From one cause to another…
Chris Macrae informs me that a key sustainability thinker in corporate life, Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface Inc and featured in the documentary and book The Corporation is giving a lecture at the RSA:
Lecture | 05 May 2005 18.00 | London & South East
Manifesto Challenge: Moving Towards a Zero Waste Society
Tickets are free and you can sign up online (after registering).
Here an extract that Chris sent me from the corporation:
But he [Anderson] now rejects as dangerously limited the beliefs he once shared with the large majority of business leaders “that nature is unlimited, the earth…a limitless resource for raw material, a limitless sink into which we can send our poisons and waste”;” that the relevant timeframe is my lifetime, maybe my working life, but certainly not more than my lifetime”; and that the market’s invisible hand will take care of everything. The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporations penchant to cause harm, Anderson now believes because it is “blind to…externalities, those costs that can be externalized and foisted off on somebody else”.
Should be a very interesting lecture.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Gadget growth fuels eco concerns
This was something that had bothered me for sometime in terms of consumer electronics and particularly power consumption. I have proposed in the past alternative powered devices (although I am not technical enough to know whether they are really feasible) as a niche product but Ebay is going a step further:
The online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential.
“We really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good,” eBay’s David Stern told the BBC News website.
“We saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment.”
There are also a number of other issues discussed here not least re-cycling, the cycle of upgrade and displosal of consumer mobile devices and power consumption particulalry of rechargers.
While this is a positive story I think more could be done. There must surely be a market for more efficient devices and more efficient rechargers but why not state this as an absolute vision. Why not try and make energy neutral devices that can self re-charge. Blue sky maybe but surely worthy of a vision piece?
A Committment to Radical Change
Hats off and a deep bow to Dave Pollard for his progress on Saving the World. I know I would find it difficult to emulate him (I have 3 children for a start) but I would like to try.
In terms of his more radical agenda though I am sympathetic in principle, I am not convinced that this is the way forward. Massive change such as he proposes has never succeeded this way histroically and while that is no promise for the future I think a less radical approach would serve better.
Hearts and minds.
Edit: take this for example:
THE HUGHTRAIN: “THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN IS INFINITE.”
We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary.
We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature.
Product benefit doesn’t excite us. Belief in humanity and human potential excites us.
Think less about what your product does, and think more about human potential.
What statement about humanity does your product make?
The bigger the statement, the bigger the idea, the bigger your brand will become.
We have entered an age, the first in history, where self-realisation is not just possible for an elite few, but for everyone.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | UK carbon output ‘under-reported’
Whether you agree with the WWF report or not the fact remains that people in the UK consume too much, but perhaps more fundamentallywhat is consumed is produced inefficiently in terms of C02 footprint.
The report says humans currently consume 20% more natural resources than the Earth can produce, and that populations of terrestrial, freshwater and marine species fell on average by 40% between 1970 and 2000.
Dr Claude Martin, director-general of WWF International, said: “We are spending Nature’s capital faster than it can regenerate.
“We are running up an ecological debt which we won’t be able to pay off unless governments restore the balance between our consumption of natural resources and the Earth’s ability to renew them.”
If we aren’t doing it with credit then we are doing it with the environment. Something has got to change.
The big questions remain though how and by whom? While the ordinary bod on the Clapham Omnibus can make some difference, it really falls to Government and big corporations to change their behaviour and therby influence ours; a mutally re-inforcing circle.
Can it happen? If I am anything to go by, then it will be hard work. I believe in change. I believe in reducing my energy consumption and want more enviornmentally friendly products and services but I also have to consider financial cost and debt.
Companies like (dare I say it) BT have made a comittment to use only re-newal energy. If the government made such a comittment and other multinationals started doing the same, then a change would start to occur.
People simply don’t see how this effects them. The costs, the effects must somehow be internalised so that change does occur.
I’m off to recycle my soapbox 
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Britons ‘in favour of wind farms’
Despite a number of recent articles to the contrary, Britons apparently like wind farms. I can myself see both sides of the argument, although for me a truely renewable energy source like wind power must be one of the ways forward to solve our energy needs (along with others such as solar power). Any new development must be considered in context and a proper cost / benefit analysis undertaken.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sea turtle decline ‘costs millions’
I have always been fascinated by turtles. We use to own two small terrapins who were wonderful to watch. Just looking at the pictures of these magnificent creatures astounds me.
Any way of helping them to stay arond should be supported, especially if this report does show that tourism is worth more than killing them. The key here appears, as is so often the case, to get the money to the people who actually live in these areas rather than to nameless International organisations who simply siphon off the money for profit. Perhaps island tourist co-operatives could be a way?
in the arms of strangers
This is really two post but hey its my site!
Alex managed to get to this before me in that Howies have sent through their new catalogue. Mainly aimed at the Mountain biking / skate boarding community, it distinguishes itself as a company by actively promoting the environment and not compromising on quality or its beliefs.
As I’ve mentioned before I would buy lots from them but unfortunately I am more of a mountain than a mountain biker - although David one of the founders does ask that you complain more. I might just do that…
Secondly, Alex also has (at last?) succeeded into getting the behemoth that is ntl to develop standards based websites. (Yes, I am compromised in that this site tries but I am not that good a coder).
The Media Centre is certainly a good place to start a revolution, one I hope personally to see continue.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Amazon carbon sink effect ’slows’
That’s georaphical area not the company. For nearly 20 years to my recollection I have heard very worrying stories about the effect that human interventionis having on the Amazon and its subsequent effects on the climate and well being of the earth. It scares me. i do try to do my bit like not eating meat and recycling attempting to buy ethical and environmentally friendly goods, I even contribute when I can to environmental charities but it seems that compared to other people’s wanton greed and destruction my little contribution achieves not a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to stop, in fact I attempt to encourage a green approach where I can. I just want to know what more can be done to persuade people?
I think more tree planting is in order but I doubt it has the same effect here as the Amazon…
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Weather delays Rosetta launch
The launch of Europe’s Rosetta space mission, which aims to chase and then land on a comet, has been delayed until 0736 GMT on Friday due to bad weather.
I just read this BBC article on the Rosetta mission. Amazing stuff. Let’s hope the weather clears up for Friday.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | English lowland decline ‘goes on’
English Nature, which advises the government on wildlife, says tackling the problems of individual vulnerable areas will not retrieve the situation.
It says the only way of reversing the decline will be to manage the lowlands as whole landscapes, not separate bits.
The benefits, it says, will be not only to wildlife and the economy but also to people’s health and sense of wellbeing
Its intriguing that it is taking people so long to realise that piecemeal isolated approached to any ’system’ will ultimately fail. It is a wider, systemic (or landscape) level approach that will gain more success. The difficulty for any environmental agency being that it will require disparate groups, with differing interests to co-operate to ensure sustainability.
It certainly seems to me that a mutual approach to mangement of the environment is necessary which seeks to address all stakeholders long term needs. A market or regulatory approach is bound to fail to achieve the kinds of dramatic changes needed.
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