In 1990, environmental economist Herman E. Daly published a work in the journal of the Society for International Development titled “Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem”.

The premise of this short article is straight forward; in a world of finite resources, indefinite economic growth is not a viable option.

In Daly’s words:

Impossibility statements are the very foundation of science. It is impossible to: travel faster than the speed of light; create or destroy matter-energy; build a perpetual motion machine, etc. By respecting impossibility theorems we avoid wasting resources on projects that are bound to fail. Therefore economists should be very interested in impossibility theorems, especially the one to be demonstrated here, namely that it is impossible for the world economy to grow its way out of poverty and environmental degradation. In other words, sustainable growth is impossible.

It’s unavoidable - the economy relies on a massive but not limitless quantity of natural resources and life supporting services. Common wisdom has been slow to catch on to this fact.

Business leaders are intelligent and well educated. They can conceive of the limits of growth. And then what?