The Sustainable Future

The recent economic downturn has many people striving to bring US GDP growth back up to its historic levels of about 3%. This growth should be considered against a backdrop of 1% or less population growth. Many forward looking economists see continuing compound growth in GDP as an impossibility given that current world populations are pushing against natural limits. As we approach (some say we have passed) these limits, continued growth in consumption requires increasing exploitation of diminishing natural capital such as forests, soils, fresh water systems, fisheries, etc. This can be termed uneconomic growth. Many pundits point to the current economic crisis as a failure of the finance sector and the common solution espoused (after improving regulation in the financial sector) is to increase consumption – this can be explained by the fact that 70% of the US economy is retail driven. But is this a real solution? Should our economy be 70% based on consumption – especially since we are only producing a fraction of what we consume, buying massive amounts of oil from countries antagonistic to US interests, and increasing our trade deficit with China as we purchase more and more products that don’t really create deep satisfaction and end up in landfills?

What if the “financial” crisis is based on a deeper crisis emanating from a global economy reaching its limits to healthy growth? What if we are deep into uneconomic growth and really what we are seeing are the first clear signs that we are heading towards a steady-state economy with zero real growth in GDP. The signs are overwhelming that we are at or over the limits to healthy growth. Climate disruptions and the hottest decade on record, an ever expanding list of extinct and endangered species, decreasing forest cover, expanding deserts, fisheries on the brink of collapse, coral reefs bleaching and dying, massive islands of plastic in our seas, man-made chemicals being found in all of us and even in species on the edge of civilization such as polar bears; the list is endless and frightening. Is the economic crisis just part of a global ecological crisis? Are we heading towards a steady state economy?

A steady state economy is similar to an ecosystem in a “dynamic balance”. The balance comes from a diverse set of interactions in which growth in some elements is checked by growth in others such that the overall system remains in a steady state – regardless of various internal dynamics. What would the global economy look like in steady state? It would not be stagnation as companies and countries that did not adapt to the changing (dynamic) conditions would diminish (economically speaking) and those companies and countries that moved the most rapidly to exploit the new dynamic balance would have the best chance. Nor would a steady state economy reduce technological and social innovation – on the contrary. Innovation would be spurred by competition for efficiency, sustainability, effectiveness and value generated.

One of the greatest opportunities in the world today is the emergence of sustainable businesses: clean energy being one obvious example. Clean energy and transportation create environmental, social and economic value and many companies are striving to capitalize on this opportunity. So even with the economy (especially GDP) remaining flat, there are enormous opportunities to create value and grow companies. Competition will be higher because the size of the economy (especially raw material consumption and waste generation) will not continue to expand on a planet with limited land, water, sunlight, and atmosphere. But perhaps the most important opportunity will be that as we consume less stuff, we will have more time to live better lives with family, friends and community. These turn out to be much greater generators of happiness then material consumption. Turn off the TV and go for a walk.

For an interesting perspective on the idea a steady state economy in Japan read New York Times Op-Ed Contributor: Japan and the Ancient Art of Shrugging by NORIHIRO KATO.

For more on the topics discussed above, read the book by Gus Speth “Bridge at the End of the World” and works by Herman Daly.

For more information on Mission Markets, visit www.missionmarkets.com.


- David Meyers, a member of the Mission Markets Team

Clean Water - EPA Goals and Mission Markets Goals

The Environmental Protection Agency has created a forum, “The Coming Together for Clean Water” to discuss a strategy for how to move forward in protecting America's waters. The resulting draft document “Coming Together for Clean Water: EPA's Strategy for Achieving Clean Water – Public Discussion Draft, August 2010” delineates the problems and solutions the EPA has identified, and welcomes public discussion on the issues. See below for some major points:

Problems:

• nutrient pollution

• excess sedimentation

• degradation of shoreline vegetation

• pathogens in rivers and streams

• stormwater runoff

• habitat, hydrology, and landscape modifications

• municipal wastewater

Challenges to solving these problems:

• fiscal pressure on states

• limited resources

• demands of economic growth

• climate adaptation

EPA's goals:

1) baseline for tracking progress

• National Aquatic Resource Surveys provide baseline for streams, lakes, coastal waters

• EPA will complete first of five Aquatic Resource Surveys to provide a baseline for the state of US water bodies

• make listings of healthy watersheds

• monitoring and assessment reports

2) protection of healthy waters

• metrics for healthy watersheds, through Healthy Watershed Initiative

• strengthen anti-degradation regulations

3) restoration of degraded waters

• will use Chesapeake Bay as an example for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) pollution reduction plans

• coordinate funding with USDA for nutrient and sediment reductions

• use trading offsets and other market-based tools, to clean up watersheds

• create a tracking system for TMDL

• improvements to stormwater program

• regulations for animal feeding operations

• implement federal land management practices

4) reduce pollution entering waters

• strengthen “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System” (NPDES) to reduce pollution entering waterways

• sewer overflow control

• green infrastructure

• municipal stormwater permitting

• permit requirements to reduce pesticide discharges

• nutrient reduction strategies

5) sustainable technologies and community revitalization

• green stormwater infrastructure

• water efficiency projects

• energy efficiency projects

For a more comprehensive list and explanation of the above, please find the draft here.

Mission Markets provides a platform for market-based mechanisms such as water quality trading to help protect and restore America's waters. The Mission Markets Earth platform allows citizens, members of the private sector, and members of the public and non-profit sectors, to buy and sell water quality credits. By bringing together the market for water quality on one comprehensive platform, Mission Markets strengthens the market-based incentives to care for our environment.

Please contact the Mission Markets team for more information:

www.missionmarkets.com

www.mmearth.com

Clean Up,

- The Mission Markets Team

Mission Markets in Sustainable Industries

Mission Markets was featured in a short article in Sustainable Industries online, read it here. The article is titled "Mission Markets Propels Ecosystem Markets: Two trading platforms from Mission Markets could spur environmental and social investment."

Sustainable Industries is a media company with an award-winning magazine, online articles, podcasts, webinars, and more. Sustainable Industries, like Mission Markets, is a B Corp, that "connects the dots between the environmental and social components of the region's economy."

Like Sustainable Industries, MissionMarkets.com works to unite the social and environmental fields, bringing socially and environmentally focused companies together with mission-driven investors.

MissionMarketsEarth.com, our comprehensive environmental credits platform, is described in the article:

"Ecosystem markets, or payments for ecosystem services, place a value on services provided by nature, such as water filtration or carbon sequestration and offer a means to provide economic incentive for conservation. Mission Markets’ tradable credits include renewable energy certificates, carbon credits, water quality credits, wetland mitigation and habitat credits, and fisheries catch shares, all of which would first be certified by Markit Environmental Registry".

A longer, more in-depth article about Mission Markets will be featured in Sustainable Industries this October.

Visit www.missionmarkets.com and www.mmearth.com for more information, and sign up as a company or an investor here.

Keep Reading,
- The Mission Markets Team

Mission Markets featured on Ecosystem Marketplace

Mission Markets and CEO Mike Van Patten are featured in a new article on Ecosystem Marketplace, led by the Katoomba group. Ecosystem Marketplace is THE destination for environmental news. Don't miss it, read it here: http://3bl.me/32vpcf

Some quotes from the article about how Mission Markets Earth solves the problems faced by current environmental markets:

"A variety of environmental markets have sprung up over the past two decades. They encourage businesses that damage water, land, habitat or air to compensate by purchasing credits from enterprises that restore these resources and their ecosystems.

Unfortunately, buyers and sellers in different communities tend to be clustered in different market silos. They rarely speak to – or even know about – buyers and sellers from other markets and communities. But for the environment and the markets built around them to thrive, Van Patten says “we need a holistic approach to break down silos that separate environmental markets and fragment them when we think they are all interconnected.”

To facilitate this, he and Rocco first launched Mission Markets, a private investment exchange for environmental projects that raises capital for people seeking funding.

Mission Markets Earth is a sub-platform that pulls together disparate information gleaned from environmental markets nationwide, building on local environmental markets that already exist. It lists and maps property attributes including size, vegetation, habitat and type of property proposed. It enables bankers to bid on projects through an online reverse auction, and it enables people to get information, monetize multiple environmental credits or offset multiple ecological imprints without having to go to multiple exchanges.

...It packages assets in a way familiar to investors. It connects environmental finance with traditional capital markets. It provides liquidity, transparency and a central place to buy and sell ecosystem services. And, the bottom line, it liberates untapped capital for conservation."

Read more on Ecosystem Marketplace!

Stay Green,
- The Team

Mission Markets Demo Video

See the Mission Markets platform on our new demonstration video, www.missionmarkets.com/demo. The video is a guided tour of the platform narrated by our CEO, Mike Van Patten exhibiting MissionMarkets.com, with a preview of Mission Markets Earth. You will learn how to sign up, what membership entails, and how the platform works. The video shows the platform from the investor's perspective, so it's a great way for companies to see what their capital raise information will look like to an investor member navigating the platform.

Please feel free to send it around to anyone who might be interested and don't forget to contact us with feedback.

Happy viewing!

- The Mission Markets Team

Over 50 Members on Mission Markets!

MISSION MARKETS REGISTERED MEMBERS:

• TOTAL # ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING CAPITAL: 25
  

• TOTAL # INVESTORS: 26
  

TOTAL # OFFERINGS/DEALS:

• APPROVED: 6
  

• DRAFTS: 3

Mission Markets is growing strong! Sign up here.

- The Mission Markets team