Hello everybody,
We are here tonight to tell you our story.
We are here tonight to tell you that we are living in the dying ages of the society of the 20th century.
The old folks are talking about multiple crises; the economic, energy, climate, morality, poverty, food and what ever other crises. Indeed the old ways of polluting the world, shifting the burden and externalizing individual responsibilities are reaching the end of their life cycle. The mess we made of the world is immense, but at the same time this mess and the crises that come with it I believe are a blessing.
The prettiest flowers blossom from shit, and I am here to tell you that we are at the forefront of a sustainability revolution. Where politicians and other fossils from the old age see crises, we only see opportunities. The world is rapidly opening up to massive and rapid change. We are here together as, you might say, the revolutionaries of the sustainability revolution. And we are not alone: the movement is growing and everywhere young people see opportunities for change for the better. No longer are we caught in doom, misery and guilt: we are about positive change and we will do it ourselves, together. In business, science, policy or society: the sustainability revolution is coming to town.
Make no mistake: many battles will have to be fought in this revolution and we are nowhere near a truly sustainable society. Tonights story is about the new economy we are building
At the heart of this new economy, a new generation entrepreneurs is building the leading companies of the sustainable future. Their license to operate is the value we create for people and planet.
At the heart of this new economy, young people drive the change!
The new economy is the economy of the crowd, an economy where people like us are engaged and co-creating the new system.
I strongly believe that this can work on a larger scale and that sustainable entrepreneurs, like many of you here tonight, are the drivers of this new economy.
I strongly believe that young people are the drivers for change, and that older generations should connect and engage in a process of mutual learning and open up their networks to let the new generation excel.
The new economy is a network economy. The whole world is like a huge grid, a huge network for communication and organizing ourselves. Soon our energy systems will be organised through such bottom up networks. Soon many of us will produce our energy at home and at work.
Imagine the impact on our economy if only 40% of all people in the Netherlands would generate their own energy, people and companies get energy independent.
Good bye to the top down organised energy market.
Hello bottom up and co-created economy.
True power to the people.
The new economy is about sharing and co-creation.
And these concepts are deep in our DNA. We grew up with a few social media networks, which developed rapidly into thousands of different ways of sharing information. Napster, Youtube, Wikipedia. All these platforms exist because of our will to share.
Take Napster, the platform that many young people use to download music and movies. The industry calls it illegal downloading, our generation calls it sharing and are developing new business models around it. Napster is just one of those great examples!
Me and my friends are part of these global communities with which we are used to build unusual partnerships between individuals and organizations because we think in putting strengths together and facilitating synergy between them.
And that is exactly what we need if we want to tackle the huge social and environmental challenges that affect a whole planet; they are way too big to be solved by an individual party, company or country.
We need to co-create, break frontiers, collaborate and share on a global level to come with global solutions for our global challenges.
The new economy for me is about spirituality,
about a mind shift.
In the new economy people unite around their passion, instead of a quick buck.
It is about living together, seeing diversity as strength, about listening to our true self.
The new economy is focused on the survival of our species, instead of the survival of the fittest.
The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. We have to think out of the box!
Our generation is the first with the knowledge, skills and technology to prevent catastrophic climate change and environmental degradation – but the last that can do so. It is up to us to decide if we have a future or not.
Lets unite around our passion, dedicate our talents to developing the new economy and make a living out of it. From my personal experience I can tell you that you get to know great people.
For me generating energy while dancing, is a metaphor for how young people can change the world, how young people can co-create the new economy
If we can capture all that energy young people have, all the passion that young people have,
and mobilise our creativity, our wisdom and our networks,
then you will see that real the real innovations will come from us.
We are part of a movement of pioneers that working on something that is still at a very early stage, but something that can become massive.
Lets keep on going, learn from each other and join our forces to up start-up tomorrows firms that will shape the sustainable future,
lets make everybody crazy and co-create the new economy together,
lets inspire many more people with our work, show the world that it is possible and make it happen!
Thank you for being part of Enviu.
Speech written by Stef van Dongen and co-created by Derk Loornbach, Igor Kluin, Pradeep Esteves, Vincent Kneefel, Miquel Ballester
