On the occasion of the 51st St. Gallen Symposium as well as the 50^th anniversary of “The Limits to Growth”, we are uniting with the Club of Rome to launch a joint initiative – “A New Generational Contract” – which will foster dialogue and actions for intergenerational fairness.

In 1972, “The Limits to Growth” was published by the Club of Rome and subsequently presented at the 3rd St. Gallen Symposium. The report emphasised the risks of infinite growth on a finite planet and pioneered the concepts of multi-dimensional sustainability and systemic interdependence.

Fast forward 50 years, and the need for a shift towards leadership that considers the long-term consequences of current decision-making is greater than ever. Multiple ecological crises, rapid technological change and rising inequities demonstrate that current systems are unsustainable.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of “The Limits to Growth”, the St. Gallen Symposium and the Club of Rome are uniting to launch a joint initiative – “A New Generational Contract” – which will foster dialogue and, subsequently, encourage actions that put intergenerational fairness firmly at the centre of decisions taken during “our time”.

Call to Action Invites Partners to Join

In doing so, we aim to leverage the global, cross-generational platforms that our institutions have created for over half a century. Our joint Call to Action (supported through research by the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions and the International Institute for Management Development) serves as an invitation to join us as we seek to facilitate a dialogue among voices from politics, business, civil society, and academia surrounding the key intergenerational issues and ambitions that demand our attention.

For the Call to Action, we have consulted our cross-generational communities – through a global survey of the St. Gallen Symposium’s networks of some 1,000 young and senior leaders, and hundreds of student essays from 78 countries submitted to the 2022 St. Gallen Global Essay Competition. We gathered their initial views on intergenerational issues that most demand attention and ideas on how we can jointly tackle them.

Read and download our Call to Action for a New Generational Contract here.

The 51st St. Gallen Symposium on 5-6 May 2022 has launched a Cross-Generational Transformation Lab – in partnership with Zukunft-Fabrik.2050. The Lab will initially run for one year, and will host regional, cross-generational workshops, roundtables and listening sessions in partnership with leading academic institutions in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. The 52nd St. Gallen Symposium in May 2023 will discuss main findings and key impact projects that will drive our transition from insights to impact.

We are actively looking for collaborators to join our Initiative and, in particular, we are seeking:

• Knowledge partners with whom we’ll further develop and shape the thematic agenda and Transformation Lab to distill key insights and ambitions, including through surveys and regional consultations.

• Impact partners from business, policy, technology and civil society to engage in our global consultations, and co-design and deliver impact projects for a New Generational Contract.

Would you like to collaborate on concrete actions toward greater intergenerational fairness? Leave us your name, contact address and a short note on how you would like to engage in the comment section below or reach out to us at [email protected].