I absolutely adore reading my New Scientist magazine in the evenings - I even avidly read the table of contents for a sneak peek at what's in store.
Having been away for five weeks meant I had a stack to get through, even without counting the other great mags I subscribe to.
The Feedback column at the end is always very funny - but the issue of 28 May 2011 had a laugh-out-loud opinion piece by film-maker Peter Byck. Entitled "Green spangled banner", it's about his latest film, "Carbon Nation". The subtitle says "The best way to promote clean energy is to ignore climate change and focus on things like jobs, money and national security". I am going to see this film, not because these are all frightfully worthy things, but because his writing tells me it will be hilarious.
The film is also informative and non-polarizing: it focuses on the money we can make and save, and the money we're already paying in carbon-related externalities - costs we pick up because emitters (us included) don't.
Peter makes the case that a low-carbon economy is a national security issue, a great business opportunity, and even a way to keep families together, as decabonization encourages us to dream up smart ways of working.
What a way to get savvy about they post-carbon economy! I've been saying for ages that we need to get our hands on the money we can make from not emitting carbon before the money men get their hands on the money we lose by emitting it!
Click here to see a short interview with Peter.
And while you're there - see what I said about the same thing here. Now... off to organize a showing of the film....
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Post-disaster community and ecosystem reconstruction: online gaming and the path to the restoration economy
It seems that major earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunami, droughts, floods, snows and fires have characterized the last few years.
What do all these natural disasters mean for businesses and the environment?
In the short term, we rightly focus on rescue and the alleviation of suffering. In the medium term we focus on getting businesses up and running. We also see growing focus on environmental restoration as part of a sustainable recovery - a much longer term process, but one we need to build in from the start. I believe it offers a path to a more viable future for people, communities, businesses and the environment.
We've heard the debate about river, delta and coastal restoration to help New Orleans recover from its devastating floods and enjoy a higher level of future security. Similarly, a vigorous debate about the nature of reconstruction is emerging in Christchurch, New Zealand, as the region continues to experience an unusual sequence of powerful and destructive aftershocks. Pervading the discussion of big issues of demolition, relocation and restoration is a growing theme of eco-city principles to inform how we go about these major activities.
Christchurch City Council has for many years taken a value-based approach to managing its waterways - I loved going there because right in the middle of the CBD, I could look into the Avon River and see trout in there, just doing their thing! No longer, alas - the tremors have disturbed the river's gradient and it is full of sediment and causing flooding as it adjusts its flowpath. But the Council's wonderful Waterways and Wetlands Guideline will continue to inform the management and restoration of this and other water bodies in this beautiful city.
This morning on the radio I heard an interview with Evan Smith, a resident of Richmond in Christchurch, a 5,000-strong community in a red zone, where repair won't be permitted. He was saying that the people there would like to move together as a community, noting that there might be economies of scale where for example, a group of people could form a trust and all build together. What a tribute to the power of community!
Why not inform such new developments with the best of eco-principles, starting with water-sensitive development layout that also accommodates passive solar design for sustainable houses and restoration of wild and scenic places for children, adults and flora and fauna? Energy, water and sewer services have been badly hit in the ongoing aftershocks, so what about providing for decentralized (on-site) water and energy solutions, possibly also on a group management basis? This and other ideas would help build the capacity of the many professions and specialized trades involved in new developments, and possibly even lay the foundations for future viable businesses.
In this way, I believe it is possible that post-disaster community and ecosystem reconstruction provides an impetus for us to follow the path to the restoration economy. In his wonderful book, Storm Cunningham explains how the restoration economy is large and growing, but very under-recognized, and spells out his formula for a comprehensive economic stimulus - how to plan and fund the renewal of natural and built assets to efficiently and reliably generate socio-economic revitalization.
Working out how to do this may not be easy - but online gaming (remember the old Sim City?) can be successfully adapted to model many diverse and sometimes conflicting visions. Bob Frame is advertising an online game on the future of Christchurch - Magnetic South - this Friday and Saturday (assuming, as he says, that the terra stays reasonably firma). You can register here and find a video and instructions on how to play, plus an accompanying blog. If you use Twitter then you could use: Join #MagneticSouth 24/25 Jun to explore and shape an attractive long-term future for Christchurch.
What do all these natural disasters mean for businesses and the environment?
In the short term, we rightly focus on rescue and the alleviation of suffering. In the medium term we focus on getting businesses up and running. We also see growing focus on environmental restoration as part of a sustainable recovery - a much longer term process, but one we need to build in from the start. I believe it offers a path to a more viable future for people, communities, businesses and the environment.
We've heard the debate about river, delta and coastal restoration to help New Orleans recover from its devastating floods and enjoy a higher level of future security. Similarly, a vigorous debate about the nature of reconstruction is emerging in Christchurch, New Zealand, as the region continues to experience an unusual sequence of powerful and destructive aftershocks. Pervading the discussion of big issues of demolition, relocation and restoration is a growing theme of eco-city principles to inform how we go about these major activities.
Christchurch City Council has for many years taken a value-based approach to managing its waterways - I loved going there because right in the middle of the CBD, I could look into the Avon River and see trout in there, just doing their thing! No longer, alas - the tremors have disturbed the river's gradient and it is full of sediment and causing flooding as it adjusts its flowpath. But the Council's wonderful Waterways and Wetlands Guideline will continue to inform the management and restoration of this and other water bodies in this beautiful city.
This morning on the radio I heard an interview with Evan Smith, a resident of Richmond in Christchurch, a 5,000-strong community in a red zone, where repair won't be permitted. He was saying that the people there would like to move together as a community, noting that there might be economies of scale where for example, a group of people could form a trust and all build together. What a tribute to the power of community!
Why not inform such new developments with the best of eco-principles, starting with water-sensitive development layout that also accommodates passive solar design for sustainable houses and restoration of wild and scenic places for children, adults and flora and fauna? Energy, water and sewer services have been badly hit in the ongoing aftershocks, so what about providing for decentralized (on-site) water and energy solutions, possibly also on a group management basis? This and other ideas would help build the capacity of the many professions and specialized trades involved in new developments, and possibly even lay the foundations for future viable businesses.
In this way, I believe it is possible that post-disaster community and ecosystem reconstruction provides an impetus for us to follow the path to the restoration economy. In his wonderful book, Storm Cunningham explains how the restoration economy is large and growing, but very under-recognized, and spells out his formula for a comprehensive economic stimulus - how to plan and fund the renewal of natural and built assets to efficiently and reliably generate socio-economic revitalization.
Working out how to do this may not be easy - but online gaming (remember the old Sim City?) can be successfully adapted to model many diverse and sometimes conflicting visions. Bob Frame is advertising an online game on the future of Christchurch - Magnetic South - this Friday and Saturday (assuming, as he says, that the terra stays reasonably firma). You can register here and find a video and instructions on how to play, plus an accompanying blog. If you use Twitter then you could use: Join #MagneticSouth 24/25 Jun to explore and shape an attractive long-term future for Christchurch.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Quietude and creativity, essential companions for successful businesses
Two weeks into a four-week meditation retreat and ideas for two books came to me in a flash.
Both arrived fully formed and were captured in a frenzied three days of writing in any available spare time. After that - back to the meditation, knowing my ideas were safely documented and wouldn't evaporate before I got back to my desk.
Interesting timing: after some training, speaking and consulting work in June, July will see me completing the seventh and last chapter of a book that I've had to put on hold for some months. The content? The vital importance of creativity for businesses if they are to become more sustainable in every way - staying profitably in business for the long haul while contributing to increasingly positive social, cultural and environmental outcomes.
I'll be drawing on a number of excellent sources, one of which substantiates a fabulous quote from Sarah Gibbs, co-founder of successful company Trilogy, who says "If you don't have half a day a week to think, you need to hire more staff." The source in question is a wonderful book by Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: why intelligence increases when you think less.
Never have we needed new creative insights more than we do now, yet we are working harder than ever before - and while we can remain efficient, we cannot be creative at the same time.
My recent experience on the retreat certainly proved this to me beyond all doubt. My aim for the rest of 2011 is to take some advice from many years ago and which has recently resurfaced; to take every thirteenth week off. Read here how this increases your productivity.
The seventh chapter of my book will address this as part of suggesting how civil construction companies can create their own sustainability road map and be part of creating the new future that people and businesses worldwide all need.
So my next week off to refresh my creativity and recalibrate my world view will see me away from my desk again from 5-9 September.... it's in the diary.
And those other new books? I'll be completing them after getting my first completed book (now with the editor) selling online sometime in July, alongside finishing Chapter 7. I'll blog about each book as it is released.
Both arrived fully formed and were captured in a frenzied three days of writing in any available spare time. After that - back to the meditation, knowing my ideas were safely documented and wouldn't evaporate before I got back to my desk.
Interesting timing: after some training, speaking and consulting work in June, July will see me completing the seventh and last chapter of a book that I've had to put on hold for some months. The content? The vital importance of creativity for businesses if they are to become more sustainable in every way - staying profitably in business for the long haul while contributing to increasingly positive social, cultural and environmental outcomes.
I'll be drawing on a number of excellent sources, one of which substantiates a fabulous quote from Sarah Gibbs, co-founder of successful company Trilogy, who says "If you don't have half a day a week to think, you need to hire more staff." The source in question is a wonderful book by Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: why intelligence increases when you think less.
Never have we needed new creative insights more than we do now, yet we are working harder than ever before - and while we can remain efficient, we cannot be creative at the same time.
My recent experience on the retreat certainly proved this to me beyond all doubt. My aim for the rest of 2011 is to take some advice from many years ago and which has recently resurfaced; to take every thirteenth week off. Read here how this increases your productivity.
The seventh chapter of my book will address this as part of suggesting how civil construction companies can create their own sustainability road map and be part of creating the new future that people and businesses worldwide all need.
So my next week off to refresh my creativity and recalibrate my world view will see me away from my desk again from 5-9 September.... it's in the diary.
And those other new books? I'll be completing them after getting my first completed book (now with the editor) selling online sometime in July, alongside finishing Chapter 7. I'll blog about each book as it is released.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Why accountants are the new cool
In these challenging times, accountants are the new cool. Why? You can’t manage what you don't measure – and accountants are great at measuring things.
In fields as diverse as industrial resource efficiency, mitigating the adverse effects of farming on the environment, erosion and sediment control on big construction sites, integrated watershed management, quadruple bottom line monitoring (across all four wellbeings; social, cultural, economic and environmental) and sustainable urban infrastructure, I’ve found accountants to be key people.
Globally, the profession is developing business metrics and assessment and reporting tools for environmental issues that affect the profitability of everyone from farmers to financiers. Accountants have the ability, for example, to help:
Accountants that can advise their clients on efficiencies delivered by sustainability initiatives are invaluable: such initiatives may be the only thing that will help large and small firms alike to stay afloat as the global economic context remains challenging and unpredictable. For example, accountants can work out the payback period on the hire, lease or purchase of more fuel- and energy-efficient vehicles, premises or equipment; or on the changeover to different products and services: they’re are likely to be the closest thing to a sustainability adviser many firms will ever see.
Accountants have vital skills for better-informed business management processes that will deliver more strategic value for firms and more sustainable development for nations.
Smart businesses will be asking their accountants to work in new ways that deliver better bottom line value and ongoing viability.
In fields as diverse as industrial resource efficiency, mitigating the adverse effects of farming on the environment, erosion and sediment control on big construction sites, integrated watershed management, quadruple bottom line monitoring (across all four wellbeings; social, cultural, economic and environmental) and sustainable urban infrastructure, I’ve found accountants to be key people.
Globally, the profession is developing business metrics and assessment and reporting tools for environmental issues that affect the profitability of everyone from farmers to financiers. Accountants have the ability, for example, to help:
- manufacturers to quantify their resource use, identify waste and measure waste minimization and more efficient resource use – and the resulting profits
- farmers to assess their carbon intensity and account for nitrogen, water and other inputs that affect the quality of rural environments and water ways
- architects and builders of public, commercial and domestic buildings to make the case for sustainability retrofits to save energy and water, and to prepare cost-benefit analyses to justify increased capital investment in more sustainable buildings and services by assessing their ongoing operational efficiencies
- infrastructure operators to assess the economic and other benefits of more sustainable infrastructure choices
- key emitters and absorbers of carbon to play their role in the carbon markets
- all organizations to assess the energy (carbon), water, materials and labor intensity of their products and services (including full life-cycle analysis), a key step in the drive for higher productivity
- all sectors prepare integrated monitoring reports as will be increasingly demanded by informed consumers and purchasers of services and supplies, including by governments in emerging economies such as China and India which will become growing markets for the West
- develop innovative approaches to lead the way for businesses that embrace sustainability in these and other emerging fields.
Accountants that can advise their clients on efficiencies delivered by sustainability initiatives are invaluable: such initiatives may be the only thing that will help large and small firms alike to stay afloat as the global economic context remains challenging and unpredictable. For example, accountants can work out the payback period on the hire, lease or purchase of more fuel- and energy-efficient vehicles, premises or equipment; or on the changeover to different products and services: they’re are likely to be the closest thing to a sustainability adviser many firms will ever see.
Accountants have vital skills for better-informed business management processes that will deliver more strategic value for firms and more sustainable development for nations.
Smart businesses will be asking their accountants to work in new ways that deliver better bottom line value and ongoing viability.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Happiness is the new GDP
We all know about Bhutan, but Canada has done it for ages, Britain is thinking about it, and France has taken it on board, too.
What is it? Gross National Happiness, to complement - or even replace - GDP.
The search for meaning in life is also seeing governments world-wide acknowledge that financial measures such as gross domestic product can’t tell us everything about how well people are really doing. Things like cleaning up oil spills and building more prisons are great for GDP, but most of us would prefer clean water and less crime. And we work to live, not live to work, right…?
So more and more businesses are focusing on people – staff, directors, shareholders, value chains, customers and local communities – in ways that make a measurable difference to our shared quality of life and overall happiness. And more and more shareholders, suppliers, customers, communities and governments are looking for businesses that do this.
Effective businesses will be measuring their outputs in units that reflect social and environmental as well as financial and economic wellbeing. They have to: as consumers realize that more ‘stuff’ doesn't yield the lasting pleasure so lavishly promised in the advertisements, they are replacing ‘things’ with experiences – spending time with family and friends and enjoying natural and cultural activities.
Built-in obsolescence is starting to die and leasing is progressively replacing the purchase of many products, as people realize they can share or hire cars and appliances as and when they need them – even items like floorings and furniture, in both their professional and personal lives. To give the best service, reduce the expense of repair and replacement and avoid the costs of wastefully disposing of increasingly scarce resources, such service suppliers will have to make sure their products are better made and more easily repaired and recycled – or even “up-cycled” into more useful and intelligent products.
Farsighted businesses will see that leasing a product to a client is an ongoing service based on reliability and relationships, and this will yield them genuine lifetime clients whose value is worth so much more than just a series of sales.
The content of this blog is adapted from some thoughts I put together for the wonderful Ann Andrews of The Corporate Toolbox for her free ebook, "What's next? 29 Entrepreneurs share Predictions for 2011/12". Many thanks to Ann for allowing me to reproduce some of that material here.
What is it? Gross National Happiness, to complement - or even replace - GDP.
The search for meaning in life is also seeing governments world-wide acknowledge that financial measures such as gross domestic product can’t tell us everything about how well people are really doing. Things like cleaning up oil spills and building more prisons are great for GDP, but most of us would prefer clean water and less crime. And we work to live, not live to work, right…?
So more and more businesses are focusing on people – staff, directors, shareholders, value chains, customers and local communities – in ways that make a measurable difference to our shared quality of life and overall happiness. And more and more shareholders, suppliers, customers, communities and governments are looking for businesses that do this.
Effective businesses will be measuring their outputs in units that reflect social and environmental as well as financial and economic wellbeing. They have to: as consumers realize that more ‘stuff’ doesn't yield the lasting pleasure so lavishly promised in the advertisements, they are replacing ‘things’ with experiences – spending time with family and friends and enjoying natural and cultural activities.
Built-in obsolescence is starting to die and leasing is progressively replacing the purchase of many products, as people realize they can share or hire cars and appliances as and when they need them – even items like floorings and furniture, in both their professional and personal lives. To give the best service, reduce the expense of repair and replacement and avoid the costs of wastefully disposing of increasingly scarce resources, such service suppliers will have to make sure their products are better made and more easily repaired and recycled – or even “up-cycled” into more useful and intelligent products.
Farsighted businesses will see that leasing a product to a client is an ongoing service based on reliability and relationships, and this will yield them genuine lifetime clients whose value is worth so much more than just a series of sales.
The content of this blog is adapted from some thoughts I put together for the wonderful Ann Andrews of The Corporate Toolbox for her free ebook, "What's next? 29 Entrepreneurs share Predictions for 2011/12". Many thanks to Ann for allowing me to reproduce some of that material here.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Carbon-free: more value for smart businesses
Do you think that global climate change is happening?
If you think it is happening, do you think that people are causing it?
Do you follow the news on climate change or emissions controls such as cap and trade or carbon tax schemes?
Do you think your answers matter? Because I don’t.
Why? There’s no point squabbling about it – BECAUSE – carbon emissions are what we call a ‘proxy indicator’ of waste: they are one measurement that indirectly measures lots of other things. So if your vehicle fleet is poorly maintained, you’ll be wasting fuel and oil – that is, carbon – and a good fleet maintenance program will save you not only fuel but also wear and tear on your vehicles. Yes, that’s right – it will save you MONEY.
It’s the same for any other form of waste. Everything we do or use has a carbon cost.
Those offcuts in your factory come from goods or materials that were grown, mined or caught, transported, processed, transported again, processed by you – then transported to the landfill. Reduce that waste, and you reduce the amount of carbon you emit whenever you waste goods or materials that you bought from your suppliers. What do you save? MONEY.
Work in an office? Good insulation, more efficient lighting and heating, more energy-efficient equipment and a host of other straightforward measures will reduce the carbon emissions from running the building and providing your services. What do you save? MONEY.
It works for everything from farming cows to cloud computing.
See? Climate change is not the enemy – and carbon is your friend!
It shows you where your use of resources of all kinds is needlessly costly, and how you can run a smarter, more cost-effective organization.
It also means we can leave the science of the debate to the scientists. So, if climate change is happened and we are causing it, reducing our carbon emissions means we’ll have taken some big steps to slowing it down – thereby reducing some very serious (and expensive) risks to people and economies all round the world. If it isn’t happening or we aren’t causing it, our businesses will be more intelligent, efficient and profitable. Either way, we win - IF we take action.
But too many businesses in the developing world are still sitting on their hands. Sure, it’s hard to plan when governments are failing to send consistent (or indeed any) signals to the business world. But this raises the risk that our economies will continue to stagnate and will be overtaken by those of the developing world who are already experiencing shocking environmental conditions.
As they strive to bring prosperity to their people, emerging nations have given up hope of getting support from the wealthy West for reducing their carbon emissions. They know they need to mitigate climate change effects such as food shortages caused by more frequent floods and droughts from which they are likely to suffer the most.
Emerging nations now see environmentally responsible technologies as a driver of innovation and social as well as economic development, and will start to outcompete those in the West still wedded to ‘business as usual’ (see reference (1) below). Emerging nations can now afford to do this: 2010 was the year that China overtook Japan as the World’s second largest economy and Brazil, Russia and India are hot on its heels (2). Innovative businesses will focus on meeting the sustainable development needs of emerging economies, from which they will be able to leverage back into their own.
Some of the content of this blog is adapted from some thoughts I put together for the wonderful Ann Andrews of The Corporate Toolbox for her free ebook, "What's next? 29 Entrepreneurs share Predictions for 2011/12". Many thanks to Ann for allowing me to reproduce some of that material here.
See me speaking to the "Carbon Quiz" here.
References
(1) Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford in the three Sir Douglas Robb Lectures 2010. Find out more at the foot of the page here.
(2) Gwynne Dyer, The Revolution has already arrived. An article in the New Zealand Herald of 3 January 2011.
If you think it is happening, do you think that people are causing it?
Do you follow the news on climate change or emissions controls such as cap and trade or carbon tax schemes?
Do you think your answers matter? Because I don’t.
Why? There’s no point squabbling about it – BECAUSE – carbon emissions are what we call a ‘proxy indicator’ of waste: they are one measurement that indirectly measures lots of other things. So if your vehicle fleet is poorly maintained, you’ll be wasting fuel and oil – that is, carbon – and a good fleet maintenance program will save you not only fuel but also wear and tear on your vehicles. Yes, that’s right – it will save you MONEY.
It’s the same for any other form of waste. Everything we do or use has a carbon cost.
Those offcuts in your factory come from goods or materials that were grown, mined or caught, transported, processed, transported again, processed by you – then transported to the landfill. Reduce that waste, and you reduce the amount of carbon you emit whenever you waste goods or materials that you bought from your suppliers. What do you save? MONEY.
Work in an office? Good insulation, more efficient lighting and heating, more energy-efficient equipment and a host of other straightforward measures will reduce the carbon emissions from running the building and providing your services. What do you save? MONEY.
It works for everything from farming cows to cloud computing.
See? Climate change is not the enemy – and carbon is your friend!
It shows you where your use of resources of all kinds is needlessly costly, and how you can run a smarter, more cost-effective organization.
It also means we can leave the science of the debate to the scientists. So, if climate change is happened and we are causing it, reducing our carbon emissions means we’ll have taken some big steps to slowing it down – thereby reducing some very serious (and expensive) risks to people and economies all round the world. If it isn’t happening or we aren’t causing it, our businesses will be more intelligent, efficient and profitable. Either way, we win - IF we take action.
But too many businesses in the developing world are still sitting on their hands. Sure, it’s hard to plan when governments are failing to send consistent (or indeed any) signals to the business world. But this raises the risk that our economies will continue to stagnate and will be overtaken by those of the developing world who are already experiencing shocking environmental conditions.
As they strive to bring prosperity to their people, emerging nations have given up hope of getting support from the wealthy West for reducing their carbon emissions. They know they need to mitigate climate change effects such as food shortages caused by more frequent floods and droughts from which they are likely to suffer the most.
Emerging nations now see environmentally responsible technologies as a driver of innovation and social as well as economic development, and will start to outcompete those in the West still wedded to ‘business as usual’ (see reference (1) below). Emerging nations can now afford to do this: 2010 was the year that China overtook Japan as the World’s second largest economy and Brazil, Russia and India are hot on its heels (2). Innovative businesses will focus on meeting the sustainable development needs of emerging economies, from which they will be able to leverage back into their own.
Some of the content of this blog is adapted from some thoughts I put together for the wonderful Ann Andrews of The Corporate Toolbox for her free ebook, "What's next? 29 Entrepreneurs share Predictions for 2011/12". Many thanks to Ann for allowing me to reproduce some of that material here.
See me speaking to the "Carbon Quiz" here.
References
(1) Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford in the three Sir Douglas Robb Lectures 2010. Find out more at the foot of the page here.
(2) Gwynne Dyer, The Revolution has already arrived. An article in the New Zealand Herald of 3 January 2011.
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