Portal21:Sustainable Business Strategy and Innovation for the 21st Century

The concept for the logo is based on The Natural Step model that shows, on the left hand side, the planet's declining resources and carrying capacity in contrast to increasing population, demand for materials and wastefulness. Unless we (business, government and society) invest in technological and behavioral change, the two paths will collide, leading to an imbalance of supply and demand for resources and subsequent social unrest with serious consequences globally.

The "portal" is the timeline/window of opportunity where this investment needs to occur (the 21st Century) after which, if sufficient, we get divergence again, where availability of resources (renewable ones of course) and carrying capacity increases, and relative demand for (non-renewable) resources declines leading to the Sustainable Economy. Foresighted organizations (and their shareholders) who pass through the Portal will enjoy the long term benefits of this new (but by now normal) economy.

There is also a famous equation, formulated in the 1970s by Stanford professor Paul Erlich et al.

I = P x A x T

Where, human impact (I) is the product of population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T). Thus, the bigger the population, the bigger the economy, and the greater the amount of technology deployed, the faster we will deplete the world’s resources.

One key is technology. To this we add behavior (B). Increasingly, investment in sustainable technology and behavior is enabling levels of productivity and efficiency unimaginable a decade ago. As such, we’re seeing an opportunity to change the 1970’s equation to one in which technology and behavior become the denominator instead of the multiplier:

I = (P x A) / (T x B)

It’s an equation where technology and behavior become enablers of sustainability solutions. This is the mantra of Portal21.