Redefining value: a balance between economic gain and environmental burden
After ten days of intens collaboration between young, bright minds during the UNLEASH event in Denmark, one important insight emerged: we have to redefine ‘value’.
As I was working with my team on the challenge of water scarcity and water recycling, we faced a big hurdle: fresh water is currently already scarce and often contaminated (2 billion people in the world drink water contaminated by faeces). This results in death or illness due to lack of access to water or the consumption of contaminated water. But, as the prices of water do not reflect the true value of water (based on the world wide availability and demand of water) innovation regarding new or improved ways of collecting water are being blocked.
We need to find a balance between profits and consequences; between earning money and draining our world’s resources. As long as we only define value in the economic sense, the world’s precious resources will run out. But as long as we will only focus on perserving the resources of the planet, big investors will not show their money. Therefore I propose a balanced system, taken into account the ecological footprint and the financial investment, resulting in the true value of an innovation in the middle of both valuations.
Redefine value by assessing what is tremendously important. Put appropriate weight to both of the assessments. Only then real innovation can kick off.