Three years later...

It was about this time three years ago I wrote my last blog. Why? A number of reasons. First, I started a new job with InCrops and, second, I fell out of the habit. I am writing a few posts for the company I work for, but I thought it was time to write again for myself.

A lot has happened in three years. There was a lot of optimism then about the Green Economy. The double (triple) dip recession hadn't started and the present government hadn't not won the election. Since then, the economy has shrunk and looks like it will continue to shrink. The Euro nearly collapsed. There's a lot of lip service to the Green Economy, but few policies to match and the erosion of those that were implemented. And the Tory led coalition seems to fragment into inertia and chaos as it falls behind Labour in the polls.

I've learnt a lot in the last three years and I'm optimistic about the future. Two things, I think, will determine whether we make an impact on climate change. First, regulation. We have to start to believe in the power of the state to harness resources and this starts with regulation to raise standards to reduce climate change impacts. We're dealing with market failure and the state needs to step in. Second, perhaps contradictorily, we're entering an era where closed knowledge and systems will no longer have a competitive advantage. Crowd sourcing, openness, collaboration and innovation will go hand in hand. And this means new business models - some disruptive - for virtually every industry.

What does it all mean? Well, I'm going to try to make sense of it all by blogging my thoughts again.