The Tarfala Think Tank is a committed group of scientists, innovators and leaders, that through humility for nature works for actions and policy to enable development within the planetary boundaries and an earth for all. In 2024 we met in Lyngen, Norway, and one of the outcomes was a call for speed and scale in efforts to engage business for planetary guardianship.

The latest updated information from the scientific community makes it crystal clear: climate change and ecosystem changes are accelerating beyond model predictions, and human activity is causing the sixth mass extinction of species. We’re approaching tipping points that risk pushing the world outside the safe corridor of life – the only temperature span that we know to be able to provide conditions for humans to thrive.

Current actions are wildly insufficient and put both ourselves and future generations at huge risk. Or as the IPCC-AR6 Synthesis Report states (with ‘high confidence’): “The choices and actions in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.”

What we need is a transformative approach that builds better businesses for a more equitable world. This presents an enormous opportunity for businesses, as there will be a vast playing field for developing smarter solutions that build more resilient businesses solving the problems of generations to come. We can create a healthier, more equal and joyful future for us and our children.

This is what we know. How we act on that knowledge is our choice.

We believe that we all have a responsibility to take action and that this responsibility grows with power. As business leaders and owners, we can and should use our business as a force for good. It is a moral decision as much as it is a business imperative, as no business can thrive in a future outside the planetary boundaries.

We stand by the following principles to guide our priorities and actions going forward:

 

General principles

1. Align our business models and targets with what provides value to the world.
2. Only strive to grow when increasing value-creation leads to less resource use.
3. Ensure that value and profits created are shared in an equitable way.

Application

1. Avoid triggering over consumption by designing sales and marketing processes to enable deliberate decision-making.
2. Contribute to changing mindsets using our marketing skills and resources to show how future-fit lifestyles are rich in quality of experience and a small footprint.
3. Implement energy efficiency programs and urgently decarbonize energy in own operations and supply chain, in line with science.
4. Reduce material footprint, fight pollution and restore nature to avert the biodiversity crisis – both in our operations and our value chains.
5. Uphold and champion human rights across our value chains.

 

Advocacy and policy change

1. Support policy makers in adopting a sufficiently ambitious human rights, climate and biodiversity agenda.
2. Sign calls for necessary systems change, such as the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative, the call for an Ecocide law and a moratorium on deep sea mining.
3. Divest from assets that are not 1.5 degrees aligned and put pressure on our banks to do the same, including not financing any new fossil fuel investments.
4. Celebrate genuine successes that are sufficient in speed and scale, and hold each other accountable when they are not.
5. Support a shift to companies focusing on their role as solution-providers to deliver on human needs in a globally sustainable way.

 

We urgently call on leaders to ramp up the use of existing solutions with speed and scale. New technical solutions will become part of our path forward, but what we have is sufficient to meet the urgency of the situation and must be our starting point.

Signatories:

Gabriel Arthur, Norr Agency
Johanna Barr, Energy Strategist
Sven Beyersdorf, Nordic Sustainability
Anders Enetjärn, Ecogain
David Ekelund, Icebug
Mikael af Ekenstam, Smart Innovation Norway
Eva Karlsson, Houdini Sportswear
Annika Löwgren, Sustainability Strategist
Kalle Nilvér, GoClimate
Josef Nyström Baksaas, Houdini Sportswear
Brita Staal, Smart Innovation Norway
Per Espen Stoknes, Associate Professor, BI Norwegian Business School
Keith Tuffley, Neuw Ventures
Chu Zhu, Tech Entrepreneur

 

 

Lead graphic: Stockholm Resilience Centre