Friday night ended with a bang as Michelle Long of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and Jay Coen Gilbert of B Lab engaged in a dialog on the issue of whether going to scale or staying local is more effective in building a sustainable economy.
Jay began with a humorous, but earnest, argument that ‘Bigger is Better’. He used examples to illustrate how scale can effect the whole on a greater level. He cited how employees of Wal-Mart, who had been discriminated against, came together to sue the company. He pointed out how as China invests in scaling solar the price per kilowatt will come under $1. And he pointed to one of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, for effecting change at scale – finding innovations that can help the 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day. He argued that these are solutions and challenges of such scale, that small, local initiatives could not effectively address them. (more…)