The green economy vs. the knowledge economy

When we talk about creating a sustainable economy, the subject of growth often comes up. To say the least, questions and predictions concerning growth are usually oversimplified. It's clear that we will eventually end up with a steady state economy, but unlike other sustainability leaders, I don't think green jobs will make up the majority of the new economy.

Right now, our economy is struggling because we're up against our limits: primarily, our ability to quickly and sustainably extract natural resources to produce goods. As many environmentalists are quick to point out, our economy cannot work if we continue to use the current model. The health of any economy is judged by the quality and quantity of its products, and it's just not possible to produce goods much more quickly. By all accounts, we need to consume less.

At least, we need to consume less of our natural resources, but our economy isn't just materials-based. More and more, we are trading products of knowledge, and when it comes to a knowledge-based economy, old limits are transcended. Instead of our primary limit being the extract-ability of resources, the primary limit of the knowledge sector is our ability to produce valuable information, and that's a function of our population and education system.

I should take the time to note that I am defining "valuable information" broadly. Of course, Internet and multimedia projects are included, but also business-to-business and collaboration services, along with music and other "creativity products."

Although the materials-based sector still makes up a strong majority of our economy today - and green jobs will make up a majority of that sector - the potential of the knowledge sector dwarfs the growth we have seen up to this point.

The reason is the resources we have for producing knowledge-based products are far greater than the resources used in the materials-based economy; indeed, on a relative scale, they appear limitless.

If this seems implausible, I'd encourage you to remember that more than half of the world has a cell phone now. Fifty years ago, we would have called someone who could talk to someone on the other side of the planet a god. Now, that's you on your cell phone or logged into Facebook. We're on the verge of global accessibility, and the impacts on our economy as a result of a global collaborative society are beyond our known experiences.

I'm looking forward to it.

PS - The knowledge economy is going to be huge, but we still have a lot of work to do to green the old materials-based economy. Have you ever thought of starting a business?

Image via Pearson.com (Pearson.com's views are not reflected in this post.)