I'm not sure how it happened, but finance firm RoseRyan has rated me one
one of the top 25 clean tech leaders in the Bay Area -- which is of course Action Central in this field.
Thanks - to whoever's responsible!
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I love this. Because designer Jane McGonigal "makes games that give a damn."
EVOKE is an online game designed to teach collaboration, creativity, knowledge networking, entrepreneurship, courage, resourcefulness, sustainability, and vision.Our goal: to empower young people all over the world, and especially in Africa, to start tackling the world’s toughest problems: poverty, hunger, sustainable energy, water security, conflict, disaster relief, health care, education, human rights.
EVOKE trailer (a new online game) from Alchemy on Vimeo.
EVOKE is free to play, and open to anyone, anywhere in the world. It launches on March 3, 2010 and concludes on May 12, 2010. EVOKE was developed by the World Bank Institute, and directed by alternate reality game master Jane McGonigal.
Reserve your spot now at urgentevoke.com
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A cartoon circulating during COP15 showed a climate denier in the audience gesturing to a PowerPoint at the front of the hall that listed "Energy Independence. Preserve rainforests. Green jobs. Livable cities. Renewables. Clean water, air. Healthy children. Etc, etc."
"But what if it's a big hoax," the skeptic grumbles, "and we create a better world for nothing?"
Indeed. What if!
The COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen could have gone one of three ways: breakthrough, breakdown, or something in between. The odds favored something in between, and that's what we got, with players and analysts still arguing over how good or bad the outcome was.
What do we know, in the midst of the murky outcome?
What does it mean for you? I'll get to that in a minute.
Observers differ in their opinions of COP15. Jonathan Lasch of WRI felt that the "last-minute agreement at Copenhagen marks turning point for the world".
Greenpeace and the Wall Street Journal were jointly skeptical, pointing to carbon price drops as a signal that Copenhagen was either a "cop-out" or a "disappointment".
The New Yorker (remembering, perhaps, Ben Bradlee's admonition to "follow the money") highlighted China's aggressive renewable energy program. Watch what we do, not what we say?
If [national] governments won't act, Bill Becker says, "businesses, consumers & communities must step up."
And in fact that's happening. As Terry Tamminen observes in Copenhagen Coal in the Stocking,
The Gang of Five may... have done the world a favor by blowing up the UN process in Copenhagen, because it cleared the way for parallel international alliances to blossom. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the creation of the R20, a new “sub-national UN” (starting with 20 regions of states/provinces/cities) that will coordinate the work of these climate leadership governors and mayors, but with a major difference from the old UN. The R20 will set high standards for cutting carbon and creating green economies, then invite others to join -- if they can meet the same goals. By contrast, the UN has struggled because it needs every nation in the tent and can only get things done when all 192 agree -- something that rarely happens unless goals are watered down to the lowest common denominator.
Closer to home, the White House is "poised" to require climate impact studies for new Federal actions.
I ended my pre-COP15 post last month with:
The only question is this: What does leadership in a carbon-conscious economy look like?Ultimately, the coming carbon regulations give executives the same choices they've always had: resist, follow, or lead. This time, though, it's for real -- and the stakes are stratospherically high.
The good news: this changing business climate offers an opportunity for smart companies -- like yours? -- to deploy integrated, game-changing sustainability strategies that leapfrog regulations to drive exceptional environmental performance, profits, market share and brand value.
Climate change is just the tip of the iceberg -- a doorway into a world of new possibilities.
But what does all that mean for you? Let's bring it down to earth, for your company, state, city or household. How do you remove the apparent "economic necessity" of tinkering with the climate? What's your path of action?
Here's how I put in back in 1996:
In practical terms, that means that competitive advantage shifts to those who can learn to prosper economically without depending on jiggering the global climate…for whom tinkering with the climate is no longer an economic necessity.
Or, in other words:
Cogitate.
Deliberate.
But don't wait.
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Happy 2010 everyone!
For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. - TS Eliot
Hopefully Alex Steffen's 2010's prediction:
We're sailing the sea of weird now, and normal is a country whose shores we'll never see again.
My 2010 promise:
Regular blogging resumes - one longish piece per month, to start with, shorter ones as they happen (hopefully weekly) and of course lots of continued action at Twitter).
Starting next week! (Subscribe the the feed - upper right on this page - so the posts can come to you. ;-)
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COP15 -- the 15th Conference of the Parties climate negotiations in Copenhagen this month -- is the latest clarion call for business leadership in meeting the climate challenge.
The recent tempest over embarrassing emails from a few climate scientists has contributed to public confusion over the overwhelming scientific understanding of anthropogenic global climate change -- confusion that has been well nurtured by the denial axis and their deep-pocket backers -- and clarified by Scientific American, among many others. (This just in: the Associated Press conducted an "exhaustive review" of the stolen climate emails, which shows they “don’t undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.”)
The real story for business leaders lies beyond the buzz, and demands careful attentions by executive leadership, boards of directors and and owners.
COP15 will produce a series of emissions reductions pledges from participating nations -- which will be hammered out into regulations over the next 12 months to be ratified at next year's meeting in Mexico City. But, that's not the real story either. Not for anyone who has any smidgen of strategic vision.
The real story is that the business landscape -- regulatory, competitive, and financial -- is changing rapidly. And resistance is futile -- both because the process of climate change now seems inexorable, and because the business opportunities it presents are so significant.
Consider:
* Current and upcoming state and federal regulations will offer real teeth to curbing carbon emission, and changing what your value chain produces--and how they produce it.
* Regulations and market realities will give real economic value to curbing carbon emissions
* The process of curbing those emissions (despite the rant about the cost) will be an innovation driver -- for the wise. California is leading the way in the US, with AB32 kicking into gear in 2010 as cornerstone of the state's efforts to reduce emissions 25% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Emissions charges are expected to triple during the first few years -- and then California's cap and trade program is slated to launch in 2012, as other regional carbon markets open.
The US EPA has just declared its intention -- and legal authority -- to regulate carbon emissions, and will require annual carbon reporting from manufacturing facilities starting in 2011.
WalMart is considering (as UK retailer Tesco has been doing) asking for carbon footprint labels on every item on every shelf; and what WalMart "asks" for has a way of happening.
(Visit one possible scenario of the carbon regulation landscape over the next three years in this excellent blog post from Terry Tamminen (former Secretary of CalEPA) at our ally Pegasus Capital Advisors.)
All of these events should inform the one-, five- and ten-year plans of all companies, regardless of industry. If you keep your head in the sand, you're risking your fiduciary duty to your shareholders (if you have them), your family (if you don't) and your own integrity.
The only question is this: What does leadership in a carbon-conscious economy look like?
Ultimately, the coming carbon regulations give executives the same choices they've always had: resist, follow, or lead. This time, though, it's for real -- and the stakes are stratospherically high.
The good news: this changing business climate offers an opportunity for smart companies -- like yours? -- to deploy integrated, game-changing sustainability strategies that leapfrog regulations to drive exceptional environmental performance, profits, market share and brand value.
Climate change is just the tip of the iceberg -- a doorway into a world of new possibilities.
To be continued -- with more specifics on what to do, and how to do it. Meanwhile, feel free to follow my more frequent COP15 comments and links on Twitter.
(This post is adapted News from Natural Logic, the monthly newsletter of my sustainability strategies consulting company, Natural Logic. Thanks to Benjamin Privitt for contributing to that article and this post. Please join our mailing list and/or subscribe to this blog to stay up to date.
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OK, here's the plan for the "happy" part (Courtesy of n-judah love song. And Laleh Shahidi.)
The "thanksgiving" part is up to you.
(But Jon Carroll can help.)
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Sustainable business strategies often hit a surprising roadblock -- the limiting (and false) assumption "green" will cost money, require sacrifice, and delay profits. The problem isn't that companies can't afford to operate sustainably. The problem is that too many businesses just can't count -- operating with accounting systems that miss real value and consistently leave money on the table.
To address this assumption, businesses -- and the economic systems within which we operate -- need to overcome three key barriers: Business must get the prices right, break the addiction to "stuff," and tell the truth about purpose.
Get the Prices Right
Adam Smith observed that perfect markets depend on perfect information. In the absence of perfect information -- that is to say, "In the world we do business in," companies and customers operate from a distorted sense of the real cost of things. The myth of environmental impacts as "externalities" suggests that ecological degradation is something external from our lives, when in reality it's fundamental -- to the economy as well as to life itself.
Consider: if you had to pay the full the external costs of gasoline, an estimated $10-20 per gallon, would you drive the car you drive today? Would anyone try to make or sell the car you drive? Consumers can make decisions and changes when they make purchases. Until external costs are built into prices at the point of purchase, the best we can do is to regulate and make policies to rein in the negative environmental impacts made by others. So like Sisyphus, we push the sustainability boulder up the regulatory hill, only to watch it roll back down again.
Get Off the Stuff
Most macroeconomic policy (including the free trade agreements of recent decades) has been aimed at removing all impediments to the flow of stuff across the planet. The challenge is that the maximization of the extraction, refining, manufacture, shipping use and even recycling of stuff also means (all other things being equal) the maximization of environmental impacts. But as demonstrated by Ray Anderson and the people at Interface (and by Hertz and Xerox before them), there are ways to decouple money and stuff, to increase profit, maximize value to customers, and minimize the flow of stuff. The challenge for business is to build economic value on less stuff, not more consumption. It's a profound challenge, one very few companies have taken this on, but it's a real key to getting sustainability done.
Get Real With Your Purpose
Most people assume that the purpose of business is that its function is to maximize profits and returns to shareholders. It's not. AP Giannini, the founder of The Bank of America, understood this. The purpose of his bank was to make credit available to under-served immigrant communities of San Francisco. If we do that well, he predicted, Bank of America would make plenty of money. Giannini knew that profit was the consequence of business, not its purpose, and the purpose was what the bank was really there to do.
Actually, everybody understands this. No one goes to work thinking, "My purpose is to pay the the electric bill." You have to pay it, of course, and you have to pay shareholders for the use of their capital, but why think the purpose of the company is to pay shareholders any more than it would be to pay the utility company?
So what is the purpose of your business? What are you really here to do?
(This commentary is adapted from my recent presentation at The Commonwealth Club: "The Truth About Green Business - The Potential for Jobs and Prosperity." You can watch or listen to the speech here. And read more about these ideas in The Truth About Green Business, and my next book, Profit on Purpose.)
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My speaking schedule has gotten increasingly crowded as interest continues to rise in sustainability as a serious business strategy. Here's what's up in the next few weeks:
Digging Deeper
San Francisco, September 27 2009
Discount Code: DiggingSF09
A Sustainability Compass- Navigating the Business Frontier
Workshop, reception and book-signing
NBIS, Seattle, September 29 2009
West Coast Green
San Francisco CA
October 1-3 2009
Special discount for "friends of Gil"
Designers Accord Global Summit
Oct 23 2009
San Francisco
Closing Plenary: SRI in The Rockies (with Hunter Lovins)
Tucson AZ
October 25-28 2009
Keynote: Western Sustainability & Pollution Prevention Network
San Diego CA
October 28 2009
EcoTuesday
San Francisco CA
November 17 2009
Keynote: Green America
San Francisco CA
November 11 2009
Green Festival
San Francisco CA
November 15 2009
Give me a holler if you'd like me to keynote your next event. And keep up to date here of what's coming.
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The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.- Abraham Lincoln
(Thank you Dan Geiger of the USGBC-Northern California Chapter.
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From Tim Ferriss's blog:
"Don't tell me it's impossible," he says, "tell me you can't do it." "Tell me it's never been done. Because the only real laws in this world-the only things we really know-are the two postulates of relativity, the three laws of Newton, the four laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell's equation-no, scratch that, the only things we really know are Maxwell's equations, the three laws of Newton, the two postulates of relativity, and the periodic table. That's all we know that's true. All the rest are man's laws...."
-From Esquire profile titled "How Dean Kamen's Magical Water Machine Could Save the World", December 2008.
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From Tim Ferriss's blog:
"Don't tell me it's impossible," he says, "tell me you can't do it." "Tell me it's never been done. Because the only real laws in this world-the only things we really know-are the two postulates of relativity, the three laws of Newton, the four laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell's equation-no, scratch that, the only things we really know are Maxwell's equations, the three laws of Newton, the two postulates of relativity, and the periodic table. That's all we know that's true. All the rest are man's laws...."
-From Esquire profile titled "How Dean Kamen's Magical Water Machine Could Save the World", December 2008.
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Terrence McNally (the next Charlie Rose?) will be interviewing me today on his Free Forum talk show on Pacifica Radio. Terry offers:
in-depth conversations with people who offer pieces of the puzzle of ?a world that just might work,? provocative approaches to business, health, science, environment, politics, media and culture. Guests have included Ken Burns, Kevin Phillips, Deborah Tannen, Eric Schlosser, Bill Joy, Robert Reich, Andrew Weil, Arianna Huffington, Paul Hawken, Jeremy Rifkin, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Catherine Crier, Scott Turow, Paul Krugman, Bill Maher, and Norman Lear. His interviews appear in print at AlterNet.org.
You can hear me live at 12p PDT on 90.7fm/LA 98.7fm/Santa Barbara, and live streamed at http://www.kpfk.org (or podcast any time at http://www.terrymcnally.net)
We'll talk about The Truth About Green Business and three key -- but usually unspoken -- barriers to building a sustainable economy.
PS: We'll be posting video soon of my recent speech to Commonwealth Club of California.
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Well, I haven't been blogging much, folks, but that will change soon. Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy -- book launch, client projects, writing in the short-attention-span-theater-that-is-Twitter, and speaking about strategic sustainability every chance I get.
Video of my Commonwealth Club speech last week should be posted soon. Meanwhile, here's a short clip of my interview at Radical Collaboration with 3rdWhaleMobile, Creative Citizen, GenGreen, Hunter Lovins, et al!:
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Once a year, whether you need it or not.
(Happy Independence - and interdependence - Day!)
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew ThorntonMassachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge GerryRhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William ElleryConnecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver WolcottNew York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis MorrisNew Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham ClarkPennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George RossDelaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKeanMaryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter BraxtonNorth Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John PennSouth Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur MiddletonGeorgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
PS: What the Declaration of Independence is not:
When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are celebrating one of the most important political documents in the history of the world. The Declaration is a statement to the world -- the people of the world was the audience -- about the very nature of government and its relationship to men. Sometimes we appreciate what this document was, but perhaps we need even more to appreciate what it was not. It was not a poll-driven summation of current opinion. The men who gathered in Philadelphia did respect each other's talents and knowledge, but the document they signed was [not] driven by the latest Gallup or Zogby poll results. What was right and true was not dependent upon popular opinion.
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Other Natural Logic blogs:
Christine Arena
Jane Byrd
