Sace (Mef), guide for “social” enterprises. The lesson of Victoria Hurt, guru of sustainability

“To preserve the market economy, it must be transformed”. With these few words Victoria Hurtone of the world’s leading experts on sustainability (he is an associate professor at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and ambassador to the British Council at the United Nations), addresses, in an interview with the Sheet, the main objection raised by those who are convinced that the acceleration in the energy transition represents one of the greatest risks for the global economy in the light of a scenario that has changed with the pandemic crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian war. In practice, an attack on capitalism. “Our system is based on the assumption that if each economic actor pursues his short-term interest – profit for businesses, earnings and consumption for citizens – the greatest good is achieved for all, but this is absolutely not working. The economy has to do with the well-being of society as a whole and there are countries that are already working towards becoming economies of well-being”, observes Victoria Hurt who in recent days has been the guest of a meeting promoted by Sace (Mef) with managers and leaders of the Italian economic, industrial, financial and institutional world. Hers is an invitation to look at things from another point of view but without falling into philanthropy or ideologies. In one of her latest tweets she said, for example, that she can’t get excited about the growth of the market until she understands what exactly is growing: “If growth means long-term collective well-being, then yes, I want growth”.