A special feature of LABEL-EXPERTS about UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

The sustainability debate is gaining momentum. Especially at a time when the economy is groaning under the weight of the COVID 19 issue. The pandemic is just this indicator, which shows the limits of the boundless acting of the last 100 years and then will serve as a catalyst for a new thinking, for a new acting and thus for sustainable productions.

Legislation is called upon to take action, isn’t the pandemic the result of an excessive exploitation of resources and the intrusion into habitats, accompanied by the destruction of balances and the approaching of a tipping point without the possibility of return?

These developments will not leave the fast moving consumer goods industry unaffected. Nor will the upstream supply chains, such as packaging and label printers. Yes, it will also affect the development of the aggregates. It is therefore appropriate to keep an eye on these developments and to set the course for the future accordingly. Because it is inevitable that something must and will change.

And that changes are possible and initiatives are taken is shown by a brilliant project of UCL IIPP and the Bizcay region.

 

The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is changing how public value is imagined, practised and evaluated to tackle societal challenges.

The world is facing pressing challenges — social, technological and economic. What is the future of the welfare state? How can digital platforms be governed in democratic and inclusive ways? What new forms of investment, regulation and collaboration can best tackle global warming?

The answers to these questions require public and private organisations to collaborate in new ways and become more purpose-driven.  In this context, governments require different tools and capabilities to co-create and co-shape markets, not just fix market failures.

IIPP’s work is dedicated to this ambition. We bring revived notions of public value and public purpose to the centre of political economy and to concrete policy practice. Our work equips leaders to co-design growth that is innovation-led, sustainable and inclusive.

IIPP develops first regional fiscal policy in alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals

IIPP is collaborating closely with the Biscay regional Government, Spain, in the Biscay Economic Activity Review (BEAR) project to develop the first local fiscal policy in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

It is a world-first initiative aligning a region’s fiscal policies with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and marks a significant advance in sustainable growth.

Edited by Carlotta Maucher

The BEAR project is a collaboration between IIPP and the Biscay Government based in Bilbao, Spain. It is a world-first initiative aligning a region’s fiscal policies with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and marks a significant advance in sustainable growth. In Phase 1, the IIPP team is creating a model that enables the Biscay tax authorities to compare the contributions and progress of each firm towards the SDGs across participating companies, and provide corporate tax incentives accordingly. Phase two, starting in May 2021, will involve looking beyond taxation, at Biscay’s wider public policies.

In a press conference between IIPP Director Mariana Mazzucato and the President of the Provincial Council of Biscay, Unai Rementeria Maiz, Professor Mazzucato highlights the need to re-design the tax system in an ambitious way that catalyses bottom up investment inline with the SDGs. The conference has been taken up by various news outlets in Biscay, in the Basque Country and on a national level, reporting positively on the new initiative.

The BEAR project draws on a variety of IIPP’s pathbreaking research themes; rethinking the direction of growth through the SDGs, supporting the Biscay government to take on a ‘market-shaping’ role and to actively tilt the playing field in the direction of sustainable development and reintroducing the importance of public value as being collectively generated through public-private collaboration.

BEAR’s mission is to create a powerful tool that can eventually be adopted worldwide; a tool that drives inclusive and sustainable economic recovery from the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Unai Rementeria Maiz stated during the press conference:

‘We can’t grow at any price, in any way. We need a more sustainable and inclusive development. We need to look after and preserve the values that bring society together.’

‘No podemos crecer a cualquier precio, no podemos crecer de cualquier manera, y necesitamos un desarrollo sostenible y a su vez un desarrollo que sea inclusivo. Necesitamos cuidar y preservar esos grandes valores que hilvanan una sociedad.

Label-Expert thanks the UCL IIPP for this very valuable contribution.

 

Further Information:

Martha McPherson
Head of Green Economy and Sustainable Growth
m.mcpherson@ucl.ac.uk

Carlotta Maucher
MPA student, 2020-21 cohort
carlotta.maucher.15@ucl.ac.uk