Andy

Remit: inspire, share stories, stimulate, challenge, support, coach. Tools: experience of adventure, business, sustainability, enterprise, self-employment, creativity, success and failure Like: good conversation, wild places, slow food, cycling and surfing

Links

http://www.ecosapiens.co.uk

@gringreen on Twitter

Waking up to changing prices

Fund manager and investment guru Jeremy Grantham has written a useful backstory to why prices of a wide variety of commodities have changed so dramatically in the last decade. He also highlights the unassailable logic that underpins the impossibility of perpetual compound growth.

Gratham’s ideas are not new, and give a useful consolidated summary of the 101 level knowledge that is part of the essential ecoliteracy that blazes a path to a more intelligent future.

Along with Seven Fools colleagues Matt Hart and Denise DeLuca (both Do 10) and Jamie Burdett, we’re seeking out the leaders who recognise that getting say 10% of their employees conversant with a post-conventional view of the future is a pre-requisite for being able to build it. To get the 10%, you need the first few. If you’re a leader with the insight and courage to investigate what radical change might look like for your organisation call the Do office, and come to play at Fforest for a day or two.

 

Jeremy Grantham must-read, “Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever” « Climate Progress.

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Saturday, 28th May, 2011

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The price we pay (again)

$18,000,000,000, thee fine handed to Chevron by Ecuador is big by any standards, and the damage that must have been caused to justify a penalty of this scale is almost unimaginable. Nevertheless, good things can come from bad.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund – which manages $150bn of state government pensions – has filed a resolution calling on Chevron to appoint an independent board member with environmental expertise. Chevron are behind the times in appointing a CSO – Chief Sustainability Officer at C-level – and better late than never

via Chevron chiefs face shareholders after huge $18bn Ecuador fine | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

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Wednesday, 25th May, 2011

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How Teaching Changes our Thinking

Useful interview with educator Jamie Cloud, who identifies five key steps to transformation around sustainability:

1. Live by nature’s laws

2. Read and use the feedback

3. Use education to close the gap between now and a sustainable future

4. Create action by changing our thinking

5. Start with taking responsibility

Here’s the article and an interview: How our Teaching Changes our Thinking, and How our Thinking Changes the World: A Conversation with Jaimie Cloud « Journal of Sustainability Education.

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How much are we paying?

We’re at a time when know how much we’re paying, in cash and kind, is starting to become real, for the first time in a few thousand years. It’s pretty important to keep track of how much the items we buy are costing, year, on year, so that we can decide whether or not to buy them.

It’s even more important to know how much nature is paying for the stuff that we’re buying, so that we can build the true cost of the stuff we eat, and use into the decisions that we make.

I heard the other day that the true cost of a cheap burger, taking into account rainforest destruction, ecosystem degradation and, most recently, murder, puts the cost at over $100. Fancy a bite$

Much More Are we Paying for Stuff in 2011? | uncluttered white spaces.

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Head in the clouds

Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Do 2008 speaker, would connect to these images for their stunning, simple beauty.

Head in the clouds to see the magic

Feet on the ground to make it happen.

That summarises the spirit of Do in two lines, I reckon

SHFT | Photos of Clouds from Four Miles Up.

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Saturday, 14th May, 2011

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Escape from Auschwitz

Do Lectures 2009 songsmith Katy Carr recently brought Auschwitz survivor Kazik Piechowski’s inspiring tale of comradeship, war and escape to the UK, with important messages from a time too easily forgotten. The courage, ingenuity and sheer bravado that he describes is quite remarkable.

Read the full article here I escaped from Auschwitz | World news | The Guardian.

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Wednesday, 13th April, 2011

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Shopping malls heading south

The Guardian report that some of the UK’s biggest shopping malls – those powerful, town-destroying magnets of consumerism – are finding the going tough as consumers respond to high fuel prices by staying at home.

With a business strategy built on customers having unlimited access to cheap personal transport, it’s unlikely that any planning would have taken into account the certainty that prices would go up. If they’re experiencing a 9-14% drop in sales with oil prices hovering at around $120 a barrel, it’s going to be interesting to watch what happens when the price goes up 30% or more on those prices. Maybe our town centres will regain some of their vibrancy as people travel on foot again.

Out-of-town shopping malls suffer as fuel price deters shoppers | Business | The Guardian.

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Saturday, 9th April, 2011

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King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

Kenny Anderson played at Do 09 and captured many a soul with heartfelt songs that connected to the heart of community and humanity.

There’s a lovely taste of his latest collaboration here, courtesy of the Guardian.

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine: Exclusive album stream | Music | guardian.co.uk.

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Thursday, 24th March, 2011

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Earth for an hour

Home | WWF Earth Hour.

This Saturday, 26 March, at 8.30pm GMT, is WWF’s Earth Hour. With an unassailable level of logic, their call is for millions of people to switch off the lights for 60 minutes and do two things: 1. Notice that the world still works fine when its bathed in darkness not light, 2. Go somewhere dark and enjoy the changing light of an emerging night.

WWF’s Ade Cockle came along to Do 10 and heads up their digital comms team. He’s interested in a couple of actions from the Do community – ideas on how to use digital platforms to greater effect for climate and sustainability messaging – and invitations to go mountain biking (again) on Wales finest single track, swapping ideas when there’s enough time to breathe properly.

Set yourself a reminder for Earth Hour, and between now and then, work out the most fun you could have in the dark, early on a Saturday evening.

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Wednesday, 23rd March, 2011

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Learning to not be liked

Years of schooling, parenting and mass media nurture the importance of conformity. The lovely thing about conformity is that at worst, if you do it badly, people just won’t won’t notice you; there will be no snide comments, no criticism and no risk of looking silly.

There is of course, the downside. You won’t make much impact, will miss out on conversations with the most interesting people in the room, and worst of all, you’ll miss out on realising that to make a mark means that some, or many, will despise you for standing for what you do.

Sooner or later, we get old and infirm, and our faculties weaken. The smart money says that it’s good to start making that mark as you soon as you know things need to change. Leave hesitation and doubt behind, and step out of the shadows. Who knows what might happen if a few more tens of thousands had the courage and insight that Eden Project creator Tim Smit describes in this article.

Tim Smit: the Eden project’s impassioned gardener | Business | The Guardian.

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Sunday, 13th March, 2011

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