Ideaplants

After months of hard work on our project, our e-tree team was present at Nuit Blanche Metz and Nuit Blanche Brussels this weekend.


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:

Dear readers,


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)


Let us know you are joining!
Everyone is welcome to sign up here for the event.


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


All the best, Mira

What’s cradle to cradle? – I’m reading the book ‘cradle to cradle’ by Michael Braungart & William McDonough. Which is questioning some of the simple concepts that I have so far always taken for granted.


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.




Watch William McDonough’s TED talk:



Your thoughts are more than welcome.

What is co-housing?


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.

Here an interview from a Social Media presentation I gave at The Hub last week together with Oihana (eMarketeer at The Hub):



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.


Best wishes,
Mira

Einstein is said to have remarked: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The new Happy Planet Index Report indicates that something like this could be driving the religion of endless growth, one of the central pillars of traditional economic thinking.

Driven by evolutionary instincts, which the writers of the Bible documented so well by letting God state ‘go forth and multiply’, western societies still have the official goal to chase the end of the rainbow. Everybody knows we have only one Earth (for the foreseeable future), and everybody who cares can find out quickly and easily, what the inevitable result of exponential growth with limited resources is. Hint: it’s not pretty.

Continuous quantitative and compounding growth is always exponential.

Glass 1, 2 and 3 of that tasty Bordeaux brings great relaxation, glass 8, 9 and 10 misery and sickness. If we grow our consumption by 1 percent every week or month, we die a horrible death.

Surprise surprise: quantity does not create happiness. Ask Michael Jackson.

Do you care about quality? Do you care about happiness? Check out the report: Happy Planet Index

Open Source Ecology takes an open source approach to technology development with the aim to empower individuals to develop their own self-sufficient ecovillages without depending on supply chains, trademarks & corporations.


‘Factor E Farm’ provides a tool set that makes it possible for individuals to become self-sufficient. Tool set’s include instructions on how to create construction machines, tractors, solarpanels etc. at a quality level that comes close to commercial machines. All tool sets for open source technology are being published on the open source ecology wiki so others can use and further develop the material. Watch this video to see some of their machines in practise.


I’m quite impressed by this approach since I do personally believe that the open source culture can be transferred to many different value-driven fields. Ecological living is an area where concrete solutions and expertise could easily create benefit by being spread more openly via the Internet.


In the area of sustainable development there seems to be a big disconnect between corporate sustainability communication and actual solutions that are being applied. Maybe there is something even bigger corporations could learn from this simple concept & collaborative approach.


More information:
Listen to this podcast or read the 5Minute intro below:
Factor E Farm (about)

I’m speaking to more and more people that are trying to make sense of what they do and how it can benefit society & the environment as a whole.


It always starts with a dream, a broad idea of how it could look like in practise and lots of passion that gives people the drive to make things happen. More and more people do dare to make the step and create a business around these ambitions. Dreamers transform into entrepreneurs and suddenly become part of a genre that is accepted and increasingly admired by society.


What people seem to lack and look for is very human support:
- A person that gives feedback like a mirror
- Some guidance in creating a good sales pitch
- Some ideas to complete the story
- Help with finance and getting the right people on board
- A well thought through and tangible Marketing plan
…and last but not least: Confidence





I find it personally very inspiring to listen to people’s ideas, help them develop their business model and help them to market their concept. I’ve now decided to help members at The Hub develop their ideas and explore the world of online Marketing. I look forward to exciting new ideas, people with big dreams and enough courage to make them happen.


Cheers,


Mira

So, what’s the matter with this SUSTAINABILITY gibberish anyway?

How about this: sustainability is the issue which sets apart man and animal.

Animals DON’T CARE about sustainability above the level where they sustain their individual genes.

Ecological- or resource-sustainability issues don’t matter to them – as far as they are concerned, these issues don’t even exist.

Not even consciousness itself distinguishes us from animals in a comparable way. I think it is accepted fact in the science community that capacities for suffering and awareness are gradual effects, which emerge with growing complexity of the nervous system and brain. Thus, consciousness is not a black and white kind of thing: a cat, dog or pig may have less of it than a human, but they do have a lot more than zero.

So, animals don’t care about sustainability. That’s why animal species DIE OUT. Always.

As it appears, there’s a fork ahead in the road for mankind. Man and Woman will decide to care about sustainability – or else. Sustainability is just a POTENTIAL after all, not a given.

To be human means to CARE about that potential not being wasted. To strive to rise awareness of the human condition to the level where sustainablility of the species is recognized as a central and critical issue. To pursue focus-shifting from throw-away baubles to goals and products worth being CARED about by beings sporting a human brain with a pulse.

Sorry to spoil the idyll, but that Prius we bought for peace of mind and the compost heap at the back of the garden where we always deposit those soaked and delicious tea leaves which had been flown in from India for us, they are surely nice and impress the neighbors to boot, but they’re also mostly show business, reinforcing cosiness in PRESENT HABITS.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES are great inspirators, though. So let’s get a little dreamy about this for a while: man as a species has the POTENTIAL TO LIVE and not die off like every other worm which ever existed. Hmmm!

Pouring a little more of that nice warm tea.

What’s this RUCKUS now? Doesn’t anybody on this rotten planet respect a dreaming philosopher any more?

The irritated mob’s screaming at me, furiously red-faced: I’m no stinkin’ worm you headblock, I’m the pride of creation and there’s a nice pie up there in the sky which will cuddle and save me, if I make goo-goo eyes at it long enough!!! Me and my friends we are telling this to each other all the time, so it is true!!!

Ah yes. The stuff in the sky allright.

Let’s take a look: stuff in the sky