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Is the world's current economic model really sustainable?



Will Day looks at what we currently understand of global trends, particularly focusing on issues like population, water and ecosystem health. He will also share his analysis of the the perverse incentives in the current model by which we live - the things we measure, things we value, and the short term nature of our demands.

This all calls into question the ability of the planet to support a high consumption lifestyle for 9+ billion people.

About Will

Will Day spent twenty years or so working with a range of relief and development NGOs (Save the Children, OXFAM, Opportunity Trust and CARE International) in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

He was involved in the establishment of Comic Relief, a fundraising and grant making organisation, and as its first Grants Director was responsible for setting up its grants programme for Africa. As well as involvement in the production of Comic Relief’s television and radio documentaries, he spent time as a producer and presenter for the BBC World Service for Africa. Until April 2011, he was Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

He is currently Sustainability Advisor to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and as a Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), is a faculty member of the Prince of Wales’s Business and Environment Programme as well as participating in CPI’s other Senior Executive Education programmes on sustainability, held in the UK, Capetown, Nairobi, Abuja and Salzburg.

He is Chairman of Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), a non-profit company bringing together private sector and NGO member organisations to pursue the Millennium Development goal for water and sanitation in the poorest parts of the world, and has been a Special Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2004.

He is the UK Commissioner on the Ramphal Commission on Migration and Development and sits on the Board of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Until recently was Chairman of the BBC Children in Need Appeal, the largest grant giver for disadvantaged children in the UK, and an independent assessor for the public appointments process of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Will Day

Will Day is a thought leader in sustainability. 
© Will Day

Nationality: British

Title: Thought Leader in Sustainability

© TEDxWWF

About TEDxWWF

TEDxWWF brought together forward-thinking speakers who shared their endeavours and insights (scientific, adventurous, artistic or otherwise) that question and change the way we think, live and work to meet the challenges of living on our one planet.

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