For the day after tomorrow, when we open our doors and borders again, I hope we open our hearts and minds as well. Don’t let this crisis go to waste.

Before you continue reading, read how Life was before, and during Corona.

For the day after tomorrow, I hope we look inwards before walking out again. For the day after tomorrow, I hope we don’t ignore the cracks which Corona made visible. For the day after tomorrow, I hope we don’t hide behind shaming and blaming, but that we stand up, act upon the problems we are facing, and stand together to stand strong.

Real sustainability respects the three P’s, as they say. The first stands for Planet. The environmental concerns, such as waste reduction, reforestation, protection of water, air and other resources, living with respect for nature over time and distance. Profit stands for the financial sustainability, making profit now without harming others, over time and distance. While People stands for us, respecting human rights, well-being of employees, and all people living on this planet, over time and distance.

Organising life, the economy and the world according to these three parameters guarantees more resilience to cope with crises as well, being it a health crisis, an economic crisis or another natural disaster.

If we stop living on the edge, we will be less likely to fall off the edge when crisis hits.

Planet

Our planet is our home. It is where we find food, shelter, water and company. If we destroy our homes, how would we be able to find any of those; how would we be able to survive? We are consuming and abusing our planet, rather than using it. We don’t give back in an equal way as what we take; we deplete the planet.

Earth overshoot day, the day we have used more resources than the planet can produce in one year, comes every year sooner and sooner. Our ecologic footprints are way bigger than the earth could tolerate. It isn’t a matter of ‘if’ the planet will collapse under our pressure, it is a matter of ‘when’.

But we have a choice. We can choose to shift a society dictated by economic interests solely to a society where profit stands next to planet and people. We can choose to make the transition from fossil fuel driven industry to an industry based on renewable energy and natural materials – plastic is derived from fossil fuel as well. We can choose to find meaning in living and experience rather than in consumption and material stuff.

If we don’t make the choice, life – or the planet – will make the choice for us.

Every system strives for balance; therefore, the periods of drought are followed by flooding, the periods of peace by storm. As such, the planet might survive and obtain its balance again, as what happened after the dinosaurs where wept out. These almighty creatures turned out not to be as almighty after all.

Profit

In addition, we have the choice for a more equitable market as well. A market that doesn’t make the poor more poor and only the already wealthy more wealthy – within countries and between countries. A market that is not determined by a few key companies solely, which set the price and the market. We can choose for a market with more small local players, rather than big international concerns. This choice benefits not only the profit of the small players, but as well the life quality of the people and of the planet.

As well we can choose to strive for other than material and monetizable rewards at work. We can bring back meaning to the table; meaning in what we do, the services we provide, the products we deliver, the experiences we create. Profit is an important goal to keep a company alive, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Because when the money is gone, nothing else will be left.

People

On top of that we can build our economy back around its people, both as consumers and as producers, as clients and as service providers. We should humanise one another again. If we run a business, we manage people, no numbers. If we help a client, we are helping a person, not an invoice.

By humanising one another, we make our society more human.

On the work floor and in our personal lives, we should rethink the work-life balance. We work for a living, we don’t live to work. Besides being part of a company, we are part of a family, a friend group, and especially part of our own lives.

Whenever we buy a service or a product, we should understand that we are buying from a person, that we are paying their salary, and that we earn our salary by helping other people. We are connected and need one another more than we think. Especially during an economic crisis, as the one following Corona.

For the day after tomorrow, I hope we put the planet and the people on the same line as profit. Only that way, we can rebuild a sustainable, liveable and resilient society, ready to survive the next storm.

 

This article is part of the series of Hope in Times of Corona. Read

1. How this too shall pass
2. how this times of self-isolation should not mean loneliness,
3. how you can contribute to this battle,
4. how gratitude lights up the dark,  
5. how united we will stand strong
6. on the most util strategy in awake of a crisis
7. how I got blown of my feet as well, but caught by many caring hands,
8. how being calm can get us through the storm.
9. about Love in Times of Corona
10. how to discover your own talents
11. why we need stories to hold on to
12. how you can be creative and innovative.
13. how to spend your mot valuable assets in times of Corona.
14. how to listen to the sound of silence.
15. How breath taking Corona really is.
16. discover the other freedoms Corona has shown us,
17. about the new-born freedom Corona gave us.
18. about another way to exceed your personal bubble.
19. about the position of nature in this entire story
20. about nature bouncing back
21. about the crucial choice between resilience and resistance
22. about the game to play
23. about star gazing in dark times
24. About looking for Meaning
25. About how Music Connects
26. about what Easter and Corona have in Common
27. About the Shark and the Turtle
28. About the Irony of Distance
29. Why to Hold on
30. Fake News
31. about The Big Unknown we live at
32. about Feeling Alive
33. About turning obstacles into opportunities
34. about what the Birthday of my nephew learned me about life 
35. About where we should go from here?
36. About coping with incertitude
37. About the Great War and the Great Pandemic, and we should not forget
38. about history’s most important message, echoed by corona
39. How one country could rule them all
40. About how to prevent the next Green Pandemic 
41. about how we are experiencing a new episode of our history books
42. about when the poppy flowers
43. about what’s in a number
44. masks off, how a friend in need is a friend indeed
45. What’s Next. after we flattened the curve?
46. how will our personal story look like in a post-corona world?
47. why we should never let a good crisis go too waste.
48. How Spring can happen in Autumn
49. How to unlock the lockdown
50. Why education matters
51. How we can give meaning to the meaningless deaths. (rethink health care)
52. The remarkable marketability of health, or not?
53. the remarkable rewards of health
54. The queeste for global health care 
55. Health Heroes
56. Pains and Gains 
57. Solidarity 3.0
58. Work-Life Balance
59. Home sweet home
60. Real Connections
61. Leadership 3.0
62. gratitude 3.0
63. Respect 3.0
64. Humanity 3.0
65. Change Management
66. Economic Catharsis
67. To consume or not to consume?
68. Travel the world, travel your heart
69. Barrels of Life
70. People, no Number Management
71. Back to the Office?
72. Those jobs …
73. Economic Growth or Green Growth
74. Global trade, global fate
75. Act local, think global
76. A changed climate for Climate Change
77. Love is in the Air
78. From Fatamorgana to Oasis
79. From Covid-19 to Forest Fire
80. 5 Shades of Fossil Fuels
81. Water, divide and unite
82. Almighty Ocean
83. Plastic Free July
84. Thin Line of Change
85. The Story of Corona
86. The World Before Corona [recap]
87. The World During Corona [recap]

Or wait until tomorrow, when I’ll shine another light on yet another positive corner of this dark time.