Regulation in an Eco-economy

1. Regulation in an Eco-economy Transforming economic drivers

2. The Crisis of Markets The Swing to Regulation

3. Principles & Trends • increasing economic complexity demands more conscious involvement and direction. • Planning is more, not less, important, but… • The state can’t do it all. • Integrated design: • Social & environmental • Cross-disciplinary

4. Trends & Principles -2 • political-economic integration • moves beyond the state • more connected to overall rules of economic life • more connected to all stakeholders involved • [should be] part of a movement toward direct democracy

5. Knowledge-based / Quality-based development • Greater focus on the ‘human factor’ • From mindless to mindful markets: • Centrality of end-use & purpose of production • Integrated design: multi-dimensional goals • Greater levels of democracy/participation • From hierarchical to decentralized regulation • From external to internal self-regulation • Greater stakeholder involvement • Greater integration with everyday exchange & civil society • Role of The Commons: ecological, physical, electronic; Sharing & saving

6. Historical Trends in Regulation • early industrialism: separation between state and markets. Focus on production. • Fordist & state-socialist industrialism: • More concern with consumption / demand. • Need for more planning: political-economic intervention. • Today: even greater involvement of consciousness & planning is necessary; integrated ecosystem-based design. • Post-Fordist globalization: avoidance or disguising of conscious planning. • Suppression of new modes of mass collaboration.

7. Trends in Mainstream Regulation • End of pipe control and cleanup : 70s • Point Source Prevention : 80s • Consumption Patterns and Product & System Design : today

8. Contending Alternatives toCommand-and-Control Corporate critique • Regulation: costly and inefficient • Trade: a panacea • Avoidance of accountability • Focus on single bottom line • In Practice: tends to starve governments of regulatory resources—producing a self-fulfilling prophecy

9. Design Perspectiveon Regulation • Commoner, Hawken, Boyd, Geiser, Stahel, etc. • Need for levels of incentives/disincentives • Regulatory pluralism • From prescriptive to performance standards • Democracy: inclusion of stakeholders, growth of accountability • Movement toward fundamental solutions: • Service economy: redefining output • Lake economy: organic redesign • Must deal with ‘silo’ structures

10. The Precautionary Principle one of the two central principles of eco-regulation (along with the life-cycle approach) not the basis for 70s regulatory initiatives encourages benign materials design and use requires product/substance bans & phaseouts

11. ‘Next Generation’ Regulatory Instruments …Often a confused combination of corporate and design elements Variations of ‘Regulatory Pluralism’ • self-regulation • co-regulation • voluntary agreements • regulatory flexibility • negotiated agreements • environmental partnerships • informational regulation • economic instruments.

12. Questions about ‘Instruments’ • Do they accept or reinforce chronic underfunding of government? • Are they based in corporate ideology (i.e. obsolete views of market forces)? • Do they deal with fundamental problems and solutions?

13. Elements of Green Economic Self-Regulation • the Scale of the economy: community and bioregional organization, harnessing technological potentials for decentralization via reutilization-industry, distributed energy-generation, eco-infrastructure, local money, co-operative consumption, etc. • Participatory democracy: Green Municipalism, participatory Green City Plans, community indicators & pattern-language development. • a Green regulatory structure: including community design pattern-languages, performance standards, product stewardship systems, product & substance bans, and other rules which encourage bioregionalism, quality and community. • Green market mechanisms: ecological tax systems, account-money & other community currencies, and a green financial infrastructure. • Knowledge as a regulatory force: via resource inventories, eco-accounting, product information & labelling, and community indicators.

14. ‘Surrogate Regulators’ • community groups, NGOs • buyers / suppliers • investors • financial institutions • insurance companies Question: are these surrogates, or just vital elements of regulation today?

16. Tax-Shifting I: the Labour & Resource Relationship • Industrial economy: resource-intensive. labour productivity: Substitutes resources for labour. • Green Economy: people-intensive / resource-saving. Substitutes human creativity for resources

17. Tax Shifting II: the most radical kind? Carbon Tax to Basic Income

18. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) • designing ownership patterns to achieve stewardship • a positive form of accountability that can “change the DNA” of corporate entities • closes loops and encourages service production • takes different forms in different industries and situations.

19. Varieties of EPR • liability where responsibility for environmental damages caused by a product—in production, use, or disposal—is borne by the producer; • economic responsibility where a producer covers all or part of the costs for managing wastes at the end of a product’s life (e.g. collection, processing, treatment or disposal); • physical responsibility where the producer is involved in the physical management of the products, used products or the impacts of the products through development of technology or provision of services; one common expression of this would be… • ownership where the producer retains ownership of the product over it entire service life, and • informative responsibility where the producer is required to provide information on the product and its effects during various stages of its life cycle. (Thorpe and Kruszewska,1999; Linquist, 1998)

20. Expressions OF EPR • Product take back for waste management • Life-cycle partnerships for waste management • Materials selection • Materials management • Extended environmental management programs • Leasing systems • Delivering service and function instead of products • Design-for-the-environment programs • Environmental purchasing

21. Frontiers of EPR Braungart’s Intelligent Product System • Consumables • Products of Service • Unmarketables Product-Service Systems … typically tries to facilitate: --sale of the use of product (rather than the product itself); --operational leasing, rather than ownership by consumers --repair rather than throwaway relationships

22. Strategic Modes of Regulation • Civil Society-based Certification systems • Ecological Tax Reform / tax shifting • Subsidies / green scissors • Green Procurement • EPR legislation • Guidelines for Green Finance: green development plans, etc.

23. Sector-based Action • green belts • building codes / zoning • renewable portfolio standards & standard offer contracts • product & substance bans, etc.

24. Other Resources • Conroy Powerpoint: Branded: How the Certification Revolution Facilitates New Ethics in International Affairs • Braungart : Cradle to Cradle design • McDonough on Cradle to California