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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Ok, now seriously:
“The oceans and seas are a source of life on our planet. They cover almost three quarters of the Earth’s surface and contain some 90% of the biosphere. Their protection is essential to the future of our planet. Pollution of our seas and destructive fishing practices are anathema to that. Our oceans and seas also play a strategic role in sustaining climate and weather patterns, distributing solar energy, and absorbing carbons.” (Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas)
Three quarters of fishing grounds are almost depleted. Rising water levels inflicted by global warming are threatening sensitive corals and low lands. Now I won’t blog more about it as others can do this better. Here a good overview by a member of the Ocean Project and here more on the topic by the following organisations UN, the European Commission or GreenPeace. You can sign a petition with GreenPeace on protecting 40% of the world’s oceans as marine reserves.
The Ocean Project has a list of events around the globe, nothing though for Belgium. However, Sunday June 7th is la Fête de l’Environnement 2009 organised at Parc Cinquantenaire by Bruxelles Environnement, where you can meet actors of the environmental field. The Brussels Aquarium will also have a stand there. In the evening there will be a free concert.
I just found out this morning: tomorrow is World Environment Day and lots of things are happening worldwide! Events range from conferences (for example the environmental day conference in Brussels) to a release of the movie HOME.
HOME is a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the sky perspective photographer. I have his book at home and it’s the best photography book I know, it has been opened many times by me and friends of mine. The special thing about this release is, that it will be in over 50 countries on the same day and in different formats: movie theatres, TV and DVD.
Brussels DG Environment is planning a special screening of the film at the RESIDENCE PALACE – 155 Rue de la Loi at 5pm. I will definitely go. Let me know if you want to join as well. You will need to register in advance with an e-mail to basha@unric.org
When I arrived at the end of rush-hour all the Foe-members in the station-hall were in conversation with people passing by, mainly explaining the aims of the campaign. Above the general stairs you could see a big screen showing the Big Ask Film .
Some passengers took time to see the film. Afterwards they asked the Foe-members what The Big Ask stands for. A lot of people filled in the Big Ask postcards (more than I expected!), which FOE will send to the decision making Belgian politicians concerning climate issues.
Politicians from right and left-wing parties came especially to this event in order to talk about the aims of the campaign. On the picture below you’ll see the co-chairman from Ecolo Isabelle Durant, together with members from mother Earth, the Flemish FOE-movement. Another Ecolo politician who took time to talk about the aims and strategies of The Big Ask campaign was Evelyne Huytebroeck, the environment minister in Bxl we met on the ecoloj meeting in march. Other parties present were the flemish socialists (SP-A) and the Flemish Liberals (VLD).
It takes my interest as the campaign is focussing on a clear legal pressure towards politicians on national and EU level.
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