What if right around now a solid hunk of global finance grew out of its devilishly anti-social phase and over the next few years got a social life, fell in love and got engaged?

I know. What are the chances that we'll ever see big money flowing into shapely investment pools that genuinely promote collective health, wealth and happiness?

But then again, maybe there's a way. A significant group of Canadian financial visionaries are part of a growing global movement that says it actually can happen. Together, they're scheming to introduce a player in the capital market that defies the traditional dichotomy between seeing investment as making money and donations as doing good.

Sustain: to keep in existence, maintain. Sustainable: capable of being sustained. Sustainability: the property of being sustainable.

There is at least one clear fact about human society -- it is an integral part of the environment and the environment dictates how it functions. For human society to remain in a form similar to what we developed historically, it must have a stable environment that contains most of its historical features. How society treats the environment affects its stability.

Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher, a stoic who believed in translating thought into practical action. When he became Emperor of Rome in the second century A.D. he wanted all of Rome to embrace philosophical ethics. Instead, Rome came under attack from many sides, and Emperor Aurelius was forced to give his full attention to making war on his enemies.

There is something uniquely powerful about everyday people having access to the Internet from tiny devices in their pocket. That ubiquitous access to each other creates possibilities that are worth fighting for and saving. The mobile and wireless accessed Internet, combined with emerging open web and open data applications, has the potential to usher in a new era of connectedness, and with it dramatic changes to social practices and institutions. If we get digital public policy right, Canada could become a leader in mobile communications, leading to empowerment, job creation and new forms of entrepreneurialism, expression and social change.