Full text of the monologue from the Sustainability XL event at Caixa Fórum, Madrid, May 2018

Please forgive my boldness in presenting myself here this afternoon with hardly any prior notice. I believe I owe Isabel an apology—I know you have been preparing this event for a long time, and coming without being part of the official program is indeed quite bold… but look, I felt the need to reconnect with all of you: colleagues, peers… I see so many faces I haven’t seen in many years, and I felt the need to share with you the doubts that have been chasing us for years, that unsettle us… the answers to questions still waiting to be answered. And that is why I am here—because I tried, I wanted to find in your company, in your eyes, those answers. And now that I see you, and I see the amount of knowledge, the academic and intellectual level in this room, it’s even harder for me to understand what we did wrong.

We have been wondering for a long time what variable we left out of that equation with which we thought we would solve everything.

What was the ingredient of that magical recipe that was supposed to get us out of the mess?

It’s tough to spend so many years thinking and having to accept that all that past effort barely served, or served very little, so that today maybe I can be here talking to you… all those efforts of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, associations, activist colleagues trying to pull hundreds of millions of people out of ignorance, trying to mobilize them… looking back and counting how many years we have been insisting and working… some more than others… many more when you think about Greenpeace, the Eleonor McArthur Foundation, the Club of Rome, the Global Alliance for Building and Construction… it’s no small amount, right? It’s a huge collective effort. And yet I still have no answers…

The truth is, most of us here probably have, I trust, or surely do, right?… the feeling that we are giving our all, that we are part of that group fighting and arguing with the deniers who, no matter how much evidence we present, remain in constant denial; we try to alert those who live in passivity, who believe nothing can be done, that decisions and actions are up to others… or to encourage those naive ones—or at least that’s how I see myself—the proto-optimists we called ourselves… those who still believed, or believed, that at the last minute before the precipice, the last second before the tragedy, the planet’s sapiens would solve everything. And I, like you, believed we were doing things right, believed that with our attitude, commitment, writing articles, helping draft laws, producing reports… we were doing what was expected, what was asked of us… we believed and defended that if everyone did things as we did, the world would change. There would be a change of course. And that gave us some pride. We belonged to the club of the good, the decent, the sensitive, those who knew what had to be done—and let’s not deny it, sometimes we addressed others with a certain intellectual moral authority that at least I, with time, recognize was completely unjustified.

There was no merit in any of that. Being here today holds no merit. Surely each one of us, with our circumstances, are the result of those who worked and struggled so that we could have access to knowledge and develop talent. The question is, did we then do enough with that legacy we were given? In these few shared minutes, I feel I’m getting close to that answer, which I haven’t been able to answer in years.

And I feel the answer is that we lacked determination. And if that’s true, many doubts arise—right? Many doubts. Look, I haven’t told you this— I come from 2058. Things there are not easy, nothing easy.

And the hardest thing of all is living with the knowledge that we didn’t do what was necessary.

Let’s remember today marks the start of a new decade. Let’s not wait for January 1, 2020. Let’s not wait for a calendar to dictate our rhythms and tempos. Today begins a decade that demands the best from all of us—that we take that determination and employ it with enthusiasm, with strength, each one in their own competence. Architects, design, draw, think with the planet in mind—there can be no greater priority than that. Think in terms of demand. Engineers, be bold with your ingenuity and innate talent to meet that demand with zero consumption.

And I say zero, not near zero—near zero is not zero—and the planet needs zero.

We must cut times short. And you builders, carpenters, industrial workers, electricians, plumbers, you too bear responsibility. You have a stake in this. Don’t hold back. Every kilo, every kilowatt not consumed, every liter of water not wasted, every kilo of CO2 not emitted counts. They all count. Ignore those who say small actions don’t matter—multiply them by 7 billion and tell me what you get.

And you, the guild that manufactures construction materials: you have enormous power to transform the sector. Use it, employ it, be brave. It’s not enough to just greenwash websites and catalogs. It’s not enough to put “eco,” “bio,” or “organic” in front of your products’ names. Don’t just think about this year’s or next year’s profit and loss statements… let those who come after us calculate theirs as well. Use that muscle: investors, financial entities, developers—not everything goes, not everything is financeable. ROI is not the only thing that counts. Ask the planet what its ROI is—or you will either financially suffocate projects that aren’t planet-friendly, or you will suffocate the planet.

And you, those who govern and make political decisions, who regulate and define our legal framework, who manage public resources, those of you who ask us to entrust you with our votes time and again, who show your unquestionable vocation for public service as proof of your good work, who run to work for the common good—know that today there is no clearer common good than this: to work to preserve all living beings that inhabit this planet and those who will come after us. Don’t look for shortcuts. Don’t try to simplify or cheapen this challenge. Draft the necessary laws and accompany them with enforcement mechanisms and adequate budgets to achieve the solutions the problem demands. Be brave, be bold.

Start every parliamentary session, every working group, every municipal plenary repeating this to yourselves. Know when to say no when it is due and press on with yes when the situation demands it.

But forgive me—I didn’t want this to turn into a litany of reproaches that maybe got out of hand… but from the perspective of being 37 years ahead of you, I tell you there is still time. If we take that determination, if we believe it and apply it with strength, conviction, and leadership… there is time.

We must demand the best version of ourselves—one we may not even know exists because perhaps the situation never demanded it before, because urgency was never like today’s. And because today, everything is at stake. Everything. Never before has it had such full meaning. Repeat it to yourselves: everything. Find enthusiasm, passion, and hope.

Maybe we left those behind, decades ago… they slipped away with our youth. It saddens me to see so few under 30 here in the room. We cannot do this without them. We need their recklessness. We need their enthusiasm, their belief that the impossible is possible. Bring them on board, take them off the sidelines, push the cart, being here obliges.

Life, whatever reason brought you here, has placed us here. And that obliges us to lead, to push, to become examples without fear. Let’s step out of our circles. We always see the same faces, the same names… yes, we do things, but let’s admit it—too inward-looking—let’s get out of that. We need to generate more movement, much more. Let’s turn every small action into a committed action.

Every gesture into an example… even the smallest, most private, singular, silent one. There is no neutrality. Decisions and actions either bring us closer to the planet’s solution or move us further away. There is no middle ground.

Barcelona, 2018.