4P - An Innovative Sustainable Development Model

The mainstream sustainable development (SD) model―adopted by 179 countries in the 1992 Rio Summit―corrected the sole focus on economic development by adding social and environmental development. Instead of GNP alone, 3P or "People, Planet, Profit" (Elkington, 1997) became the broader measure of development.

A group of concerned Filipinos, the Rhema Practice Group, felt that 3P is still inadequate. It fails to address fundamental weaknesses in the global socio-economic system.

  • SD fails to address total human development which covers spirituality.
  • Poverty cannot be solved by livelihood programs (higher incomes); it requires a more fundamental solution: ownership of assets.
  • Intangible assets generated by employees are now the primary creators of corporate value and yet corporate governance is still in the hands of owners of stocks.
  • The labor-capital relationship is still basically adversarial.

The group co-created a new development model, 4P.

You can download the article "4P Primer" by clicking HERE