New Year, New Champions.
We enter 2024 with severe cultural conflicts over national borders and the continued exploitation of our planet’s natural resources in the pursuit of unsustainable economic growth.
The Legacy of generations before us.
Sometimes one generation plants a seed that becomes a prosperous tree bearing fruits from which the next generation can sustainably live. It is the responsibility of this new generation to treat this tree with the utmost care and respect to make sure it will carry its fruits to the generation after them. Entrepreneurial minds may find ways to make smoothies out of the tree’s fruits, thereby not only sustaining but also creating new wealth for their community.
We are lucky that generations before us planted such trees, enabling our generation to grow up in Europe’s longest period of peace and prosperity.
Nonetheless, generations before us also made mistakes. We now see and feel the systemic consequences of past decisions that we as the next generation of decision-makers must fix today to avoid a catastrophe for the generation after us.
Severe cultural conflicts over national borders and an unsustainable exploitation of natural resources are the two largest problems our world is facing today. I dare to simplify their root causes into two systemic mistakes of previous generations that are up to us to fix.
A) The audacity of foreign leaders claiming the authority to draw national borders through continents and cultures that are not theirs.
What I mean specifically are cornerstone geopolitical events. Like the Berlin Conference of 1884 where Western leaders decided to divide the African continent into their territories without taking the local tribes and cultures into consideration at all. Or the creation of Israel by a United Nations resolution in 1948. Both caused harmful cultural division and conflict that we bear the awful consequences of today. Did these seem like good ideas that would bring peace and prosperity at the time? Or did national interests outweigh the long-term interests of the global community?
B) The creation of an economic system that exploits humanity’s most precious resource, nature, for the short-term gain of shareholders and consumers.
The Industrial Revolution started in the late 18th century and marked a massive shift in the production of coal, oil, and natural gas. This shift drove unprecedented economic growth but also initiated an era of significant environmental pollution and the beginning of anthropogenic climate change. Luckily, the world has woken up to the fact that we cannot continue like this.
How can we fix such deep-rooted causes?
Fundamental to a solution will be a new type of leadership. We need leaders who can build inclusive institutions that empower and unite, rather than those that restrict and divide. Leaders who consider not only the interests of nation-states and shareholders but those of the global community and its mother: nature.
Over the past year, I held inspiring conversations with entrepreneurs, financiers, and political decision-makers who gave me the optimism to believe that we, the society that caused the world’s biggest problems, can also be the drivers of their solutions. In fact, it is our responsibility.
My mission for 2024 and beyond is to grow and leverage Paloneo’s global network to ignite global collaboration, cultural empathy, and conscious decision-making to help our world transition toward a regenerative and cosmopolitan economic system.
The champions of the regenerative economy.
This year’s Earth overshoot day, the day when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services exceeds what Earth can regenerate for us, was August 2nd. A month later, we hosted Paloneo’s first event outside of Europe at NYC Climate Week, co-hosted by OpenESG’s Tee and Frank in their NYC Treehouse. Tee and Frank are magnets for Greentech entrepreneurs and the Treehouse is a melting pot for conscious leaders building and financing the green transition. I’m so glad to have them as friends and anchors for Paloneo in NYC.
In partnership with Kalytix Ventures, Paloneo hosted an intimate conversation with Rennie Hoare, 11th-generation Partner and Head of Philanthropy at Hoare Bank, the world’s oldest family-owned private bank. How could Hoare Co. outlast most global financial institutions? My takeaway: radical responsibility and long-term planning. All partners of the bank have full liability, meaning they lose their personal assets before any of their clients would lose theirs. They think in generations, not quarters.
At the Sigma Squared Summit in Portugal, Vaitea Cowan, Co-Founder of Hydrogen company Enapter, demonstrated again that building solutions is more effective in mitigating climate change than complaining and campaigning about it. Palonians like Cristina Cruz and Nicole Hakim, Co-Founders of Spora Studio, are creating a Funghi-based future that renders plastic an optional resource.
I believe at the end of this century, society will recognise nature-conscious entrepreneurs like Vaitea, Cristina, Nicole, and Tee as the ones who have changed the course of history — maybe even the global temperature.
Looking ahead.
We may make similar mistakes today. To promote a more conscious and cosmopolitan decision-making, we are gathering the next generation of leaders from the tech, nature, and cultural spheres at Paloneo events across the globe. Thank you for being a part of this journey.
Upcoming Paloneo Events in 2024
- San Francisco — first SF meetup on Jan 26th.
- Vienna — next Paloneo event on Feb 9th. Message Robin to join.
- Munich — Paloneo weekend on ‘Bioengineering & Conscious Leadership’ on Feb 17–18th. Message Jelke to join.
- London — next governance meeting on March 8th.
- The Alps — a Paloneo ski retreat will be hosted by Bede Timpson on March 15–17th in Morzine.
- Annual Summit — the annual retreat where we discuss the preservation of nature and cultural heritage in Remeringhausen, Germany on May 24-26.
- British Symposium — a cultural forum fostering British-EU relations in collaboration with the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany in Remeringhausen on June 8th.
- Cambridge— Paloneo’s annual founding day will be held at Cambridge University on June 22nd. Message Friedrich to join.
- New York City — Paloneo will again host a meetup during NYC Climate Week on Sep 22–29.
- Global Governance Summit — the first official governance meeting of Paloneo Fellows and Governors will be held on October 25th in London.
We are also planning events in St. Gallen, Barcelona, Bogota, and Kuwait. Login to the Paloneo app or email me at lvs@paloneo.org for any inquiries. I look forward to seeing you in 2024.
