Another must read

Joel Makower as I'm sure many readers of this blog (and his) know is THE green marketing author, in a career spanning all the way back to the late 1980s ("The Green Consumer") up until present when he is embroiled in both corporate transformation and cleantech; the twin green revolutions that have been keeping us all busy these last 3 years.

And he has a new book out. It doesnt even come out in the UK officially until end november. But you can buy it (from a UK source) from amazon new and used already and i for one just placed my order. Review to follow but I can tell you right now its going to be a must read. Here's what the blurb says:

"Joel Makower has been a front-row witness to the evolution of sustainable business. 'Strategies for the Green Economy' documents the journey, joining big-picture perspective with ground-level practicalities in ways that will challenge and inspire even the most skeptical executive."
-- Lorraine Bolsinger, Vice President, Ecomagination, General Electric

"Long before 'green' was in vogue, Joel Makower shared our understanding of the importance of sustainability in business. His knowledge of the complexities and the dynamics, especially as they relate to the bottom line, yield the insight that many companies have come to rely on."
-- Ursula M. Burns, President, Xerox Corporation

"A growing number of companies are finding pathways to a more sustainable future. No one tells this story better than Joel Makower, whose 'Strategies for the Green Economy' charts the course for a new era of business, one in which forward-looking companies are creating products and services that aren't just greener, but serve their customers better. This is critical reading for anyone who seeks to understand where tomorrow's economic winners are going."
-- William K. Reilly, founding partner, Aqua International Partners, and former administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(Speaking of which - a sort of declaration of interest - Joel Makower very kindly endorsed my book last year, but then again I asked him because I think he is awesome and we dont exactly know each other so well that we'd plug each others books for any reason other than the right ones which is we think people should read them!)

Citizen Renaissance

Jules Peck has just co-published Citizen Renaissance a radical charter for post-consumerist marketing and communications based on citizen engagement; it's an online wiki-style book which they intend to update as comments come in. Declaration of interest - Jules is my fellow founder of Arkism, a fellow London United member & generally the fellow who I turn to first for an authoritative if harrowing view of the challenges of becoming a truly sustainable society. CR is not easy reading for green marketers (or any marketers) but that's the point of it. I'm reading it myself at the moment so would welcome a little 'book club' style thread here if anyone else wants to pitch in. Jules and robert are both blogging at CR too and do comment there too of course. :J

Stories and Structures

At Greengaged yesterday Dave from Howies told me a story that he said had been formative in his thinking about what's wrong with the world that social ventures are trying to put right. He said it came from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. And it goes like this. Tom & Jerry are marooned on a desert island. There is a wall up the middle of the island and (for some reason - perhaps it is 'all a dream') Tom has to do whatever Jerry asks. More specifically every time Jerry rings a bell, Tom has to fetch him a Pina Colada. Over time the cartoon shows pineapples being harvested, trees being chopped down... until of course in the end there is nothing left on that side of the island. But Jerry just keeps ringing and ringing the bell.

I was at a tomorrow's company event today where the chairman of HSBC and a number of other city luminaries (all outstanding leaders, with the highest moral standards - but potentially therefore not exactly representative citizens of the wild west of speculate-and-run capital markets)... discussed the topic of responsible investment. And David's story came back to mind. Mindful of already being the only person in the room not in a suit, i was wary about starting with 'Tom & Jerry', so I framed it a bit differently....

Is there any such thing as responsible investment? Isn't it likely that more than half the evil ever carried out in human history was the direct result of one party giving resources to other another party, with no oversight, and demanding results. Think about how horrified Levi's must have been (winners of the Martin Luther King award in recognition of their labour relations in the USA) when they discovered that their jeans were being stitched by slave labour in chinese prisons! How horrified the board of BP would have been at the possibility that their cost cutting edicts played a part in the refinery accident in Texas.

When investors demand returns in a time when the economy is tanking - can they be surprised at what may result? For instance - from the stampede by their VC and Hedge fund agents into buying agricultural land in the developing world?

The criticism that was leveled at the joint stock corporation from the start was that divorcing ownership from management responsibility and a full living knowledge of what was actually involved in running the business was a recipe for trouble.

My view of what's up at the moment is not only that there are deeper structural (primarily environmental) forces at play, but that the question about financial markets is really a crisis of capitalism. Communism 1917-1989. Capitalism 1830-?

Strange Portents

Via cbeebies which also explains very well what an upside down rainbow is and why it is rare to see them outside the North Pole. Anyway it was a striking image placed amongst news of all the banking problems. It seemed to be saying at an unconscious level that our tortured earth - were she a person - would have to smile at the thought of an economic slowdown. Of course it is probably yet more evidence of global wierding and the harm we do. But it still made me smile.

PSFK Asia

On the offchance readers from Asia and especially Singapore pass by the blog this week do check out PSFK Asia. For anyone who doesn't know PSFK is a global marketing trends blog that is strongly supporting ethical and environmental change in that industry.

Green Wikia

Henrietta from GreenGirlsGlobal just told me about this - launched on Tuesday and already getting heavy site traffic. It's what we've been waiting for basically as Jimmy Wales explained"What we're doing is actually complementary to blogs in the sense that what blogs do is update you on a day-to-day basis. Also, blogs are engaged in political or other types of analysis, whereas a wiki becomes a touchpoint for the community, a place where people meet up and work on whatever the consensus is about a certain topic... Obviously we want this to be a large and successful community. I don't have milestones or targets. As long as there's a healthy community and people are having fun and producing something of value, I'm satisfied." It's great to see one socially positive realm (the free internet "as in free speech") connect with another like this. Meanwhile had a couple of encounters today with the real world green Denmark - at a business conference in Odense (thanks to Red Ink) and then dinner with people from the social entrepreneurial scene in Copenhagen working on a truly amazing collection of projects, from a world entrepreneurial event, to street level behaviour change. Even in a wiki world there is no substitute for spirited people, sharing ideas and stimulating company! All in all it's been a "gives you hope" sort of day :J

BIG GET TOGETHER

The London Design Festival later this month features a sustainability hub hosted and organised by my fellow London United founders Sophie Thomas and Juhi Shareef. It's an amazing programme featuring many of my favourite green gurus, creatives and brands (including as of last week Howies and Method). Here's just a small selection of who's on the bill:

Dorothy MacKenzie, Dragon
Malcolm Smith, ARUP
Nic Marks, New Economic Foundation
Lucy Siegle, The Observer
Pio Barone Lumaga, LOFT Stockholm
Daniel Epstein, Olympic Delivery Authority
Dr Kate Fletcher, London College of Fashion
John Wood, Attainable Utopias
Nat Hunter, co-founder of Airside and Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest

The idea is to create a space where those of us working in the creative industries on sustainability can learn from each other, get fresh ideas and inspiration. So do hurry and book spaces because some sessions are filling up fast.

I'm going to be involved in some of the sessions and also planning to catch up with others' so I hope to see some local Greenormal people down there (eg do try to make Monday 15th for London United workshop with Aladin and yours truly). There is also a fairly generous donation of East Green beer from our friends at Adnams if you make it along to the evening events! There follows the official blurb from Sophie and do follow the link to the site for more details and to book your places...

GREENGAGED 08

Dear interested and engaged friends

We have been really busy organising and curating a fantastic mix of speakers for the new event 'greengaged' launching at the Design Council for this year’s London Design Festival. Running from the 15th- 23rd September the programme is jammed packed with debates, seminars, master classes and the odd excursion - and it is all FREE to attend- thanks to the greengaged sponsors! For anyone who is interested in sustainable innovative design and good practice we think attending greengaged is a must.

Highlights include:

• "This house believes that the primary responsibility for tackling global climate change lies with the design industry"
Big Bang Breakfast debate with Design Council Chair, Sir Michael Bichard, with Juila Hailes MBE; Ed McCann of Expedition Engineering UK;
Dorothy MacKenzie, Chair of Dragon; and Clive Grinyer of Cisco debating the role of design in the fight against climate change.

• Michael Braungart, co-author of publication ‘Cradle to Cradle: Re-making the way we make things’ in conversation at the RSA.

• Debate on the challenges for delivering a sustainable Olympics with key players from the London 2012 design team.

• Rob Holdway (presenter of Channel 4’s “Dumped”) hosts a canal boat trip to a waste recycling centre to showcase the importance of ‘designing in’ re-use and recyclability.

• Seminars on best practice and innovation, with cutting edge practitioners in graphic and communication design, fashion and product design, and behavioural change

• Practical workshops on bringing sustainable smart thinking to design studios and projects; packaging, and sustainable print and paper.

• A night walk through London, “re-thinking the city” with artist and magician aladin.

• Global issues brain storming sessions with material scientists and biomimicry architects.

We have pulled together designers, scientists, strategists and magicians (amongst others) whom we ourselves find inspiring to listen to or have learned a lot from with the aim to ruffle you up and galvanise you all into action.
To see the full programme and book your free place go to greengaged.com (Places are limited and are booking up fast- so don’t wait)

We hope you will agree that greengaged is not to be missed.

Done Do

What an amazing event. 80 people. Some tents. A lot of weather - but very much something that brought people together rather than dampened us. And the most inspiring couple of days I've spent in years. The speakers were truly amazing (and you'll be able to see the videos soon here within the next few weeks) but so even more so too was everyone I got a chance to chat to. I have a ton of thoughts and reflections and learnings to blog at some point, although much more of what i took out was on the 'what to DO with my life & all those half baked but half ready ideas' type of level. Anyway right now am jamming another London week into a few days before heading off to another trip. There's just time to say thanks to Howies, my fellow DO-ers and fforest for such a wonderful, life-changey sort of event :J