‘If nature was a bank, it would have been bailed out a long time ago’. I heard that quip in the US last week and it came to mind again during our new Chancellor’s first set-piece speech at the CBI’s annual dinner.

Close your eyes and it could have been our Prime Minister talking – lots of mentions of small government, big society, enterprise, blah blah.  Oh and the need to urgently tackle our massive deficit. I’ll say one thing for the new chaps in charge – they do appear to be a team, and they are consistent in their messages, which, whether or not you buy the content, is probably a good thing.

Chancellor George Osborne finished with a triumphant flourish, stating that ‘Britain is open for Business’. Excellent news. One small niggle though. He made no mention of the other balance sheet we need to sort out – the one that belongs to nature.

We are not only out of cash, we are nearly out of the other resources which both the UK and the global economy are totally reliant upon. From water to oil, we are getting very close to the bottom of the barrel. But Mr Osborne didn’t mention this other, more pressing resource crisis. His vision is of Britain selling stuff to the emerging middle classes of the developing economies as a road to growth.

This vision is fundamentally flawed. It totally misses the point that economic growth based on existing energy sources and existing manufacturing processes will speed up our descent to a world where there are not enough vital resources to go round, a world where climate change has started to disrupt significantly the very economy Mr Osborne is trying to resuscitate.

This is where the Dame comes in. Last night we also heard from Dame Ellen MacArthur. She told us the story of her grit, determination, bravery and courage in breaking the world record for the fastest navigation round the world. She also gave the best analysis of the current resource crisis we face, and ways to deal with it, that I have heard for a very long time.

Being alone on her boat opened her eyes to the reality of the utter dependence we humans have on the resources around us. Running out of oil in the middle of circumnavigating the globe just wasn’t an option for Ellen. It would have meant the end of her journey. In the same way, running out of resources will spell the end for our collective journey. And according to lots of real-time data, we are on that trajectory.

Ellen has given up sailing to try and do her bit to open the eyes of the world to the crisis we face – and to offer her take on the solutions. Her answer is not tinkering around the edges, or creeping incrementalism, but totally rethinking how we do things. In her view, nothing short of radical innovation will cut it. She’s absolutely right.

George Osborne talked convincingly about the need for ‘a sustainable path back to fiscal growth’. But based on what I heard last night, apart from one measly mention of renewable energy, I wonder if the new Chancellor has a full grasp of what true sustainability is. 

Mr Osborne – learn from the Dame - take the path to smart growth and new, sustainable business models, not the path to any old growth, because that path will very quickly lead to a dead end.