Foreword

These next few decades, a length of time that spans only a single human’s typical career from start to finish, will be some of the most transformative in human history. Transformative in the sense that nearly everything we do needs to change.

When we examine the big things we do—electricity, transportation, food, all the stuff that we consume, and all the activities that we enjoy—essentially none of it is currently sustainable. What is worse, much of it causes external damage to the climate and the natural world that our descendants will hate us for. There is mounting evidence that we are precipitating the sixth great mass extinction in our planet’s history. This is not good.

To many people, the entire concept of sustainable products and systems sounds like some eco-utopian fuzzy-headed vision promoted by college students. In truth, sustainability is just common sense. Herbert Stein, an economist, has a quote that I’ve always liked, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Although he was referring to certain financial imbalances, the same is true for all endeavors.

When a company provides products or services that are not sustainably sourced, by definition that means its products or services are unsustainable and will eventually stop. This is in addition to any external environmental damage the product’s production or use might be responsible for, whose costs generally fall on someone else.

From a purely capitalist standpoint, it is important for investors and management to recognize that their company’s products or services will stop being viable even if customers still want to buy them. This isn’t an ESG threat but simply a fact. If a product depends on processes and inputs that are not sustainable, it will stop being a viable product as shortages or input prices make it unsuccessful in the marketplace. That isn’t fuzzy-headed “green” thinking, but a sign of the need for very clear, proactive management.

In the recent past, a large US cereal company proclaimed its green credentials on every cereal box, stating in large, bold letters: “We have committed to sustainably source 100% of our cereal boxes by 2020.” Clearly people in the supply chain of this large company were working hard on sourcing boxes, and it was comforting to know that the future of cereal boxes would be secure. However, the future of what is inside the cereal boxes is far less certain. I assume that the inputs that make the cereal are not sustainably managed, and those farms are mining water or topsoil or fertilizer or some other resource in a way that will eventually cause their fields to fail. If that weren’t the case, I’m sure it would be also in large letters on the soon-to-be sustainable box. The farms won’t fail this quarter, or probably this decade, but maybe in two decades? Three? I am not sure, but if I were on their board of directors, or held their stock, I certainly would want to know.

Of course, such issues pertain not just to cereal but to just about all the goods and services that we now consume. We need to make millions of supply and production changes, from initial design, sourcing of resources, through to final product delivery, but then back again so that those embodied resources can be reprocessed into new things. We need to build a truly circular economy.

There are many people who argue that a better way is to “de-grow,” to go back to simpler lifestyles from earlier times and consume far less. There are many real and virtual communities dedicated to this simpler, less resource-intensive lifestyle, living more holistically, which is wonderful. Subjectively, much of what our society produces seems to be a waste of time and resources and can present financial strain on people who “need” those things.

But a truly utopian society allows everyone to reach their potential and have a reasonable shot to fulfill their hopes and dreams. For some people, that appears to require long chains of purple plastic unicorns that light up in synchronized ways to music. My personal happiness does not depend on plastic unicorns, but probably on other things many people find equally absurd. Our future should not be one of proscribed grand austerity, but rather one making sure that the plastic used to make unicorns contains carbon from the present and is completely biodegradable, or at a minimum will be recycled back into virgin material for the next mythical creature. That the copper and other mined elements will be recaptured to make future products that delight the user. Doing this requires changes in product design, use of new materials, and better recycling systems. But none of that is fantasy or science fiction, just work, and we are pretty good at such things as a society if we care about it.

And this represents an enormous opportunity for entrepreneurs and companies. We need to literally reinvent the entire world economy over these next few decades—not only moving into a sustainable low-carbon-emissions world but also providing for an additional several billion people while increasing the standard of living of billions of others who are already with us. It feels like a heavy lift, but we don’t have a choice. The ghost of Stein tells us that “it will stop” if we don’t fix it.

Toward the end of this book, the authors profile a few of the thousands of new technologies that clever entrepreneurs are pursuing to this end. These efforts are taking place all over the world and will challenge many of the large corporations (and perhaps governments) that dominate the world marketplace. Many of them will fail, but collectively we will learn what works and change the world. Entrenched systems and globe-spanning companies may appear impossible to dislodge, but consider that none of the top-ten most valuable companies today were on that list in 1990. Many didn’t even exist in 1990. Big changes can happen within only a few decades, and when there is a crisis like the one we just encountered with COVID-19, we now know big change can be much faster than that.

Progress is not inevitable. We literally will the future into existence through our small individual actions. There have been many times in our collective history when things did not get better for centuries. We don’t have that luxury of time now. Personally, I want a future of sustainable abundance that lets us explore the world, have fantastic experiences, and provide a full life for all. I hope that everyone who reads this book will be inspired to build a better sustainable future, whatever their particular dreams are.

—MARC TARPENNING,
COFOUNDER, TESLA INC.