In some ways, it is a dubious honour. The months and weeks leading up to this milestone have provoked important but difficult public conversations about how our planet, with its limited resources, will support a human population that is estimated to reach 10 billion by the end of this century. But the concern isn’t only about how many of us there are; it’s also about how much we consume. The average human rate of consumption is predicted to double over the next 40 years. But before we throw up our hands in horror, it’s important to understand something. Part of what is pushing up that global consumption is a predicted higher standard of living for global communities that have—historically—been the most impoverished. It means that some of Danica’s peers will eat better, have better job opportunities, and live longer and healthier lives than generations before them.
(c)WWF-Canada
But what will the world look like when Danica and her cohort reach middle age? How will our forests fare the decades ahead? What will be the state of our fish stocks…our fresh water? What will it take to support the prosperity and hopes of this new generation without eating away at the natural capital of our planet?
These questions strike at the heart of WWF’s mission: to help people and nature thrive. WWF’s global Market Transformation Initiative is one of the ways we hope to answer them. The goal the Market Transition strategy is to lower our human footprint by working with leading companies to find smarter and more sustainable ways to produce the major commodities that most of us consume (things like tuna, timber, sugar, and cotton). By tapping into corporations and sectors that significantly influence decisions about how what we eat and what we use gets produced, we can catalyze massive shifts in a relatively small amount of time. Take Loblaw, for example. Their commitment to sourcing 100% sustainable seafood means that seafood vendors and harvesters, who want to do business with Loblaw, have to meet higher standards. When you consider that Loblaw sells close to 40% of all seafood in Canada—you start to get a sense of what that supply-chain impact means.
In his great TED talk, Jason Clay, WWF’s Senior Vice President of Market Transformations, says that if we can convince 100 of the world’s corporations to be sustainable, global markets will shift to protect the planet. Given that we more or less have Danica’s (and my son’s) lifetime to start figuring out some of these very difficult questions, the Market Transformation strategy offers an inspiring vision of change. That’s not only because it is hopeful, but because it is doable.
