Creating Generational Wealth Through Sustainability: A Path for All Canadians

In our previous articles, we explored how the three pillars of sustainability—People, Prosperity, and Planet—led me to the Green Party. We discussed how these pillars align with projects like Ontario’s Ring of Fire and the Cross Canada Corridor, demonstrating how sustainability can drive both economic and environmental progress. In this article, I’ll unpack how these pillars create generational wealth for 99% of Canadians while also benefiting the top 1% of income earners.

At the heart of the issue is how the top 1% of income earners in Canada manage their investments. The stock market, which greatly impacts their wealth, reflects the current, economic landscape and incorporates various unpredictable factors—corporate earnings, news events, weather events, IT interuptions, and even political rhetoric as we’ve recently witnessed. In essence, investors are balancing risk and potential returns, often making decisions based on short-term predictions. This leads to increased trading volumes, volatility and higher risks, which ultimately erode long-term wealth potential.

Sustainable business practices, however, offer a solution to this instability. By reducing environmental risks, improving worker productivity, and fostering a more predictable economic environment, sustainability can help stabilize returns. Companies that adopt sustainability measures are better positioned to weather unforeseen disruptions, lowering their operational costs and creating more consistent profits. This long-term stability benefits not only workers and businesses but also investors. For the top 1%, sustainability offers a way to secure more predictable returns, something they can’t easily buy in today’s volatile environment.

To make this point clearer, consider the example of sustainable governance in projects. Just as we take preventive health measures, such as brushing our teeth, to avoid expensive future dental treatments, sustainable governance involves planning for long-term social and environmental costs. By addressing these issues early, we reduce the need for costly reactive measures later on. When applied to infrastructure and development projects, these preventative measures save money in the long run by minimizing environmental damage and mitigating social impacts.

This brings us to a compelling insight from Malcolm Gladwell, who discussed how the wealthiest 1% of society have already fulfilled their material needs. According to Gladwell, the richest among us already own all the luxury items they could desire—homes, cars, boats, vacations—and could only further enhance their lives through improving public goods. These “public goods” include infrastructure, safety, clean energy, and social services. Gladwell suggested that the top 1% could further enrich their lives not through material acquisition, but by enhancing the overall well-being of society, including reducing crime, shortening commuter times, improving energy systems, and addressing homelessness.

The core argument here is that sustainable governance improves society for everyone, including the wealthy. As we saw in the stock market example, sustainability reduces risk and improves profitability through more efficient systems. However, it also improves public safety, reduces crime, and addresses social inequality—issues that directly affect the quality of life for the wealthiest individuals. In other words, the richest can benefit from sustainable practices just as much as the broader population, if not more.

Now, you may be wondering how sustainability benefits the 99% and why it’s essential for the wealthy to care. It’s important to note that sustainability isn’t a zero-sum game. While it offers clear advantages to the wealthy, it also brings substantial benefits to the other 99%. The current system, however, allows the richest individuals to profit at the expense of the environment and society. This happens when the wealthy fail to includes Social and Environmental costs in the products and services produced by the companies they are invested in. While sustainability could increase profits for the top 1%, they are currently taking advantage of subsidies—environmental and social—at the cost of the general public and on top of that, the taxpayer has to date, been footing the bill for these ‘social programs’. These subsidies are less efficient than adopting sustainability practices and ultimately result in greater costs for everyone else (and limit the potential of the most wealthy).

For Canada to move forward, we must take a page from Nordic countries like Sweden, which have successfully integrated sustainability into both their business practices and government policies. One concept that encapsulates this approach is “Cradle to Grave”—a model that captures the total life cycle costs of goods, from production to disposal. This includes not only the resources used to make a product but also the environmental costs of waste disposal, packaging, and pollution. While I do not have the exact figures to quantify these costs, it’s clear that this approach is more responsible, cost-effective, and competitive than our current model. It is an approach that businesses—particularly those on the right-wing—should find compelling, as it ensures that all costs are factored into the price of products.

By integrating sustainability into government policies, we can create generational wealth for all Canadians. This approach captures the true costs of goods and services and works to reduce those costs over time by taking preventive actions. This long-term approach benefits both the environment and the economy, ultimately fostering a more stable and equitable society. We know that prevention is more cost-effective than cure, as seen with our earlier analogy of brushing your teeth. The challenge, however, lies in accurately measuring these environmental costs and implementing them on a global scale without creating competitive imbalances.

Canada has an opportunity to lead the world in sustainable governance, serving as a beacon for other G7 nations to follow. By gradually adopting sustainability measures, we can pave the way for generational wealth for both the top 1% and the 99%. In doing so, we will build a more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable future for all Canadians.

Ultimately, the path to long-term prosperity and wealth lies in the responsible, sustainable practices that benefit everyone. Sustainable governance not only improves the quality of life for the wealthiest but ensures that future generations of Canadians inherit a thriving, equitable society where everyone—regardless of income—can thrive.