A SHIFT to Sustainability

The framework proposed is made up of five themes, describing a SHIFT to achieve a path of sustainability. They are: reStoration and reHabilitation, reInvention, reFinement, and reTraining.

These themes can be applied alone or together, to assess capital deployment initiatives, and to achieve long term yields by sustaining and increasing ecosystem intrinsic value. I will be defining these themes in detail, and then discuss the case study that inspired it. At the end, the framework will be put through a simulation exercise to assess its practicality.

Restoration & Rehabilitation

Both of these terms describe attempts to accurately recreate form, features and character as it appeared at a particular time. The restoration of an ecosystem is an attempt to return it to its historical trajectory. On the other hand, “rehabilitation” means the reparation of ecosystem processes, services, and productivity, but it does not mean to restore the ecosystem to its pre-existing condition. Replanting of trees, for example, is a form of rehabilitation, as these trees will not be the same as those that existed before deforestation happened. Preservation efforts could also be capitalized and used as a derived sub theme, as it contributes to ecosystem longevity. Preservation efforts avoid costly restoration or rehabilitation efforts in the near term and should not be overlooked.

Reinvention

The path to creating profitable businesses may not be direct, and all other parts of the framework are the basis to support this. As we shift away from traditional brick and mortar businesses, to an interconnected world, business models need to continuously evolve. New models, such as e-commerce, digital transformational efforts to traditional businesses within the ecosystem can spur growth and in some instances, even keep them alive and relevant with time. Ecotourism, e-commerce, cloud technologies, and technology enabled forms of aquaculture and agriculture are such examples of reinvention. Seeding a fertile soil for outside-the-box thinking can work to yield significant productivity gains, and achieve scale in a sustainable manner. Reinvention can also be used to scope out the opportunity costs from developing an enterprise in an unsustainable manner. For example, destroying forests to…