Keynote at Alpine Impact Days in Innsbruck. 

Notes: 2024 10 AIDS Keynote: Introduction and Agenda Overview

Welcome and Thank you (slide 1)

  • Thank you for the kind intro
  • I am very excited to be here with you today
  • The title of my keynote is:
    • A common vision for our Alpine Region – and how to implement it (click)
  • I will talk about the following three topics:
    • First: I propose a common vision for our Alpine Region
    • Second: I will introduce three tools for implementing this vision
    • And Third: I will suggest approaches and concrete steps for implementing it (click)
  • I love the mountains; I have always enjoyed roaming the Tyrolean mountains
  • Here is a photo from 1975 – pretty much 50 years ago – of myself with the Wilder Freiger in the background 
  • I don’t have to tell you, that you would not be able to take this shot anymore today, as much of this glacier is gone and the rest of it will disappear soon
  • But I am not here today to talk about the past, or even the present; I will talk about the future
  • So – let me introduce a vision that – I believe – we can all buy into, a common vision for our beautiful Alpine Region! (click)

Common Vision for our Alpine Region

  • We need to transform the ecosystem of our alpine region from an extractive ecosystem to a regenerative one.
    • Extractive systems take more resources than they replace. 
    • Regenerative ones are building up the resources – like nature does … 
    • Scarcity versus abundance
    • We have created an extractive economy, which cannot go well a la long as our resources are limited – particularly in the alps
    • Sustainability is not good enough to address this issue – we need to move towards regeneration, renewal, regrowth and restoration from an economic, environmental, social, and cultural perspective
    • We don’t really have a choice: We must transform the ecosystem in order to avoid a multi systemic collapse
    • Systemic problems demand systemic solutions (click)
    • The great Buckminster Fuller reminds us:
      • if we all want to thrive in a fair, just and equitable future 
      • Then we need to re-build our systems as opposed to incrementally enhancing them (click)
  • Systems change is not easy, and it takes a long time; 
  • On this slide you see three curves:
    • System optimization on the bottom, which yields fast results, but no long-term systemic change
    • Partial system redesign in the middle takes a little longer and results in changing parts of a system
    • And System change on the top of this chart, takes the longest, but it actually accomplishes systems change
    • Here are examples from the financial system:
      • System Optimization is represented by the ESG movement, which stands for environmental, social and governance. ESG is certainly better than non-ESG, but it has nothing to do with changing the financial system. 
      • Partial system redesign includes impact banks, as their business model is purely impact driven. We are in the process of trying to get the first impact bank in Austria off the ground. We are calling it Alia. 
      • Changing the banking system itself will require many different transformations, moving from share-holder economies to stake-holder economies, fully internalizing social and environmental costs, supporting a sharing economy, and so on and so forth.  (click)
  • We cannot afford to just incrementally enhance many of our systems, we will need to transform them, like moving from
    • Extractive Agriculture -> Regenerative Agriculture, from
    • Mass Tourism -> Eco-Tourism, from
    • Global Supply Chains -> Regional Supply Chains, from
    • Mass Transit Traffic Nightmare -> Regional E-Mobility, from
    • Extractive energy production -> renewable energy production, and from
    • Extractive Businesses -> Circular Businesses 
  • This is our common vision (click)
  • Let me now introduce three tools that have been successfully used in different regions (click)

Three Tools for implementing this vision

Tool 1: Three Horizons Thinking

  • You see the Horizon 1 line in red.
    • It supports the existing system while it collapses
    • It represents business as usual
    • It deals with triaging or hospicing the existing system
  • The Horizon 2 line is the dashed black line in the middle
    • Horizon 2 is partially redesigning the existing system
    • It represents disruptive innovation
  • The Horizon 3 line is the green one.
    • It represents the redesign of the existing system. 
    • It shows the emerging future, which is often times un-known
  • Examples from the banking sector are ESG as an H1 effort, and an impact bank as an H2 effort. 
  • We – as a society – need to operate on all three levels – in a dynamic and collaborative way. (click) 

Tool 2: Doughnut Economics

  • On this slide you can see a green doughnut in the middle. 
  • The inner ring (In dark green) represents our social foundation: the minimum things we need to be healthy and happy: food, water, health, education, income and work, peace and justice, and so on.
  • The outer ring (in dark green) represents the ecological limits of our planet: climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and ozone layer depletion, and so on.
  • Between the social foundation and the ecological ceiling lies this doughnut-shaped space in which it is possible to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet – an ecologically safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive. (click)
  • This is a graphic that shows the dramatic overshoot worldwide on 4 of the 9 ecological limits of the planet:
    • Climate change, Biodiversity loss, Land conversion and, Excessive use of fertilizers
  • As we will see, we can use doughnut economics for cities like Innsbruck or for regions like Tyrol or Euregio. (click)

Tool 3: Sustainable Development Goals and Indicator Metrics like IRIS+ 

  • Most people have heard about the Sustainable Development Goals 
  • Indicator metrics are what they sound like: concrete indicators to measure progress and results for specific impact themes and SDGs
  • Allow me to move on to the third and last part of my presentation (click)
  • If you are interested in topics like impact management, the Impact Hub Tirol is the place for you to go to. 

Approaches and Concrete Steps for Implementing the Common  Vision (click)

Let’s first talk about different approaches: Top-down, bottom-up and middle-out

  • Bottom up (click) 
  • Middle-out (click)
  • Top-down 
  • We need to work on all three with an emphasis on
    • Engaging the population at large and various stake holder groups along the way (click)

Concrete Steps

  • Define Impact Themes
  • Map Impact Themes to SDGs and IRIS+ metrics
  • Map SDGs to Doughnut economics
  • Map Horizon projects
  • Define Policies
  • Research (click)

Some Existing Efforts

  • Südtirol (click)
  • Nordtirol
  • Mention impact entrepreneurs and all people present (click)

Many similar efforts globally

  • Amsterdam (click)
  • Regen Melbourne (click) 
  • Muga Valley (click) 
  • HIR (click)

Conclusion

What responsibility comes with being human?

  • Kuleana – indigenous Hawaiian wisdom that comes with privilege
  • Schalensteine in Arztal (behind Patscherkofel): Wisdom of our ancestors to show the way
  • It is our privilege to actively drive the transformation towards a regenerative future

We can do it – together, such that my grand-son will have a chance to thrive in a regenerative alpine region

Thank you!!!!

Posted in Keynote Notes.