Okay, so John Grant never says it exactly like that, but I would argue that his book The Green Marketing Manifesto is nothing short of revolutionary.   Here’s why:

Let’s start with marketing – yuck.  Even books and blogs that want to teach you how to do it better tend to apologize in the process.  Michael Port wants us to get more clients ‘Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling,‘ and Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communications has been quoted as saying ‘What Makes Marketing Hard? #1: Eww, it’s Gross.’ Of course they both go on to say how it’s not really that bad, but they’ve got their work cut out for them.

The photo says it all.

We pretty much hate this guy.  Nobody wants to be sold, and this guy is obviously a total sleazebag.

What’s interesting about John Grant is that even though he’s both a marketer and a total fan of sustainable products, services and marketing, he also hates THIS guy.

He doesn’t want to be sold ‘green’ any more than he wants that guy’s ordinary laundry powder.  He especially doesn’t want to be sold a green image, since ‘Image marketing [uses] all manner of creative devices to make the product or brand seem more special than it actually is.  That’s what selling means.’ (79-80)

He makes a strong case against any form of greenwashing,  but what really gets him excited is something more radical: he identifies a revolution (which I’m pretty sure John Lennon would approve of ) that he believes is already in progress, but that needs to be applied vigorously to the world of sustainability.

web 2.0 powers the revolution

It all starts with that microphone our salesman is using.  This is the ultimate in one-way communications, or ‘broadcast culture.’  He talks, we listen.  He might manipulate us, coerce us, reassure us, or pretend he’s our friend, but it’s always him talking while our only choice is whether or not we’ll buy.

This kind of one-way broadcasting is rapidly being replaced by the interactivity that is enabled by web 2.0 technologies.  Grant calls this New Marketing, and it appears in formats such as ‘virals, branded events, social networks, user-generated content, brand utilities.’  And most importantly for him, ‘there has been one simple shift: from selling to sharing enthusiasm’ (133) in a world in which ‘there is no audience, only actors.’ (137)

In other words, Mr. Sleazebag is replaced with this:

Companies like eBay, Amazon, and open-source applications such as OpenOffice and Linux are good examples of this process in action.  They don’t advertise or rely on brand images, ‘they just work great’ (196) and they count on consumers, users and co-creators contributing, spreading the word and improving their products and processes along the way.  As Grant would say, ’sharing enthusiasm,’ and in the process flushing out the dishonest, overpriced and unreliable.  This kind of fundamental transparency and participation radically shifts the terms of engagement for all of us.

what’s it got to do with sustainability?

There are a few layers to this one.

EFFICIENCIES:  Our single biggest problem is that we are wasteful.  We use far more resources than we need, and produce monumental amounts of waste (including by-products like greenhouse gases).  If we can sort this one, our collective ecological footprint will be reduced dramatically.

Grant believes web 2.0 is the perfect tool for this job:  ’The internet has been so successful so fast because it has tackled existing inefficiency; for instance, matching buyers and sellers better.  The same is true of ways in which our lives and arrangements are needlessly environmentally wasteful.’ (52)

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY:  Greenwashers beware; if you’re lying about the ‘greenness’ of your products and services, someone will find out.  And they will tell everyone, more or less instantly.

Consumers also expect increasing disclosure from companies, and some remarkable things are happening already. Clorox has recently added lists of ingredients for all of its products onto its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) webpage.  Not just its Green Works line of products, but even plain old toxic Clorox bleach.  Walmart’s Sustainability Index is also an exercise in transparency.  We can expect to see more of this in future from other companies.

BELONGING:  Has mass consumer culture been a lonely place?  Grant thinks so (along with many others), and thinks we’ve been trying to buy status to replace a lost sense of belonging, with dire consequences for the planet: ‘We waste to prove we aren’t poor.’ (248) So perhaps as we get more connected again, through the ‘tribes,’ ‘villages’ and first-hand connections that are created in web 2.0, we’ll have less need to overconsume to fill the void.

CREATIVITY:  If we hope to minimize the effects of climate change and other environmental problems, we need to change, and we need to do it quickly.  To get there, we need everyone’s best creative thinking and problem-solving skills.  What could be better for this than the open-source movement that draws on the wisdom of crowds?   And now there’s an official creative commons for sustainability where companies are working out how to share intellectual property, the GreenXchange.

Creativity is important for its own sake too: ‘The green products, services and businesses of the future are creative, in a sparky, thrilling way. . . .  They represent a turning away from the oppressive uniformity of mass-produced culture.’ (289)  It’s already happening: where would we be without all the creativity to be found in YouTube, Flickr and Photoshop, eBay and TradeMe, and sites like etsy.com?

grant’s ‘vision thing’

He’s got one, and its both infectious and compelling.  Little did I know he’d make a perfect poster boy for ’sanguine sustainability,’ although he does have  a strong sense of urgency about our need to address the issues very soon (as he explains in this short video clip ).  He lays out an attractive path for green marketers, and for new and more sustainable ways for all of us to live.

His central message is this: ‘we have a dual challenge: innovation, to create something radically different and better, and then making it feel intuitive, familiar and easy to adopt.  The means to do this are simple to describe but difficult to execute – we need lots of brilliant ideas.’ (211)  Or, as he states it at several points in the book, not to make the normal seem green (greenwashing), but rather to make the green seem normal.

Here’s just a small sample of things he talks about: What would enable businesses to profitably provide power-tool libraries or car-sharing and motivate consumers to borrow/share rather than buy?  How could a restaurant that featured in-season local produce, takeaways in deposit refundable boxes, and green lifestyle education become the ‘it’ place rather than a fringe hippy hangout?  And how can companies profit by selling objects that are built to last, rather than relying on planned obsolescence to generate new sales?  Product-service systems have been proposed as one model; more on that in a future blog post.

What would it take to make these ideas seem ‘normal’ rather than greenie weird? Send in all your brilliant ideas for the world to see.  In the meantime, if you’re curious about green marketing, or if you dare to consider a sustainability revolution, I’d highly recommend this book.

It’s all well and good to put our own house in order by cutting down on the direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions we create, but if we want to get serious about assessing the full impact of our business, we need to look beyond the boundaries of our own shop front.

Our carbon footprint doesn’t stop at our well-insulated, made-of-recycled-materials door.  Or even at the tailpipe of our Prius or the runway of our fully-offset flight to Chicago.

It’s connected to every service provider, supplier, and shipping company that we do business with, as well as everyone they do business with, ad infinitum.

Tabulating our on-site emissions isn’t enough; we also need to account for and mitigate the GHG’s emitted in the production of each and every brick (length of wire, bit of plastic, pane of glass, etc.).  Not to mention the source of the electricity that runs our computers and lights, any shipping associated with our business, and the disposal of products that we produce or retail.

This expanded eco-investigation is called Life Cycle Analysis/Assessment (LCA) when it accounts for a broad range of environmental impacts, and is sometimes called Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) when it focuses solely on GHG emissions. The off-site  emissions themselves are referred to as Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

It’s a bit like trying to work out an extended family tree, where all the third cousins, great-grandparents and long-lost maiden aunts that we’ve barely heard of need to be identified and brought into line.

Managing the whole family is starting to look a little complicated.

‘we’re all learning, just like we all learned the internet’

So says Dr. Peter Graf, Chief Sustainability Officer at SAP (one of the world’s largest business software companies) in this useful video that discusses why businesses of all sizes need to start thinking seriously about their GHG emissions.  So let’s take a step back in time to the early days of the internet.

Remember 28bps (or less) dial-up internet connections?  Bulletin boards?  Vast seas of black and white text in ugly fonts?

15-20 years ago the internet was clunky to use, its purpose and usefulness were unclear, and it was filled with ‘information’ of dubious value.   Needless to say, the world has changed.

While there’s still plenty of questionable information online, for savvy users/businesses/publishers the internet has become indispensable.  It is now essential infrastructure and has become virtually part of the air we breathe.

If we can crack the internet, surely there’s hope for sorting out this GHG family tree.

coming to grips with scope 3 emissions

You’re likely to need help with this, although some may be brave enough to rely on a well-executed Excel spreadsheet.  But producing a carbon LCA of products and services is no easy task, and even big multinational conglomerates like Coca Cola and Intuit are seeking help in managing their carbon emissions.

The eco-marketplace has taken note, and a multitude of companies are scrambling to help.  The key is data collection and management  so that companies can accurately determine how to target emission reductions for maximum effect. And as with most data-intensive tasks, software tools and consultancy services can help immensely.

Here’s a sampling of what’s currently on offer, but expect this terrain to shift rapidly.

Companies like Hara and SAP are leaders in the field of proprietary ECA and LCA software, with Hara gaining the backing of Al Gore.  Groom Energy offers a rather pricey report entitled ‘Enterprise Carbon Accounting: Analysis of GHG Reporting and Software’ for a more detailed analysis of available products and a list of 7 Emerging Leaders (the list is free on the same page).  Their Practical Sustainability blog is also a good source of information on this topic.

There are also two free open-source solutions to carbon accounting: openLCA , which has a product available for download, and Earthster, which has not yet been publicly released.  When Earthster does launch, in addition to internal LCA accounting it will enable companies to publish their non-proprietary LCA data for public access, allowing them to evaluate the environmental performance of their supply-chain.  As increasing amounts of data are collected, this will open supply chains to public scrutiny.  Joel Makower rightly refers to this introduction of ‘radical transparency’ as a potentially game-changing technology.

why bother with scope 3?

Here’s a longish answer from corporate environmental strategist Emma Stewart.  She’s very thoughtful on a variety of issues faced by policy-makers and business leaders, but her most important take-home message is this: for most companies Scope 3 emissions ‘typically represent an exponentially larger footprint than their Scope 1 and 2 emissions . . . . Scope 3 emissions have become the atmospheric deal breaker.’  A useful reminder of what the real issue is here.

And then there’s Walmart.  When the globe’s biggest corporate player starts examining the sustainability of its products, via its recently introduced Sustainability Index, the meaning of ‘business as usual’ begins to shift for us all.  Walmart is edging towards LCA by querying their suppliers on the sustainability of their products, focusing on the categories of energy and climate; material efficiency; natural resources, and; people and community.  The index, designed by the Sustainability Consortium that Walmart helped to create, is still rudimentary, but as Walmart’s 60,000 suppliers start cleaning up their act, ripples will be felt throughout the economy.

The big boys are engaging in LCA and the hunt for Scope 3 emissions.  Watch out Grandma; we will find you!

Well, we all do.  We’ve only begun to explore the ways in which green businesses can begin to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Evaluating our built space is crucial; ‘greening’ business transport is just as important.  And then we’ll move on to a couple of enticing and inspiring examples of the potential of renewable energy sources and innovative design.

vroom, vroom, vroom …

Sorry Mazda (and Holden, Toyota, etc.) but we all need to get out of your/our cars. Or at least cut down on those long daily commutes endured by millions of people around the globe. We’re not talking a cold turkey ban on the internal combustion engine, but any emissions reductions related to commuting are going to help.

• Site your business where cycling, walking and public transport are easy. Provide secure shelter for bicycles and install shower facilities. In other words, rethink the idea of building that remote suburban office park with no public transport.
• Incentivize walking, biking, and taking public transport for your employees. Free bus passes or subsidies on bicycles are just a couple of the possibilities.
• Is telecommuting an option for your business? High speed internet connections, teleconferencing and Skype can enable your staff to be ‘present’ in important ways while they work from home a few days a week.
• If you’ve got a car fleet, look carefully at streamlining vehicle usage and improving fuel-economy standards. Hybrids and electric cars and vans may work for some, but redesigning your operations to cut down on kms/miles traveled may produce significant emissions reductions for many.
• Do you really need to get on that plane or will a videoconference do the trick instead? If travel is essential, by all means for go for it. Buy some reliable carbon offsets to reduce your impact. Or take the train if you’re lucky enough to have access.

some really, really cool stuff

Here are a couple of other ideas for reducing your carbon footprint that take us a bit further out of the realm of ‘business as usual.’

Look into planting your roof. The plants provide insulation (reducing energy consumption), absorb greenhouse gases, and reduce rainwater runoff. They also look fantastic.

The idea of decentralized energy is also quite compelling. We tend to assume that large-scale centralized power grids are the only way to provide a secure energy supply, but this conventional wisdom deserves closer scrutiny.

Decentralized energy includes technologies that utilize combined heat and power (CHP), microgeneration , and extensive use of renewable sources like biomass, solar, geothermal and wind power.  Here’s a very recent development in the U.S.:  Quaker Oats is providing 14% of the electricity used at the University of Iowa by burning waste oat hulls.  Who would have thought?  Just goes to show what the possibilities are with waste products like this.

Check out this video for some examples of how these strategies are already in place in parts of the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.  There are some very inspiring examples here that are not only energy-wise, but somehow strangely aesthetic.

This approach can’t really be put into place by individual businesses, but it shows how collective efforts that are supported by the right  government incentives have already begun to produce truly sustainable energy systems that can dramatically reduce GHG emissions.

And that video was produced back in 2006.  Does anyone have any more recent examples they’d be willing to share?  There’s got to be more of this going on by now.

Okay, so we’ve now looked at putting our own house(s) in order.  In the next installment: how to tackle those ‘away from home’ gas pains.

Your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pain, that is.

What pain, you say?  Well, try this on.

While the details of the future are inevitably vague, we can safely say that the combined effects of peak oil and global warming are about to transform our REALLY BIG fossil fuel party into one colossal hangover.

The cost of oil will undoubtedly start heading up once economic growth picks up again, and lawmakers around the world are grappling with how to put a price on carbon emissions. We’ll all be paying for carbon twice – on its way in (to our cars, factories, furnaces), and then on its way out into the ether as CO2.  Ouch.

If there was ever a compelling business case to make a change and be a leader among wo/men, this must be it.

The basic idea? Leave the coal, oil and natural gas in the ground. Don’t burn it. Just say no.

Not that it’s that easy. In fact, this is the topic that’s really going to test the ‘Kiss, Kiss, Kiss’ principle that I promised in the first post of this series. To give you some examples of where I could go with this thing, I could talk about carbon taxes, cap and trade emissions trading schemes, carbon offsets, carbon neutrality, or carbon capture and sequestration (or storage).

But I won’t. I just can’t make those things simple. The experts are still defining them, politicians are debating them, unscrupulous entrepreneurs are trying to exploit them, and regulators are scrambling to keep up.

So I’m just going to give you some tips, okay?

first, put your own house in order

Let’s start at home.  Look around you. See any (invisible) gas floating off into space? Maybe it’s coming out of your coal- or oil-burning furnace or boiler room. Or perhaps out of the tail pipes of your car fleet and employees’ cars, or out of those massive GE turbo-fan jet engines of the Boeing 777 that’s taking you to New York or Sydney or Vancouver. Or maybe even out of the smokestack you’ve got stashed out back.

There are also all the fossil fuels that were burned in creating the material objects that you see around you. This includes the big things like the concrete, bricks, and steel of your buildings, as well as the  smaller bits and pieces, including the paper, vinyl and plastic that surround us everywhere we go. Here are a few things you can do.

bricks and mortar

Evaluate your built space. According to the UNEP, buildings account for 30-40% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, so greening up your business space is a crucial part of reducing your carbon footprint.

The task will vary tremendously depending on your industry, number of employees, space requirements, climate, and energy consumption. Buildings are also incredibly complex creatures when observed in detail, so unless your operation is reasonably small and simple you’re likely to need expert advice on how to tackle this issue.

Here’s an example of a new five-star green rated building at my old workplace that is inspiring, but also demonstrates how many different factors need to be considered.

The World Green Building Council is a great place to start, and they’ve got national branches in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the U.S. The American branch also has a guide on how to approach leasing commercial space that looks useful.

Complexities aside, a few basic principles will be helpful. Get to know your micro-climate. Need warmth? Embrace the sun with the siting and design of your building. Install thermal solar in your floors to capture and store the warmth, and photovoltaic solar panels on the outside of your building to generate electricity.

Feeling a bit hot? Find a way to make some shade, capture the breeze, and install windows that actually open.   If you can afford it, install ‘intelligent’ windows that will regulate temperature for you.

Retrofit existing buildings rather than constructing new ones if you can. New building materials are carbon and energy intensive, and removing old buildings produces waste. There is a new business emerging called ‘deconstruction’ that’s attempting to make better use of these materials, but staying put is still your best option if a retrofit is feasible.

Insulate, insulate, insulate. And then insulate some more. The most fuel-efficient and renewable energy of all is the energy never used. Look into using heat pumps where you do need heating and cooling.

In the next installment, we’ll look at GHG transport issues for businesses.  C U then.

The world of business is changing fast.  Consumers are pushing companies towards sustainability and many business owners and managers are eager to step up.  But how?  There is no shortage of advice; if anything, it’s difficult to choose between all the different tips on getting more efficient, more  socially responsible, more planet-friendly.

I’m about to give you even more, in fact a whole series of posts on greening up your business.  But these posts will be green tips with a difference .

Each and every post will stick to the all-important ‘KISS, KISS, KISS’ principle (i.e., ‘keep it simple, stupid’).   Bite-sized bits that go down easily one at a time.  And then I’ll provide links to other resources in case you want to drill down for more detail.  Simple.

the first bite: efficiencies

The first bite may feel like the most difficult, but really it’s pretty straightforward.

Efficiency is the first target when businesses try to ‘go green’ for one simple reason.  Use less (energy, water, raw materials, etc.), pay less.

Usually there are upfront costs for adopting more efficient ways of doing business, but if you plan well you’ll  recover that initial investment,  and then embark on the sweet path to savings.  Mr. Sustainability Himself,  Ray Anderson of Interface, provides a compelling case study of how this can work.

The basic message here:  use less stuff.  Save money, save the planet.  Simple.

less electricity

1. Turn things off.  Lights, when you don’t need them.  Computers, when you’re not using them.  Set the power management options on all computers to do this automatically  in case anyone forgets.  Beware of vampires.
2. Replace your old clunkers with more energy efficient equipment, e.g., computers, microwaves, heating systems .  Energy Star is the international rating system that can guide you on this.  Be sure to recycle your old equipment to avoid creating a new problem.  Check out eDay in New Zealand, or E-cycling Central in the U.S. for more information on how to dispose of your old equipment. [update 3 Nov:  if you're in Auckland, check out ComputerRecycling.co.nz]
3. Yes, we need to talk about light bulbs.  The much-maligned incandescent light bulb, the much-mocked directive to change to CFLs or LEDs.   It won’t save the planet, it’s not enough on its own, but it’s one small piece of the puzzle.  And yes, CFLs do contain some mercury; here’s a useful discussion on that and other helpful info.
4. National and local authorities can sometimes provide advice and financial assistance to improve energy efficiency.   Canadians check here, Kiwis here, and Americans here to start your search.

less paper

1. Try to use electronic communications where possible (e.g., email, intranet posts) instead of paper memos, and look into applications like Google Docs when you need shared access to files.
2. Back up important records electronically  rather than printing copies wherever possible (make sure you’re clear on your legal requirements, though).  Backing up ‘in the cloud,’ for instance with a company like Carbonite, is cool,  easy and affordable, but there are some risks too, as with any method of back-up.  Multiple back-ups are advisable.
3. When you do need to print, do it double-sided, and use paper with a high ‘post consumer waste recycled paper’ content.  Paper that’s produced using recycled paper, basically.
4. Send faxes directly from your computer rather than printing out.  Avoid cover sheets where possible.
5. Moving?  Consider employing a company like this that will bring you reusable boxes rather than cardboard.  Recycling is great, but reducing and re-using are even better.

less water

1. Fix leaks.  The wasted water adds up very quickly.
2. Install water efficient toilets.
3. Landscape with plants that will thrive in your local climate conditions with minimal watering, and consider xeriscaping instead of planting lawns.
4. Do you manufacture something that requires water?  Can you use less?
5. If you’re really ambitious, think about setting up a system to capture rainwater or utilize gray water.

less

. . . whatever else you can think of.  The most obvious is this: if you produce some ‘thing,’ can you use less raw materials in producing it?  The means to achieve this will be as varied as the products themselves and the people producing them, so get your creative juices flowing!

I look forward to hearing your stories and suggestions.  See you soon for a second bite.

Who the heck are they?  The poor cousin to the Old Boys Club perhaps?  Do they even exist?

Well, not exactly.  There’s definitely an old hippies club, an old activist club, and an old co-op club, but mostly these anti-establishment types have shied away from any connotations of insider, elitist, and profit-driven networking.  

But things are changing fast.  As climate change, peak oil, and water shortages enter the collective consciousness, eco-[pretty much anything] is THE thing to be. Suddenly green and sustainable business is not only respectable, but a message to be shouted from the rooftops.

the new ecopreneurs

They’re pretty much like good old-fashioned entrepeneurs (without the suits), but instead of having to look after just one bottom line, they have three.  The triple bottom line philosophy that underlies green business requires companies to account for people, the planet, AND to make a profit in the process.  Sustainable businesses want to make the world a better place, and aren’t ashamed to make a buck while they’re at it.

Doing well and doing good are no longer mutually exclusive.

that age-old lubricant: networking

Green businesses now have the green light to rake in lots of the green stuff .  And to do that, they’ve turned to the most reliable method of making things happen: networking.

Here are some networks to check out if you want to become one of those ‘people who know people who know people.’

the green establishment:

Green Chamber of Commerce (USA)

Sustainable Business Network (New Zealand)

Green Business Network/Green America Until this year, Green America was called Co-op America, and has been in operation since 1982.

CSR Europe CSR = corporate social responsibility.  These are the big boys trying to clean up their act.

The Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future These are the ‘old girls’ doing their bit: ‘Join 200 women leaders from the world’s premier companies.’

regional:

Green Business Network (UK)   Based in West Yorkshire.

BALLE (The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, USA)  Multiple chapters across America, with a strong emphasis on local economies.

the virtual:

SustainableBusiness.com A source of news and resources for green businesses, as well as a clearinghouse for investors & entrepreneuers.

Greenergy2030 Business Alliance A structured online community.  Emphasis on energy, but also dealing with sustainable business more broadly.

GreenBusiness.net An online forum, $12/month subscription.  Not clear how active this is.

the funky:

Green Drinks Affiliated with the Green Party, and ‘Now active in 621 cities worldwide!’  Informal, unstructured, and not just about business.

EcoTuesday: The Sustainable Business Leaders Networking Forum A combination of monthly meetings and online community, this network has branches in 7 U.S. cities and looks likely to expand.  Youthful movers and shakers.

the niche:

Builders without Borders: Networking Natural Builders Worldwide

There must be more industries doing this – can anyone help?

Happy schmoozing.

Ben's version of a smile

I read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography when I was about 10.  Cover to cover, and with the very serious intention of remembering all the really important points.  I was a weird kid.  And, perhaps not coincidentally, descended from a long line of Puritans (like Franklin himself) and Germans who tend to take things a bit seriously.

This may be why he comes to mind more often than I’d care to admit.  For instance, yesterday, in the form of ‘How would his principles apply to something like sustainability?’

Anyway, what follows are some of Ben’s aphorisms applied to our very contemporary circumstances.

procrastination

‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’

‘Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.’

Here are just a couple of examples of how techno-industrial society favours procrastination over planning when it comes to environmental sustainability.

If we’re making some kind of mess, for instance creating nuclear waste that emits radiation for thousands of years, we’ll think about it later.  Technology will fix it somehow.  Later.

Climate change is perhaps the most timely example of this way of thinking.  Many governments (including New Zealand’s) are happy to promise ‘50 by 50′, meaning 50% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  That’s too little too late and we all know it.

Others, again including New Zealand, are openly proud to not be world leaders in reducing global emissions. ‘The new Government’s policy goal is not about being first but ensuring New Zealand does its fair share as a developed country in constraining and reducing emissions.’ But they’re prepared to reconsider if others go first:  ’New Zealand is prepared to do more if other countries do likewise.’  We’ll wait and see, and probably have to do something later.

And then there’s debt.  Debt = procrastination, and western culture is built on debt.    ’Buy now, pay later’ is one of the central tenets of modern life for individuals, businesses and governments.  We’ll get the money somehow.  We’ll think about it later.

This topic deserves a section of its own.

debt

‘If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.’

Mortgage crisis/credit crunch anyone?  Sustainability isn’t just about the environment.  It’s about keeping societies running on an even keel over time, and aspiring to economic and social justice for everyone.

In terms of economic and social sustainability, our current situation is pretty simple: Recession with a capital R (to utter the D word is evidently an unacceptable risk to consumer confidence).  And at the root of it all, reckless lending and borrowing, primarily in the form of subprime mortgages, but augmented by massive consumer credit card debt, trade imbalances and government deficits.  In other words, red ink as far as the eye can see.

I don’t need to spell out what this has meant for millions around the globe over the last year or so.  What’s more, governments around the world are . . . borrowing astronomical sums to stave off a collapse into full-blown Depression.

We’ll see how that goes.

money, money

[embedded YouTube video only visible on website]

Here’s a bucket of cold water on Liza and Joel’s party; Ben couldn’t disagree more.

‘Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. ‘

Current research in Britain by noted economist Richard Layard supports Ben’s point of view, but with an important proviso.  If you’re poor, getting more money will make you happier, up to an annual income of about $20,000 or £10,000, presumably the point where basic needs are being met.

And then things turn to custard, much like Ben asserts.  As a whole, developed countries are more prosperous than we’ve ever been, and yet more anxious and depressed than we’ve ever been too.  We have declining levels of trust in our compatriots and suffer from status anxiety and ‘extreme individualism’ that leaves us isolated and unhappy.

the happy bit

‘To be thrown upon one’s own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.’

It looks like we’ve been barking up the wrong tree in thinking that yet more economic growth and consumption will cure whatever ails us.  And according to Ben, not having fistfuls of money to throw at every problem isn’t such a bad thing, and it might even do something for our faculties (whatever those are)!

You wouldn’t know it by tracking media coverage of sustainability issues.  We constantly hear plaintive wails about the costs of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and the lifestyle sacrifices we’ll have to make in order to live sustainably on planet earth.

There are people around who see opportunities rather than simply costs, and I’ll be returning to this subject in future posts.  For now, here are a couple of positive alternatives to ‘grow (economically, that is) or die’ that we just don’t hear enough about: the  Genuine Progress Indicator and the Bhutanese model of Gross National Happiness.

And maybe just connecting with each other a bit more could go a long way too, since

‘We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately.’

in closing

‘If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.’

I haven’t got a clue what he’s talking about.  Help me out.

welcome

She's not Pascalle, but she's got the right 'tude

I watched Outrageous Fortune on Tuesday night.  It’s one of my all-time favourite TV shows.  It deals with serious issues, but it’s also seriously funny in the best ‘taking the piss’ Kiwi tradition.  At this point in the series there’s lots of drama, loss and even tragedy, but Pascalle West isn’t going to let it get her down.

Pascalle is the blond bimbo of the programme, but also cast as the girl with the big heart who understands what really matters in life even if her nonsensical remarks often make her family and friends smirk into their hands.

She’s been into the Beautiful Positive for a while now, and in the last episode when her brother and mother light into a major argument she cries out, ‘Look, we can’t be fighting now!  We have to focus on the Beautiful Positive!’

Pascalle has just lost her partner, her wealth, and her business, but she’s putting a cheerful face on it.  She WILL be positive and upbeat, no matter what.

I want to be like Pascalle, even though there are serious risks involved.  The risk of being thought a pollyanna.  The risk of BEING a pollyanna.  Words like denial, delusion, and just plain simple-mindedness come to mind too.

But if Pascalle is willing to take the risk, so am I.

beautiful positive about what?

A genuinely sustainable world.  Seriously.

Most of what most of us (especially in the West) have been doing since the start of the Industrial Revolution is the direct opposite of ’sustainable.’  We are stunning resource hogs, and as we ‘eat’ our way through the world’s bounty and leave our waste behind, we are making our only home exponentially more crowded, more dangerous, dirtier, and louder.  And let’s not forget, way UGLIER.  We’re also wiping out other species at a mind-boggling rate, currently around 50,000 per year .  Planet Earth hasn’t been visited by this kind of devastation for about 65 million years, when the dinosaurs went extinct and it could all be blamed on a meteorite.

It’s very important to notice those things, and to hold ourselves, our governments, and corporations accountable for what we/they are doing to ourselves and the planet.  Whistle-blowing, political activism, conducting research, and bearing witness are all part of the mix of trying fend off the big train wreck of . . . unsustainability.

But not here.

This blog will focus on what we’re doing now that IS sustainable and how we can improve on the rest, rather than focusing on what we’re doing wrong and the barriers to change.

I will be writing about things that seem even a little bit constructive, and seeking out creative solutions to intractable problems, especially in the world of sustainable and green business.  The economic machine got us into this mess; a new and improved way of feeding, clothing and entertaining ourselves will have to be a big part of getting us out of it.

Bonjour, to Beautiful Positive and to you.  And thank you Pascalle West.