#32: Nature’s Laws – A Guide for Human Society

The laws of nature define sustainable society and show how to achieve it. But is this the best framework? There are many options. System Change Investing (SCI) uses the nature-based Global System Change (GSC) framework. This post discusses why the laws of nature are an ideal framing device for system change, sustainable society and responsible investing.

Framing Up Sustainability

Sustainability generally means humanity surviving and prospering over the very long-term. There are many frameworks for defining and clarifying sustainability. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) probably are the most well known. They define many aspects of sustainable society. Other approaches emphasize the limits of nature, such as The Natural Step and Donut Economics. Still others seek to evolve human systems into sustainable forms, such as stakeholder capitalism.

These approaches have guided extensive sustainability work and provided huge benefits to humanity. But are they enough? Climate change and many other SDG problems are getting rapidly worse. Current approaches sometimes are human-centric (e.g. SDGs, stakeholder capitalism) or do not provide adequate guidance on how to live within the limits of nature.

The Laws of Nature

The laws of nature provide the optimal framing device for humanity. They have controlled all living systems for the past 3.8 billion years of life on Earth. They will continue to determine the survival and prosperity of all life, including human life.

Nature’s laws are qualities that are always present in healthy living systems at all levels, from cells to the whole of nature. When these qualities are absent, systems change or die. Humans and other creatures only can violate these laws for relatively short periods. As living systems violate natural laws and approach the limits of nature, collapse often occurs quickly. Rapidly growing environmental and social problems strongly indicate that humanity is grossly violating the laws of nature and being held accountable for doing so.

Understanding nature’s laws is essential for evolving human systems and society into forms that comply with them, and thereby enable long-term survival and widespread prosperity.

Observable, consistent qualities/laws of living systems include: seeking balance not growth, producing no waste, living on renewable resources, equitable resource distribution, widespread cooperation (with limited competition at the individual level), equally valuating generations and species, decentralizing production and governance, and enabling individuals to reach their fullest potential. Implied operating principles of nature include democracy/self-government, equality, total cost accounting, no externalities, and full employment.

Taken together, these laws provide a whole system vision of sustainable society and describe the environmental, social and governance characteristics of it.

The Global System Change Framework

Using the laws of nature, the GSC framework provides an objective reality definition of sustainable society. Competing philosophies or views (e.g. capitalism versus socialism) often inhibit progress. The laws of nature transcend human philosophies and biases. They show what will objectively occur on Earth, regardless of what humans think, say or do. Nature implicitly only cares about one thing – are we abiding by its laws? If yes, we can stay. If no, we will not be here.

Clarifying sustainable society at a high level makes it possible to identify the objectively necessary systemic changes and actions needed to get there. The three-part GSC framework (i.e. sustainable society, systemic changes, necessary actions) provides a whole system roadmap for human sustainability and system change.

System Change Investing

Rating companies on system change requires a frame of reference (i.e. optimal performance standard against which companies are rated). Corporate performance cannot be accurately assessed until system change overall is understood. GSC provides the whole system framework needed to accurately rate corporate system change performance.

The approach uses the capital markets to incentivize the corporate and financial sectors to drive essential systemic changes. By focusing on system change and root causes, SCI provides the first responsible investing strategy with the potential to achieve the SDGs. It reduces risk, increases returns, maximizes sustainability impacts, enhances reputation, and attracts new investment.

For more information, visit our website SystemChangeInvesting.com or contact us at info@SystemChangeInvesting.com