Summer School 2025. Driving innovative governance: a lever for viable business models and a liveable world

Permaentreprises do not renounce growth or value creation but change their conditions, aiming for fair, sustainable growth by putting CSR at the heart of the strategy. Indeed, 48% of Norsys’ business is in healthcare, social protection and the ecological transition. The company promotes development on a human scale through an archipelago of SMEs. It invests into renewable energies, finances decarbonisation and natural resource regeneration projects. Trough the norsys Foundation, 53.3% of pre-tax profits are redistributed to civil society. The norsys Foundation has been supporting associations since 2001; endowment fund was established in 2022 to finance ethical digital players. 

Besides, norsys actively experiments with the role of nature in its governance. The company recently granted 10% of its shareholding to Nature and appointed a representative on Board with voting (and veto) rights on strategic projects. 

He argued that full health can be a more relevant compass compared to the pursuit of GDP growth, which is ultimately destructive and counter-productive, when considering the increasing inequalities and massive pollution. Using reasoned and objective data, he called for a new social-ecological approach putting the well-being economy as a goal, and social justice as a driver for just transitions. He linked the concept of economic growth with the increasing inequality and pollution. He provided the data illustrating the empirical reality: for example, responsibility for climate change lies not on the humankind in general but on its wealthiest part that relies on the expanding model of economic growth as the imperative for business activity. 

• The richest 10% of human population are responsible for 52% emissions, while 50% of humans are responsible for 10% of total emissions, and already respect Paris agreements. 

• 50% of the total CO2 emissions have been added since 1990s, i.e. within last 35 years. As another half has been generated since early 19^th century, i.e. within 200 years, we observe extreme acceleration of CO2 emissions that destroy the environment we have been used to. 

• Twin crisis of inequality and sustainability leads to crisis of democracy that we need to start handling to avoid further and deeper crises. 

Thus, Prof. Laurent called for reviewing the growth imperative and suggested well-being economy as a new economic framework that will balance contradictory interests. 

When it comes to supporting data, the existing climate research has generated the necessary amount of information to make well-grounded decisions. “We already know a lot now, but we still do not use the knowledge that we have”. It is important to make these decisions, and to do that, several steps should be taken: 

• There should be actors of change, e.g., mitigation working groups with specific tasks that will facilitate the necessary adaptation process. 

• It is essential to transfer uncertainty into risks. 

• Viable habitat must become an absolute priority, and thus we should move from an undefined abstract concept of ”Nature” to a much more specific concept of “living”, i.e. those with whom we are “in the same boat”. 

• Hence the need to establish global, intergenerational, multispecies justice. 

• To achieve this, it is helpful to build some personas, i.e. cumulative images representing those suffering from the change, to be more specific with proposed policy measures. 

In order to move forward, we should rely on human cooperation. Power of collective intelligence distinguishes human beings. Success of humanity is not about technology or individual genius, but about collective action. Currently, to raise their effectiveness, people tend to focus more on collaboration, i.e. one single aspect of cooperation. Such reduction of human interaction to certain particular aspects, impoverishes results of joint efforts. It derives from prioritising the growth at all costs and is another illustration of inappropriateness of the existing growth paradigm as the only framework for business activity. 

On the contrary, joint creation is a key remedy for various social challenges such as loneliness, alienation, growing dependencies, democracy crisis, etc. To illustrate his point, Prof. Laurent referred to a longitudinal study conducted by Harvard University: 80 years of constant measurements and observations demonstrated that the single factor that explains happiness and long life is the quality social relations. By weakening social bonds, we weaken our ability to adapt to changing climate. As a humankind, we need to do the opposite: invest in our social relations to increase our resilience to the coming change. 

Building majorities for just transitions is key. And there are majorities for just transitions! Prof. Laurent brought up an example of Lyon where the key principles of this approach are already being tested (La Boussole du bien-être). He also emphasised that Belgian government is among the most advanced in designing sustainability incentives addressed to wider population. 

Summarising a historical excurse into climate change research, Prof. Laurent proposed designing just transition policies that unite social, environmental and economic issues.