Jonathan J. Halperin
Jonathan J. Halperin
Designing Our Future. Together.

Ecosystem and Economics

For how long do we think we can continue the mental shell game of building economic success today based on externalizing the costs of critical natural inputs (water, air, carbon sequestration and so forth)?

Tuesday, May 12, 2020
We all now have personal experience with the collapse of supply chains: toilet paper, produce, meat, flour. They are more fragile than we knew, for many reasons.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
When is it worth protecting a wetland or enacting a new safety regulation? Writ large, what is the role of government in promoting and protecting public welfare? Regardless of our political orientation in these divisive times, few would oppose basic government standards for electrical wiring in our homes or in the service of food safety, right? But how much is enough or too much?
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
In 2012, a little bakery just north of New York City became the first business licensed in New York State as a Benefit Corporation. (External Blog, The Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation)
Friday, May 9, 2014
This year’s CERES conference in Boston was provocative and challenging -- as it should be in celebration of 25 years of creative, innovative, and collaborative advocacy to bring greater openness and accountability to corporate behavior. And it is behavior, of course, that needs to change; openness and accountability are only the tools of the trade in modifying corporate practices.
Friday, December 27, 2013
I am comforted by the awareness that changes we dismiss as inconceivable are often viewed by historians as having been inevitable. A Happy New Year might thus include news of the following momentous changes.
Monday, December 17, 2012
As Hurricane Sandy shifted the national conversation in the closing days of the U.S. 2012 presidential campaign, so too has the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School interrupted the partisan machinations over government spending and taxation. As we look forward to 2013 and beyond we thus have a rare moment to reflect and observe that these issues share a common root: the respective roles of government and business to shape our future as people and as a national community.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Markets may well be the most finely tuned mechanism we have for allocating resources efficiently around short-term costs and prices. But absent a robust framework of social and cultural values and priorities to channel market operations these efficient markets will lead to vast inequity and depletion of critical resources.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
A conversation with Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Monday, October 10, 2011
In Vermont at the Dana Meadows Sustainability Institute; looking forward to the James Beard Foundation Food Conference in New York.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
In my closing remarks at the Sustainable Food Laboratory Summit I explained that I did not think sustainability was a goal, a metric, or even an approach to doing business. Rather, it is a principle. And it has at its core a fundamental rethinking of space and time.

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Jerusalem

Jonathan makes connections that other people miss. Beyond an understanding of any single environmental issue or energy challenge, he knows how to use knowledge to drive change, how to bring the right players to the table, and how to reframe seemingly intractable problems to create space for new approaches. He’s a strategic thinker with a very clear sense of how things work.

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Jonathan J. Halperin's Vimeo Channel

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