Recent events have reminded of that legendary, probably apocraphyl, letter from a bank manager to a spendthrift student:

“We have increased your overdraft to £1,000. Please note that this is a limit, not a target.”

This attitude appears to have been adopted by the UK Government on carbon and renewable targets – they are seen as just that, targets, to be met and no more. Taking this view narrows mindsets and efforts down to ‘business as usual plus a bit’. The ‘plus a bit’ tends to cost us extra, rather than going for renewable breakthroughs which would drive innovation, economic growth and job creation – a worthwhile investment in anybody’s book.

As an aside, this is being debated in front of a backdrop of record renewable energy production – for an hour last month, 43% of UK power came from renewables, pushing coal down to just 7%. For a while last Thursday Denmark managed to produce 140% of its power from renewables – the excess being sold abroad. There is no such thing as “too much renewable energy.”

This conservative attitude is not limited to politics either. I have heard the words “what’s the least we can do to get out of jail?” uttered in one of my sustainability workshops (but we ended up raising the bar, not lowering it by the end of the session).

In another session a delegate mused on a 10 year target of 40% reduction in carbon footprint, saying “4% per year, mmm, I think that’s doable.” I challenged him – to get to 40% probably means not reducing carbon very much for several years while installing the kit or transforming the supply chain to deliver 40%. If you chunk it down, you’ll exhaust the 4% improvements – and yourself – in a couple of years.

To deliver the kind of change we need requires a change in mindset. A Big Hairy Audacious Goal is a key step to delivering that new mindset.