Cloning Ray Anderson

November 6, 2006

Interface Flooring is regularly quoted as the company internationally that has fully integrated sustainability into its business strategy. A sustainable planet will need a lot more fully integrated sustainability businesses, so the question that comes to my mind is “How can we create more Interfaces?” What happened??? In his book “Mid Course Correction”, Interface CEO (at the time) Ray Anderson says he…

Martians to save planet Earth?

June 6, 2006

Breakthrough leaders come from Mars In the classic business development book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins describes the special type of leaders that create sustainable, breakthrough results as “leaders from Mars”. They are a unique combination of personal humility and professional will – quiet and unassuming, shunning the limelight. They have time for family and…

Ducks and mad koalas at the Commonwealth Games

March 27, 2006

I watched the opening ceremony of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games on television. I’m a local girl and I love Michael Leunig, so I “got” the boy and his duck. The koalas were confusing. There were several different teams of frantic koalas, all vigorously in action. The koalas were all working really hard in their groups, each team desperately trying…

Thorpie, our Dawn and business in the 21st Century

November 26, 2005

There’s talent and there’s science When Dawn Fraser was Australia’s world champion swimmer in the 1950’s and 1960’s, she did it on talent and hard work, strategy and gamesmanship. In the 21st century it takes a lot more to get world class results. Stretching, weight training, nutrition, mental strength, biomechanics. A high tech suit it takes 20 minutes to get in…

White Roche takes the positive sustainability challenge

July 12, 2005

Saving paper saves money and the environment Lilydale accountancy and financial services group White Roche and Associates has taken up the positive sustainability challenge, working with Balance3 to make positive sustainability part of their long term strategy.

Strategic Purchasing

March 12, 2005

Some of our downstream impacts around the world can be difficult to see. Coffee and chocolate, for example, are mainly produced in third world countries with little or no labour and environmental protection. One difference that even a small business can make is in their purchasing. Getting informed and acting strategically about regular purchases can…

Designing the Sustaining Organisation

March 12, 2005

Making new assumptions As human beings, what we see is in many ways a result of what we are looking. As Henry Ford said: “If you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right”. If we assume that green business is a fad, that our Environmental Management System is an overhead and…

Greening the Health Sector

December 1, 2004

Eastern Business and the Environment (EBATE) is a network group that has been helping businesses to reduce their impact on the environment AND improving their profitability. EBATE is supported by Least Waste (the Regional Waste Management Group for the Eastern Region of Melbourne) and holds seminars on issues such as minimising waste, efficient energy use and water…

Country businesses for living built on passion

August 4, 2004

What do I love? = What’s my business? One of the fascinations of our recent outback road journey was some of the unique businesses we came across: the coffee farm near Mareeba where the coffee is (almost) organically grown by Bruno, Maria and Mama; the fossicking tour on the road to Karumba that taught us how to…

Back from the bush

August 4, 2004

So how long is 12 weeks? It has been 15 weeks since our last newsletter was published. For 12 of those weeks, we’ve been on a camping/caravanning tour of Northern Queensland. During this trip, as in previous trips, our experience of time changed dramatically. Time stretches… Getting up with the sun (and going to bed soon…

Taking a chance and taking to the road

April 15, 2004

We’re skipping winter this year On the first of May 2004, we’re hitching up the campervan, loading up the boat, and heading our 4WD north for 3 months. After a challenging two years that included the death of a parent, we’re planning to skip winter this year. “Oh, aren’t you lucky?” Well, yes and no. Yes,…

Will your new year REALLY be new?

December 13, 2003

What will be NEW for you in 2004? Everyone says “Happy New Year!” It’s on its way, a whole new 366 days that haven’t happened before. Some people take full advantage of them, but too many people just re-run a previous year – same work, same relationships, same list of “one day I’ll …”. Avoid insanity Albert…