Ideaplants

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

Yesterday, after a client event, I’ve been discussing waste management with a colleague.

How impactfull is waste separation in households and how much good does it really do?
Who is gaining from the fact that we separate plastics for example?
Are we really doing good or are we indirectly being used as cheap labour for the recycled plastics industry?

Some of you might think that this is just a creative set of questions about a relatively clear topic. However, it does need quite some brainwork to get to the bottom of our recycle bins and understand what happens to our waste after we put it outside on the street for the weekly rubbish collection. …There are many misconceptions about plastic recycling.
› Continue reading

Saving the economy versus creditors. How a government turns a democracy into an interest-driven monopoly. I wonder how solution driven Michael Hudson’s comments really are. But its certainly worth watching.

For those of you who are interested in more economy focussed commentary and who’d like to listen into more conceptions on this topic: visit the Renegade Economist Youtube channel.
Thanks for the link, Hans

The Teekampagne (tea campaign) is quite a simple concept. Günther Faltin (professor for entrepreneurship in Germany & founder of the tea campaign) asked himself: why is tea affordable in China but so expensive in Europe?
› Continue reading