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In the wake of COP15 (and what a wake it is… many of those who were heavily invested in unrealized outcomes are just now emerging from the malaise), we have been both taking stock of our OgilvyEarth position and considering how to guide the next phase of Hopenhagen. On the OgilvyEarth front, we believe COP15 underscored the premise we have held to all along: that it is subnational entities – namely business – that will drive sustainable development and create the solutions the world needs now. (At least, all those apart from “love, sweet love” …) Indeed, in the absence of the much-anticipated multinational framework, smart businesses will continue to seize the opportunity to act responsibly and innovate audaciously ahead of government mandate, further cementing their far-ahead-of-the-curve leadership. As for Hopenhagen, much imagination is catalyzing its future state. But in this post-COP15 world, as we evaluate and evolve both the OgilvyEarth and Hopenhagen raisons d’etre, we would do well to consider what Lincoln might tell us if he saw us percolating in passion’s aftermath: “Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence. Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence…” I’m not saying Lincoln’s wisdom is definitive here – given its application to a far different context than the one intended – and that our passion must abate. But the need to amass and disseminate the rational arguments that support what we believe is ever more important now as we prepare to face the challenges ahead.
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