08/04/2026
Compliance Won't Get Us There.
We've been thinking a lot about climate commitments and carbon neutrality while traveling in Iceland and Europe.
One thing stands out:
Many countries, cities, and regions have made ambitious commitments to become carbon neutral, but the closer they get to those goals, the harder progress becomes.
Why?
Because most of our efforts focus on improving the existing system rather than redesigning it.
Compliance encourages incremental improvement—being a little less harmful every year. That's important, but it may not be enough to achieve the outcomes we want.
Different economies face different realities. A country built around raw materials, for example, faces challenges that look very different from one built around high-value industries and services.
In my experience, the solution isn't simply spending more money or creating more regulations.
It's about taking a bigger perspective.
When we understand energy, water, materials, infrastructure, and economic development as parts of the same system, entirely new opportunities emerge.
The future won't be built by endlessly patching outdated systems.
It will be built by designing systems that naturally produce the outcomes we want.
From Compliance to Transformation: Why Nations Struggle to Reach Th...
