One of the key messages from Project Drawdown’s research is that human ingenuity has been at work for decades developing solutions for global warming. “millions of people care about this and are trying things – engineers, inventors, people on the land, people on the ocean are inventing extraordinary means to reduce emissions and sequester carbon” -Paul Hawken, Executive Director, Project …
If there’s one book that hooked me into the opportunity side of sustainability, it’s Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, published in 1999. When I read it in 2002, I was a Business Systems Analyst working in factories and warehouses around Melbourne – I knew from daily experience that there was massively more to be done than switching my …
This is the fourth in a series of posts exploring the growing opportunities of strategic sustainability. The first summarised 10 hidden opportunities and the second explored 4 levels of sustainability strategy. Then we started to explore the opportunities. First up was “The trap of one-way business thinking“. Today we’re talking volume vs value. Business performance has traditionally been measured in …
This is the third in a series of posts exploring the growing opportunities of strategic sustainability. The first summarised 10 hidden opportunities and the second explored 4 levels of sustainability strategy. Now we’re starting to work through those 10 opportunities hidden by 20th century thinking. Neurobiologists have confirmed in the last few years what philosophers have suspected for millenia – …
While the Australian government continues to talk about coal and baseload and electricity prices, Australian communities and entrepreneurs are busy delivering on clean energy in innovative new ways. Smart technology and ongoing legal advances are enabling new ways of doing business and making investments – tools that are enabling exciting new projects to be delivered. Crowd-sourced investment The enabling technology …
One of the “who would have thought!!!” solutions for reversing global warming is reducing food waste. It’s not just about the “starving Africans” your mum might have nagged you about when you wouldn’t eat your dinner – reducing food waste could save 70.53 gigatons in reduced CO2 by 2050.
The Australian Institute of Refrigeration Airconditioning and Heating gathered in Melbourne in September to discuss “The Future of HVAC”. This industry is a powerful player in reversing global climate disruption, with the ability to deliver on solutions comprising nearly 15% of the action. As I wrote a while ago, these guys could be the hidden “Avengers of climate change” …
“Think globally, act locally” I’ve been talking about sustainability for years now – and been pretty active online as a commentator. Now it’s time to take the business opportunities to my local community in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges.
This is the first in a series of posts exploring the growing opportunities of strategic sustainability. We’ll dig into the 10 alternatives in depth over the next couple of months. Once upon a time, psychologists and scientists used to believe that we see everything in front of us, then decide what’s worth exploring in detail. More recently, neurobiologists have confirmed …
Are you looking for business development opportunities? If you’ve been ignoring sustainability because you’ve been sold the “cost” myth, here are some recent reports that could give you new insights and innovation possibilities:
“Philanthropy – The effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations.” The Free Dictionary In the 21st century, could the continuing shift to a Regenerative Economy mean the end of philanthropy as we know it? It’s just sooo 20th century… First you make money – then you spend it fixing the problems you …
I’ve been publicizing the opportunity side of sustainability for years in my LinkedIn Regenerative Business group. Recently I decided it needed a wider (and probably younger) audience. So now, when I find a story worth telling, I’m also pinning it to my Sustainability Innovation Board. If that’s where you hang out – or where people you want to influence hang …
If you’re interested in the fun opportunity side of environmental sustainability, then get started today with these simple steps: Get informed about today’s solutions (much more fun than doom and gloom) Explore your local business ecosystem for opportunities Act – connect, collaborate, experiment, repeat. 1. Get informed Check these 2 knowledge bases off – if you’re not across them then …
While most of the mainstream media on climate change focuses on cars, coal and consumption, there’s a whole range of opportunities to make a constructive, money saving difference in other spaces that few people think of as “green”.
To most people getting on with their lives and listening to the mass media debates about climate change, ocean plastics and deforestation, “this sustainability thing” can seem overwhelming, frustrating and hopeless. But concern about climate change and environmental damage has been growing for decades (if not centuries – the problem of climate change was identified back in the 19th century). …
There have been some fascinating examples of regenerative thinking in action through my Inbox recently. Here are a few that illustrate the great ways that rethinking systems and technologies delivers profit, community benefit and environmental benefit. Innovators are applying physics and biology, not just engineering Native oyster beds are being regenerated in South Australia, not only improving the coastal ecosystem, …
I’m loving the recently released book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed To Reverse Global Warming” – but friends have found it a bit overwhelming. So now when I give it to them to look at, I guide them through it this way: I open it at the back, starting them with the section “What do the numbers tell …
Update 28 April 2017: Well worth the investment, just for a cogent explanation of key issues and options. Biggest surprise (so far): How high up the list Refrigerant Management sits. I’ve loved Paul Hawken’s work ever since I read both Natural Capitalism and The Ecology of Commerce alongside Ray Anderson’s Mid Course Correction. (In sustainability units of a Graduate Diploma.) …
Last week I read yet another social media post bemoaning “the lack of government action” on sustainability and wondered: What government specifically the writer was wanting to act? (From context, it was probably Australia’s federal government) What magic bullet solution he thought that a change in government action might deliver? Was his complaint going to perpetuate the myth that federal …
What can we do differently when we realise that climate change solutions don’t REQUIRE government policy action? What else is possible when we recognise that expensive consumer frugality isn’t “the big answer”? (NOTE: I’m not saying that these aren’t useful – I’m asking “is this the only powerful source of innovation?“) I listened to the same old conversation on my …