Tomorrow's Economy A Guide to Creating Healthy Green Growth

How we can achieve healthy growth--more regenerative than destructive, restoring equity rather than exacerbating inequalities.

In Tomorrow's Economy, Per Espen Stoknes reframes the hot-button issue of economic growth. Going beyond the usual dialectic of pro-growth versus anti-growth, Stoknes calls for healthy growth. Healthy economic growth is more regenerative than destructive, repairs problems rather than greenwashing them, and restores equity rather than exacerbating global inequalities. Stoknes--a psychologist, economist, climate strategy researcher, and green-tech entrepreneur--argues that we have the tools to achieve healthy growth, but our success depends on transformations in government practices and individual behavior. Stoknes provides a compass to guide us toward the mindset, mechanisms, and possibilities of healthy growth.

Per Espen Stoknes is Director of the Center for Green Growth at the European Business School in Norway. His award-winning book What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming became the focus of a TED Talk with more than 2.6 million views.

Foreword by Paul Hawken ix
Preface xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I RESTOR(Y)ING GROWTH
1 YOUR BRAIN ON GROWTH 19
2 SOWING THE SEEDS OF TOMORROW’S ECONOMY: CREATING
HEALTHY GROWTH 45
3 HOW ECONOMIES ARE TRANSFORMED: THROUGH GRAND WAVES
OF INNOVATIONS 65
PART II THE GROWTH COMPASS
4 SNATCHING WEALTH FROM THE JAWS OF WASTE: GREENING
GROWTH 97
5 TELLING GRAY GROWTH FROM GREEN GROWTH, AND GREEN
GROWTH FROM HEALTHY GROWTH 115
6 INCLUSIVE GROWTH OR GROWTH ONLY FOR THE LUCKY FEW? 139
7 HOW TO KNOW HEALTHY GROWTH WHEN YOU SEE IT 165
PART III HOW? GETTING PRACTICAL
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE TRIANGULAR SYSTEM 209
viii Contents
8 HOW TO REORIENT COMPANIES TOWARD HEALTHY GROWTH 215
9 HOW CAN I DO ANYTHING THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE? 237
10 REBUILDING GOVERNMENT: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL, STIMULATING
GUARDIAN? 251
11 DOES IT ALL ADD UP? FOUR SCENARIOS TO 2050 271
Acknowledgments 295
Notes 297
Further Reading 341
Index 347