Tale til rus’ere på Århus Business School
-- Det talte ord gælder --
Dear students,
There are a few defining moments in a person’s life.
This is such a moment.
Right now, at this point in your life you are on the verge of beginning a whole new life with numerous possibilities.
And who knows what’s going to happen in the future?
I enrolled in 1987 – just two years before the Berlin wall came down. And that was not just a historic moment for me, but for the whole world.
You may be a bit anxious and unsure about what the future has in store for you or where this journey is going to take you, but RELAX: I can assure you, you are not the only one!
Look to your right - or look to your left – you got a lot of great companions on this journey, who will share the joys and frustrations – and probably also a lot of beer with you!
And that’s exactly what we are going to talk about today. Well not beer exactly.
No, the future. Back to the future as I can recall a real blockbuster was called when I was your age.
To tell you the truth. I was also a bit anxious and uncertain about what to talk to you about today.
After all. What do you tell young men and woman who are about to begin their higher education in these dire economic times where the Great Recession is still showing its teeth?
I will tell you the same thing that the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman told the students at Grinell College last year.
He said: Indeed “It is a lousy economic time. But it is an amazing political time”.
Why is that?
Well. We are on the brink of a new era, where energy politics defines power politics.
And a new political era demands a new mind-set, a new way of thinking. And we need to make sustainability the core of that mind-set.
Because as David Rothkopf have said: “a world defined by the values of sustainability is not just a greener world, it is a safer world, it is a more just world, and it is a politically more stable world”. And the reason is this.
The world is in fact facing a CRISIS.
Well actually not one, but three: An economic crisis, a national security crisis and a climate change crisis. Even though the economic crisis is decreasing and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the situation is still severe and requires concerted action and resolve.
If we don’t act sustainable, we will end up with a major hangover. Which I’m sure several of you will manage quite on your own by the end of this week anyway. But this is a hangover of a more severe kind.
Now most of you are probably thinking like Woody Allen did, when he said "You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."
Now, telling you not to drink and smoke is not my business. I will leave that to the Minister of Health.
I’m asking you to think about the fact, that your choices today influence your tomorrow.
When I was in China last winter, I learnt that the Chinese symbol for crisis is put together by two other symbols, one meaning “danger” and the other “opportunity”.
This illustrates the nature of a crisis: to be in trouble, but at the same time having the opportunity to change direction and perhaps even reach higher levels than before.
If we are wise we will use the crisis as an opportunity for going in new directions.
As the American economist Paul Romer have said: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”.
And this is my message: Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.
In other words: Real wealth is sustainable. And that is why sustainability is a key ingredient to WINNING .
Just think about it.
The world’s population is projected to increase to 9 billion in 2050.
And with a growing global middle class, more people will demand cars, fridges, city breaks and all the other commodities of a modern life.
This will put increased pressure on practically every natural resource on the globe – including those that power our current “black” economy like oil, gas and coal.
Sustainability as business strategy is not new to Denmark. We have a large successful industry in sustainable energy technologies.
Take this city we are in right now for instance. You may not be in the Super league of football here in Aarhus, but in terms of new green energy technologies you are world champions.
Especially wind power is “big business” in Denmark.
And the story of the Danish “wind-GEEKS” has reached as far as the American cartoon “The Simp-sons”:
In an episode this spring, Homer – under the clever supervision of his daughter Lisa – buys a windturbine from the Danish wind industry.
- And quite correctly, wind is introduced as “the energy that powers Denmark”.
Our appearance in the Simpsons underlines, that Denmark has got a strong green brand.
And I think we should see it as a great honour to be made fun of by the Simpsons team.
– Usually it is only American presidents and celebrities like Bono and Arnold Schwarzenegger who gets to do the “guest starring”.
You may not recognize it when you are dealing with complicated economic theories and puzzling grammar – but today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders!
- YOU are the future consumers, businessmen – and MINISTERS.
Sustainability and the creation of a new green economy is a huge challenge for all of us - Kermit was right – it's not easy being green.
Today, your presence here at this business school is a living example of one of the essential building blocks of a sustainable future:
By designing a strategy for sustainable management education and innovation, Aarhus School of Business has chosen to become a front runner in the creation of a new green economy.
But allow me to stress one important point here: Sustainability is not about “simple living”. We are not going back to caves and campfires.
Sustainability is about “smart living”: it’s about doing more with less. So I’m not asking you to be hippies and treehuggers.
No, sustainability should be at the very core of business strategy and in the very heart of our economic development.
And today, the demand for green growth and sustainability rises not only from politicians like me, but from consumers, media and markets:
The conclusion is simple: If you want to maximize profits in the future, you have to be sustainable – you have to be “GREEN”.
- But to be honest, it will not be ME who designs the new Iphone – or the electrical sports car.
It will be YOU.
In a globalised world, internationalisation in Higher Education is, of course, essential.
Especially in a world where man made problems such as climate change call for coordinated political solutions, be it at the European level or at a global level.
But– before you fall too much in love with “the city of smiles” – remember that you have got a “licence to leave”.
I hope you will use the opportunity to study abroad and learn from your colleagues around the globe.
And you foreign students, welcome to Denmark. I hope your stay will be a challenge academically as well as personally.
Some of you may think that it is EXTREMELY cold in Denmark, but needless to say, global warming is a cause of concern.
I would, however, be naive if I thought that all you will be doing while enrolled here is study.
My guess is that one or two of you have tasted a Ceres beer, and as such, you may claim that you – in your own roundabout way – supported Danish culture – a culture which hopefully will be studied by other international students in many years to come.
Let me finish by extending a thank you to Aarhus Business School and raise the flag for the effort to become a sustainable university.
It is of vital importance that we put sustainability on top of the agenda.
But the road to a greener world is going to be long and hard;
but as Thomas Friedman has put it: “What the struggle for freedom was to our parents’ generation, the struggle for “sustainability” has to be for the Re-Generation”
– that is: YOU.
Good luck.
Thank you.