Once upon a time, business worked in an unsustainable way. Everyday they used resources in the name of profits, reducing the Earths capital for future generations as well as those needed by business themselves.

One day, a lawyer names Polly Higgins coined a new term called ecocide to describe the long term destruction of the environment.

And then, while this law was being discussed, businesses declared that should the law be discussed that they would lobby against it; as they have done successfully so many times before. They believed that this kind of law would make business uncompetitive, reduce profits and reduce innovation.

And then through analysing the impacts of the law, it became clear that these statements weren’t true, and that through changes in environmental law in the past we saw benefits to the environment, the economy, society and even for business itself.

Because of this, it is important to imagine a world where a new law of ecocide has been put in place, and see how businesses would adapt.

As a result of this, you can see an immediate short term disruption to business models and how business operates.

As a result of that businesses are forced to internalise their externalities, reconstructed institutionalised business models, and innovate to meet new environmentally driven goals.

Because of this, businesses such as Unilever, Sainsburys, Ikea etc are almost imagining this world through individual environmental policy and goals such as zero waste to landfill and zero carbon emissions.

Until finally, they have placed an internal law that resembles ecocide into their companies. As a result they have managed to increase their profit, increase resilience and are fundamentally benefiting the environment and society.