Swans Observatory that offers all digital media and interactions in one place. John shared about the Volans ‘Green Swan Awards’ and his commitment to staying optimistic about how we can create systems of exponential improvement and regeneration. Some examples include: the shift from fossil fuels to renewables for energy generation; Green New Deals; the positive disruption of the soil-agriculture-food-nutrition-health nexus due to technological and behavioural changes, including precision and regenerative agriculture, cellular agriculture, vertical farming and the growth of meatless diets.