Climate Change is Coming So Get Prepared
I thought I'd share a relatively short TED video about what countries and cities are doing to prepare for climate change. This video is fitting as we all gloomily look out the window (at least on the East Coast) wondering when our favorite season, Fall, will actually begin. Some of us may even be contemplating what happens to environmental policies if Romney wins the election. Hopefully they'll address those issues in upcoming debates.http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Moving Towards A Sustainable Future: Interview With Shoko Sekiguchi
In your current job, you help multi-national corporations develop their IT strategy. How did this job lead to supporting sustainability practices?
The multi-national corporations are looking into cost reduction by being efficient. Going green should really bring an efficiency to the corporations when it is planned well. So, many corporations asked me how to be green and efficient in their IT solutions and that is how I started looking at sustainability very seriously.
Sustainability on a corporate level can cover everything from LEED certified buildings, to energy efficient server management and increased recycling. What sustainability efforts can have the most positive impact on the environment?
That is a great question. I believe that starting with the sustainability projects that can be easily translated into cost reduction would most likely have the biggest impact on a CEO's decision to get further involved in the sustainability effort. As a result, it will lead to the most positive impact on the environment.
What companies have served as examples to the sustainability movement?
There are several such as Google and Whole Foods. I am particularly impressed by the effort of Patagonia, an out-door clothing brand. I wrote about them in a post on Ampleen, "What's the Responsible Company?"
Although caring for the environment has gone mainstream, I'm sure it can still be difficult to convince companies to be sustainable especially if there are extra costs involved. How do you do this?
As mentioned earlier, companies, especially public companies, are looking into being efficient and need justification for every spending. But, like the new Bank of America Tower, if the green initiatives can prove great savings over time, the key stake holders are more likely to be receptive about the projects.
What keeps you motivated to become more involved in the sustainability movement?
When I see some positive changes, rather than negatives facts, I feel compelled to get more involved in the movement. For instance, I started seeing more people coming to the Union Sq. green market in last a few years and being interested in what it's all about. I am excited to see the change and like to see more of that.
As we approach the upcoming election, the general sentiment is that Republicans are less likely to support policies that protect the environment. Should we be worried about current sustainability efforts if Romney is elected or is that a misperception.
Yes, I am concern about a shift in the environmental policies. I, however, hope that Romney will see the sustainable issue beyond the political agenda and take it as a universal issue that we face today. For instance, he can't be so blind as to ignore the obvious climate changes happening all over the U.S. We just have to continue our effort to raise the awareness of general public on the real risk of ignoring the issue.
How sustainable are American companies compared to those abroad?
Not speaking strictly to companies, but general American attitude towards sustainability seems to be behind among other developed countries. For example, you have to buy the government approved garbage bag that costs over $20 per bag in Korea - and that helps enforce people to reduce their daily waste.
Despite having a well connected public transportation system, many American cities surpass New York in their sustainability. What change in New York would make the biggest impact?
I wrote a couple posts on NYC's transportation and I believe the implementation of a good rental bike program will impact NYC such as we see in Paris. I am concerned that New Yorkers' individualist mind-set is dangerous since I see many bikers in the city pay very little attention to traffic rules and pedestrians. NYC needs to redesign the traffic path and enforce the rules while we develop the mindset of what it means to be a good community member.
You've created a site and community called Ampleen. What does it mean?
It is a made-up word with ample and green - I envision that my beloved city will be filled with green.
What is your ultimate goal for the site?
I set up this site since I realized that each individual organization is doing wonderful things but, they are dispersed and have a limited exposure to the general public. So, I want Ampleen to be a depository for green information about various organizations and their effort for people who are interested in getting involved with them.
And finally, there are so many groups and resources for those interested in environmental causes in New York City. What is one way that people who are interested in sustainability can get involved and make an impact?
Well, (smile) come to my launch party on Thursday, 10/11, and get connected to the green communities in NYC by emailing info@ampleen.com for more information. Check out Ampleen and find out what's new and exciting.
Some final thoughts about the interview - I found this interview to be particularly interesting because it touched on America's culture of individualism being a hinderance in the environmental movement. While the Korean government can use harsh behavioral economics to convince people to produce less waste, the same tactics in America would be seen as encroaching on individual rights. In Asian countries, people grow up valuing order, propriety and fitting in. In Europe, there may be more emphasis on the individual, but Europeans are constantly reminded of how finite their space is. They value family meals and regular vacations over obtaining more stuff. So how do we change a culture where we are taught to nurture ourselves first. Where one can fly across the country over what seems to be 3,000 miles of uninhabited land. And where our economy is structured around buying more stuff? One can only hope that the slew of heat waves, draughts and extreme weather effecting all Americans will be enough to get each individual on board with realizing they are part of a greater whole.
JWT 10 Trends For 2012
Are you just as excited as I am about all the trend reports for 2012? 2011 was such a tumultuous year and it brings to mind the idea that things have to get worse before they can get better. Well.. I'm hoping 2012 marks the year things get better. Most notably, I think there has been a breaking point in how much longer we will put up with a broken system, selfish politicians, people and corporations - a sentiment that's echoed throughout the world. And I'm hoping that 2012 is the year where we realize that selflessness, intelligently redistributing wealth and focusing on sustainable practices is good for everyone all around.Slowly but surely, American corporations are moving towards sustainability. In fact, it was reported in Ad Age today that Unilever is putting their $6 billion global account in review because "We want to make sure that we continue to have best-in-class agency partners to deliver Unilever's vision: to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental impact," Mr. Di Como said in a statement. "We will be looking at strategic planning and in-market execution capabilities from our agency partners."
And before you say that they're greenwashing, according to Climate Counts, a non profit, Unilever has the highest climate count score under Food Products for their climate footprint, reduction of global warming impact, support of climate legislation and their practice of publicly disclosing climate intentions and practices.
So I leave you with JWT's Annual Trends for 2012. I specifically hope the Rise of Shared Value #4 becomes mainstream. As we see with Unilever, Coke, Nike, Levi, L'Oreal, Clorox, GE, etc., companies can be both successful and environmentally sustainable. Now if only Apple could get on board.
The Earth Is Full - NY Piece On Climate Change
As I sit in the well airconditioned headquarters of Internet Week while it's a sweltering 93 degrees outside, I thought it was imperative that I re-posted this op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman, The Earth Is Full. As he writes, decades from now, will we look back on these last few years of tornados, extreme heat, floods and other natural disasters and think, "How could we have ignored these warning signs?" I certainly hope not. On Monday, I listened to a presentation by Arianna Huffington and Johnson & Johnson's VP of Corporate Affairs, Brian Perkins speak on the intersection of cause-related marketing and how it relates to brands. Both Arianna and Brian strongly agreed that it's not enough for companies to only think about the bottom line. Consumers want to look into the soul of your brand and see that your brand stands for doing good and giving back to the community. As an account strategist, I strongly believe that for profit organizations have the ability to make a great impact on world issues while still turning a profit and that consumers will want to buy from these organizations. The pendulum from mindless consumerism and "evil" corporations is shifting to a more thoughtful, sustainable future. What a great time to be in advertising!
OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Earth Is Full
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 7, 2011
You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?
“The only answer can be denial,” argues Paul Gilding, the veteran Australian environmentalist-entrepreneur, who described this moment in a new book called “The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.” “When you are surrounded by something so big that requires you to change everything about the way you think and see the world, then denial is the natural response. But the longer we wait, the bigger the response required.”
Gilding cites the work of the Global Footprint Network, an alliance of scientists, which calculates how many “planet Earths” we need to sustain our current growth rates. G.F.N. measures how much land and water area we need to produce the resources we consume and absorb our waste, using prevailing technology. On the whole, says G.F.N., we are currently growing at a rate that is using up the Earth’s resources far faster than they can be sustainably replenished, so we are eating into the future. Right now, global growth is using about 1.5 Earths. “Having only one planet makes this a rather significant problem,” says Gilding.
This is not science fiction. This is what happens when our system of growth and the system of nature hit the wall at once. While in Yemen last year, I saw a tanker truck delivering water in the capital, Sana. Why? Because Sana could be the first big city in the world to run out of water, within a decade. That is what happens when one generation in one country lives at 150 percent of sustainable capacity.
“If you cut down more trees than you grow, you run out of trees,” writes Gilding. “If you put additional nitrogen into a water system, you change the type and quantity of life that water can support. If you thicken the Earth’s CO2 blanket, the Earth gets warmer. If you do all these and many more things at once, you change the way the whole system of planet Earth behaves, with social, economic, and life support impacts. This is not speculation; this is high school science.”
It is also current affairs. “In China’s thousands of years of civilization, the conflict between humankind and nature has never been as serious as it is today,” China’s environment minister, Zhou Shengxian, said recently. “The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the worsening ecological environment have become bottlenecks and grave impediments to the nation’s economic and social development.” What China’s minister is telling us, says Gilding, is that “the Earth is full. We are now using so many resources and putting out so much waste into the Earth that we have reached some kind of limit, given current technologies. The economy is going to have to get smaller in terms of physical impact.”
We will not change systems, though, without a crisis. But don’t worry, we’re getting there.
We’re currently caught in two loops: One is that more population growth and more global warming together are pushing up food prices; rising food prices cause political instability in the Middle East, which leads to higher oil prices, which leads to higher food prices, which leads to more instability. At the same time, improved productivity means fewer people are needed in every factory to produce more stuff. So if we want to have more jobs, we need more factories. More factories making more stuff make more global warming, and that is where the two loops meet.
But Gilding is actually an eco-optimist. As the impact of the imminent Great Disruption hits us, he says, “our response will be proportionally dramatic, mobilizing as we do in war. We will change at a scale and speed we can barely imagine today, completely transforming our economy, including our energy and transport industries, in just a few short decades.”
We will realize, he predicts, that the consumer-driven growth model is broken and we have to move to a more happiness-driven growth model, based on people working less and owning less. “How many people,” Gilding asks, “lie on their death bed and say, ‘I wish I had worked harder or built more shareholder value,’ and how many say, ‘I wish I had gone to more ballgames, read more books to my kids, taken more walks?’ To do that, you need a growth model based on giving people more time to enjoy life, but with less stuff.”
Sounds utopian? Gilding insists he is a realist.
“We are heading for a crisis-driven choice,” he says. “We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model. We will choose the latter. We may be slow, but we’re not stupid.”
Pay Attention - This Is Important
Garbage Island (Pacific Floating Garbage)
About a year ago, I posted a story and pictures of the Pacific Floating Garbage patch. It's amazing how little attention this atrocity has received by the media. I think either Yahoo.com or CNN picked it up in a tiny story a few months ago and everyone I spoke to about it was shocked - like they heard it for the first time. Qquestion no more. Here's an informative video via VBS.tv (thanks Julia) where a TV crew spends 3 weeks on the open sea observing and documenting the tiny particles of plastic that are prevalent throughout the ocean. It's extremely disheartening to see how our wasteful ways cause so much lasting pain to the eco-system. How many plastic bags or containers does one need? If your corner deli didn't put your sandwich in a plastic bag, would you really miss it or even care? NO! Plastic is incredibly convenient but whatever our circumstances, humans can adjust. If you don't have time to see all 3 videos, at least see the last one. The next time your friend mentions hearing about some mysterious floating garbage patch the size of Texas, you can explain to them that yes it does in fact, exist. And no one seems to be doing anything about it.
What Motivates Us
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Just watched this informative and interesting TEDTalk from TED Global 2009 by Daniel Pink, a career analyst. He discusses psychological experiments that show how participant's creativity is stifled when presented with a task that holds a high reward for achievement. Participants have tunnel vision- focusing on the reward itself versus tapping the lateral thinking needed to complete the task. On the flip side, Google or companies like Best Buy, have learned how to break away from older organizational structures and have made gains in productivity. Employees at Google can spend 20% of their "work" time doing anything they want, a time that has resulted in such blockbuster products as gmail. Best Buy doesn't have official 9-5 hours, recognizing that people have a life beyond work but are also dedicated to their jobs. And a better example, good ole Wikipedia, continues to get updated without a single paycheck to its writers.
How can we harness this information to health care reform? Reducing energy and saving the environment? Am I more likely to lose weight and maintain my health if I know doing so will have a direct, positive effect on my fellow health care pool? More so than a decrease in my insurance premium? Am I more likely to motivate others? Am I more likely to turn off the lights because it will save me a whole $3 on my next electricity bill? Or because I know that in the long run, I am contributing to the greater, environmental good.
TED itself (specifically the TED Prize) exemplifies that idea of motivation for the greater good. Thousands of people pay thousands of dollars to not only learn and network, but figure out how they can harness what they've learned for the greater good. These are people that have, for the most part, already found extreme success and wealth but want to give back.
Maybe I'm making too many connections to the study, but it's something to think about. Or maybe, it's those steep bonuses that got us into this financial mess in the first place. Would we be in this place if they thought about the bigger picture, rather than blinded by the greens?
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. etc.
Glad that CNN is finally covering the issue of floating garbage in the ocean. See article here. They don't know much about the garbage and how it's effecting the ecosystem. They say most of it is tiny bits of plastic that gets ingested by birds and ultimately kills the birds or finds its way into their food.
By the way, am so happy that the Current.tv journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were freed by the Korean government. Definitely makes Bill Clinton out as the hero, saving the damsels in distress. I'm curious to hear more about what they went through- if they're even allowed to share their ordeal at this point. See CNN's article here. It makes me feel good that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are still involved in our politics to some extent even though Bill sort of bailed out Gore's employees.