After a long trip we finally arrived in Metz with our installation. The setup went faster than planned and also a big projector was put in place to project our e-tree animation on the wall of a big school. Everything seemed to go fine except for the Internet connection.
The e-tree project however depends on an internet connection since the animation is accessible via a website and connected with a twitter account.
After several hours of trying different connections, chasing the technical team and getting help from many different people, the official starting time of our project had passed and the stress level was rising. Since France Telecom was not willing to come and fix the problem someone had the idea of ringing doorbells at the nearby houses to see if anyone had a wifi connection we could use. After the second try it worked. A very kind neighbour came down to help us out with his connections – he even agreed to have a 100m cable being thrown from his balcony so we could get a direct connection at our both.
One hour later we finally had a good Internet connection and people could enjoy the animation. What a night! Luckily things went much smoother the day after in Brussels and since we were lucky with our location the tree was almost constantly occupied. During the 2 events over 700 messages where written on the e-tree ranging from simple expressions and messages to friends to thoughtful comments on world peace and philosophy. Try it yourself!
Here an interview that was done on our way between Metz & Brussels:
And here a video showing the e-tree in action in Metz:
I would like to invite you all to a multimedia installation that I’m putting in place with a group of artists. E-tree is an interactive project that will take place at the Nuit Blanche of Metz and Brussels the 2nd and 3rd of October 2009.
Visitors and people from the web will be able to insert text to our system, which will make a tree grow and messages will be visible on Twitter.
You can join us online the day we make the performance and participate online on the growing of the e-Tree.
Join us and express your own ideas!
Wanna see what other people write? Please follow: http://twitter.com/e_tree on Twitter
Practical info:
Metz: 02 October 2009 20pm – 02 am CET Lycée Louis Vincent (Metz, France)
Brussels: 03 October 2009 20pm – 02 am Mont des Arts/near the music museum (Bruxelles, Belgium)
For more info on this project, please visit www.e-tree.eu
The project team:
Jesús Azogue
Mira Bangel
Inge Mestdagh
Thomas Popovits
Steven Ramsdonck
David Cammaerts
James Davy
…and many nice people that are supporting us
Cradle to cradle is giving the word ‘design’ a deeper meaning. Rather than looking at a visual aspect, it is about designing a product by keeping in mind the entire product life cycle.
We live in a system that is designed based on common values we had back in times of the industrial revolution. Times where people thought environmental resources would last forever and people would only benefit from the improved production models… It only makes sense that environment was not a priority back then.
Looking at products & services that were designed following the very same model today we should ask ourselves the question: What is the point in improving a product that is not good in the first place?
The point is not necessarily that we need to stop completely what we are doing right now. It’s more about rethinking the things we are right now and adapting it to a new model that keeps in mind all aspects of sustainability.
Rather than putting economic impact in the centre of discussion, William McDonough is putting a slightly different aspect in the middle of the thinking he does with every product he designs:
How do we love all the children of all species for all time?
The best introduction to this topic (besides the book of course) is the documentary called ‘Waste = Food’ that even won Winner the Silver Dragon at the Beijing International Science Film Festival.
The principle of co-housing (or collaborative housing) is simple. You live together with a group of people that are not necessarily your family or relatives and you share certain areas of your home with them. You share certain resources (e.g. space, food, energy, green areas, cars etc.) and certain parts of your life (e.g. free time, weekends, cleaning, celebrations).
There are many Co-Housing initiatives in Europe, America, Australia and many other parts of the world. Key challenge of this approach is to create a Win-Win-Win for all people involved in the project. This way of living is not only interesting for individuals – especially families with children and seniors can support from this type of living environment where a community supports each other in daily life.
In Belgium you can already find some co-housings although larger scale co-housing is still a new concept.
The Age of Stupid is the new cinema documentary from the Director of ‘McLibel’ and the Producer of the Oscar-winning ‘One Day in September’. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?
the first successful film dramatisation of climate change will open
The global premiere of The Age of Stupid will begin in New York on September 21st and move on to over 40 countries on September 22nd. It will also be streamed live online for those without screenings in their area. Look for a screening of the film near you – here.
You may wonder what this post has to do with Sustainability: I do believe that the shift towards social media is not only important for Corporate Marketers. The fact that corporations have to become more transparent also means they have to start reviewing their current business operations: How compliant are we really? And how do our stakeholders perceive our performance?
Some years ago it would have been a great opportunity for a Business to move towards social & environmental responsibility to gain a competitive advantage. Today it becomes more and more a must to not fall behind your competitors and to avoid a potential crisis.
Being truly transparent does not only mean that a corporation needs to implement a CSR report that is compliant with GRI standards we are talking about a process of change management that is not to underestimate. It’s not just about the numbers but also about the motivations & meaning given to these values by each and every employee.
Only in the moment a researcher from the R&D division, your supply chain partners and the external maintenance guy live up to this philosophy and come to work every day because they truly believe they help save the environment and add benefit to the community by working for an organization, one can talk about a successful implementation of this approach. It’s not just a one-off exercise. It’s rather a cultural transformation of the whole organization.
I’m currently reading ‘Strategy for Sustainability’ by Adam Werbach (Harvard) and am realizing also based on my own experience that Communication will play a key role in solving the dilemma most corporates are facing when running a number of sustainability programmes without linking these back to their core business strategy.
The result is a number of scattered, isolated activities and projects where neither people involved in the project nor external audiences can find a purpose.
I can only recommend you to read this book. For me it was a real eye-opener.
Here an interview with the Author:
Interestinly enough most corporates fear to communicate about the ‘green thing’ as a result – rather than trying to show more transparency they end up stepping back from communicating. Especially in the 24/7 virtual space, this creates issues since conversations will continue without you if you don’t join them.
Last weekend I went to visit La Grande Cense with a group of volunteers. This co-housing community near Brussels is now some last renovations before all individuals and families can start moving into their new homes. They are therefore organizing a summer camp where everyone is invited to help.
A group of 30 grown ups and 15 children will be soon living in 20 units in a fully renovated old farm with a big inner courtyard for social gatherings, a big and sunny terrace, shared kitchen & lounging facilities and large garden space.
Although the construction site already looks liveable it was not the actual space that impressed me most this weekend. I was more impressed by the group members.
You can feel that everyone at the Grande Cense group has gone through an intense learning process. Becoming clear about your own core values, defining a shared vision, establishing an effective decision making process and clear ground rules. All this costs a lot of time and effort and it is as essential for a co-housing project as finding a nice space to live and defining technical and ecological parameters.
What is more challenging than sharing your life with a group of people?
It takes a strong core group with shared values, a clear vision and the necessary organizational and people skills, to set up a co-housing project.
Our little volunteer group was using ecological paint to paint some of the walls in the common area. With all information and tips for a future co-housing project we gathered and some nice conversations, it only felt good to be able to contribute 2 days of work to this project.
A nice example of how to empower people – in this case by simply giving a camera to local farmers and explaning them how to use it… The photos are still being exhibited – even 5 years after the project was carried out. The resulting images (some of them of astonishing quality) naturally show the benefits & purity of traditional farming in Southern China – an area that is more and more becoming industrialized.
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