I am putting the finishing touches on my keynote for the CC Forum Gala Banquet and Award Ceremony tonight. Here are some thoughts I am considering for my seven-minute keynote. Are there others I should include, or are any of these especially important?
Every investment carries a vision of the future, whether we have examined that vision or not.
Show me where we put our money, and I will show you the future we are choosing.
Our grandchildren will live inside the consequences of our decisions.
No lasting prosperity exists on a dying planet.
A living forest provides wealth that a balance sheet must learn to recognize.
A return that leaves a community poorer carries a debt we have failed to count.
The true cost of an investment includes what others must pay.
We must become as accountable for the harm we finance as we are proud of the good we fund.
Our investments reveal whether we have learned to see the world as our relative.
Mother Earth sustains every enterprise represented in this room.
The people closest to the consequences must have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
Our communities carry knowledge, leadership, and the right to shape their own future.
Invest in people’s capacity to determine their future, and the benefits will continue long after your investment ends.
Trust grows when our commitments become visible in our actions.
The inner development of human beings must keep pace with the outer development of our technologies.
We cannot purchase the trust that our conduct continues to destroy.
Healing belongs in the budget.
Peace deserves the commitment, ingenuity, and investment we have given to war.
We have learned to finance destruction at extraordinary scale; we can choose to finance healing with the same determination.
Artificial intelligence will magnify the priorities we choose to fund.
The greater the power of our technology, the greater our responsibility to guide it with wisdom.
Our intelligence has given us extraordinary power; our maturity will determine how we use it.
Seven-generation thinking begins with the decision directly in front of us.
Patient capital gives living systems time to recover and communities time to grow strong.
The future needs investors willing to remain accountable after the return has been collected.
Every child born today arrives with a claim upon our responsibility.
Let our grandchildren inherit the evidence of our love.
We are the ancestors of generations we will never meet.
May our future generations remember that we understood our responsibility and acted upon it.
Let us leave this room having decided what we will bring to life.
