The energy transition alone will not be enough to avert climate disaster. Martin R. Stuchtey, co-founder of SYSTEMIQ, provides -consulting and support services for global companies, industries, governments and NGOs that help them to tackle the root causes of problems.

Our current economic system is dragging us inexorably towards collapse, warns economist and geologist Martin R. Stuchtey. The approaches that were so effective in Germany’s post-war economic miracle in the 1960s and 1970s are too much for the earth today. Our planet is being destroyed by the burden of resource-intensive growth in the richer countries and population growth in the poorer nations. In Stuchtey’s view, We are growing ourselves poor! The solution proposed by the founder and managing partner of SYSTEMIQ Ltd. is nothing less than a fundamental and systemic change, replacing linear growth and embracing a circular economy based on the example nature holds up to us: regenerative, circular, resilient. And abandoning a product-based economy in favour of one based on services.

53-year-old Stuchtey spent almost 20 years as a management consultant at McKinsey, finally holding the position of Director of the Center for Business and Environment. In 2016 he founded -SYSTEMIQ, a firm specialising in solving system-level challenges. Stuchtey is Professor of Resource Strategies and Management at the University of Innsbruck; the initiator of large-scale projects including the 2030 Water Resources Group, New Plastic Economy and Project STOP; a veteran strategic advisor to the World Economic Forum; and the author of “A Good Disruption—Redefining Growth in the Twenty-First Century”. He also runs Kollreider Hof, an organic farm in Tyrol, Austria, as a holiday let and a location for symposia and seminars.

A Certified B Corporation, SYSTEMIQ today has 300 employees ­divided among its offices in Munich, London, Amsterdam, Paris, São Paulo and Jakarta. Our interview with Martin R. Stuchtey was conducted via Zoom from his Munich offices.