Following an innovative, highly respected and successful career in the property business (see career) LAWRENCE BLOOM decided to take a prolonged sabbatical and in 1996 began to travel the world extensively, furthering his studies of holistic business and Spiritual philosophies and sustainable practice.
Since then he has connected and spent significant amounts of time with international leaders in the field of consciousness research, and with personalities at the cutting edge of the transformation movement in business. His interest in the current System Change was kindled by having, in 1990, created with David Gershon an environmental initiative called Global Action Plan. He was Chairman of UK, and Deputy Chairman of the International Office. ‘GAP’ is currently in 17 countries and in the US it advises the Presidential Commission on the Environment. However, five years later, notwithstanding all the many significant small victories, it was clear to Lawrence that systemically things were becoming inexorably worse.
It was at that time he decided to resign from GAP and to ‘swim upstream’ to find the source of the driving currents that were causing the inexorably increasing pollution, poisoning and degradation of our ecosystems. Contemporaneously with his resignation from GAP he also resigned, for similar reasons, from the joint Chairmanship of Hunger Project UK, part of a major International charity with many profound achievements devoted to ending World Hunger.
He subsequently discovered that the corrosive drivers creating our environmental crisis were simultaneously and dramatically exacerbating the widening of the wealth gap and were also directly responsible for increasing numbers of people becoming impoverished.
Lawrence was interviewed for Merchants of Vision, the highly acclaimed book on shifting business culture, published in 1993, and was a featured speaker on perceptual thinking at ‘The Soul of Business Conference’ in Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA, in 1995.
He is a principal advisor to The Foundation for Conscious Evolution, a think-tank for future mega trends, led by Barbara Marx Hubbard and supported by Lawrence Rockefeller. He believes the principles of conscious evolution can be translated into practical tools for the sustainable growth of communities, organisations and individuals. Lawrence is also a Senior Fellow of Future 500.
Lawrence's personal focus is to raise awareness of the urgent need for transformation at individual, cultural and organisational levels. The new thinking needs to be based on a holistic and stakeholder paradigm, sharing best practice and breakthrough technologies. He is deeply committed to creating sustainable development and communities, complementary currencies and business environments that respect the natural environment.
He considers the role of Humanity goes beyond mere trusteeship or stewardship, believing that we must become positive contributors to the ecology of the planet, recognising the imperative of our inherent common and shared journey with all forms of life and the systems upon which we depend for our survival.
In 2007 Lawrence had the privilege of talking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, in the session: Future Series: Designing Sustainable Cities
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