Ci's Sustainability Passion Index™ gathers more attention as Worldchanging sheds some light on the five clusters and further highlights the fact that in spite of the fact that companies, the media and politicians are scrambling around the green pillar of sustainability, for consumers there is a myriad of social, personal and spiritual issues to be concerned about as well.

Mention the word ‘sustainable’ and nowadays most people think up warm and fuzzy images – you know misty rainforests and sunflowers, recycle bins and bicycles. I prefer to see it as the ability to survive, thrive and continue to succeed.

So you can imagine how pleased I was to come across TIGNUM… a performance consultancy that helps organizations (and the people that work within them) achieve high energy and sustainable high performance. Click here for one of several videos.

As much as 94% of 1000 + executives TIGNUM interviewed said they have less energy at home than they have at work. Often, according to TIGNUM, this is product of not only an inadequate mindset but also poor diet and insufficient cardio vascular exercise. Add this to the additional stress many people feel because they are on call 24/7 and you need little more proof that the contemporary business landscape is a veritable pressure cooker.

Mindful of the fact that so many companies are rushing in to claim a stake on the ‘sustainability’ landscape, many would benefit from taking the time to remember the personal sustainability quarter and the importance it plays in promoting high performance in the workplace.

Now, with that said I’m off for a cup of tea and a walk around the block.

It’s hard to guage sustainable progress vs. more green wash. Perhaps the most prevalent occurance of green wash going on right now is in Beijing and Hong Kong as the world gears up to the 2008 Olympics.

An article in Financial Times today articulates how Chinese leaders “have failed to recognise the extreme seriousness of the country’s air pollution and have favoured the appearance of progress over the difficult actions required to make progress real”. Not to be mistaken as ‘haze’ as officials would like to have us believe, the city of Hong Kong is is apparently suffering the worst pollution levels on record as it prepares to host the equestrian events of the Olympics.

From what I am reading, there appears to be a lot riding on the effect of the wind to clear away the dense smog that is currently looming heavily before the great Olymipic expectations.

Billions of dollars have been invested in the ‘greening’ of the Chinese Olympics but the fact that construction work has been halted, factories are closed and vehicle traffic restrictions (odd/even license plate scheme) demonstrates the severity and immediacy of the environmental crisis afflicting modern China. What a grand experiment, to see how major reduction in emmisions effect air quality in the very short term.

Ask a Chinese Anything is a fabulous blog on devlopment in China.

Back to wind and possibilities. I have always tried to imagine what wind powered freight would look like, while sailing around the massive vessels in English Bay every week. I think about tall ships, kite assisted freighters, and I try to imagine what is inside each container. Yesterday, I came across a post on the NY Times freakonomics blog about the return of the tall ship and wind powered freight. Enjoy it here. Also, a company called SkySails is 'turning wind into profit' with their Beluga kites made for regular freighters to reduce the amount of fuel needed to cross the ocean - up to 35% annually and up to 50% on trips with perfect wind conditions.

In the words of Paul Hawken, "Sustainability means re-imagining the world in such a way that we can stay here."

I’ve been following Bruce Sterling ever since I was introduced to his notion of the spime in his book Shaping Things – which overlaps with my ongoing research on sustainable design and life cycle thinking. I am fascinated with the diversity and breadth of Sterling’s interests and involvement in multiple communities both virtual and physical, and particularly his passion for design education given his background. In a recent designboom interview with Sterling, he was asked whether he thought design is living up to its potential. To which he responded:

Yes and no… Design should be ambitious and it should sort of try to flow into the nooks and crannies of society and help people out. It does rather a lot of that, more so than a lot of other fields. You know if you were to ask me ‘is the military living up to their potential?’ I think they're doing a poorer job than designers. ‘is the law living up to it's potential?’ you know the law is a noble pursuit, but do we have justice? No! If you're a lawyer should you be contented at the state of the legal profession? You know, probably not, but should you give up being a lawyer? No!

Design is certainly not lacking ambition in the news today. Between Coke announcing concrete goals for environmental progress, Boeing exhibiting, a 75-gallon tank of bright green algae, the potential feeding ground for a jet fuel substitute at this year’s Air Show where sustainability is the dominant buzz word, and today, July 28^th 2008, in the Mojave Desert, CA, USA, Virgin Galactic unveiled their new mothership and is currently preparing for test flights. (Thanks to PSFK for letting me know!)

The vessel is being touted as the most energy efficient aircraft in history, by most definitions. An all carbon composite vehicle of this size represents a giant leap for a material technology that has already been identified as a key contributor to the increasingly urgent requirement by the commercial aviation sector for dramatically more fuel efficient aircraft.

In the press release, Branson notes: “Virgin Galactic is central to our ambition at Virgin to become the world’s leading group in the operation of energy and environmentally efficient transportation, in the air, on the ground and in space.”

And how is this for marketing brilliance.. Branson announced: "We are naming it Eve after my Mother, Eve Branson but also because it represents a first and a new beginning, the chance for our ever growing group of future astronauts and other scientists and payload specialists to see our world in a completely new light."

No doubt, how these mega-brands decide how to communicate their sustainability initiatives, how they choose to "flow into the nooks and crannies of society and help people out", will continue to be paramount to sustained success. No apologies, please.

I came across a new study today - the Human Development Index - via Humantific.

The study itself is for sale but there seems to be a lot of info shared through out the site - www.measureofamerica.org. The interactive maps are compelling and well designed.Apparently this is the first study of its kind to focus on a 'developed' country.

The American Human Development Project's mission is to stimulate fact based public debate about political attention to human development issues in the United States and to empower people to hold elected officials accountable for progress on issues we all care about: health, education, and income. The project is a nonpartisan, non-profit initiative established to introduce to the United States a well-honed international approach and tool for measuring human well-being: the human development approach and the human development index.

Curiously, I did the test to see how I stack up on the HDI - 7.9 - which tells me my own personal sustainability levels are doing just fine but of course there is always room for improvement. (:

The July 14th/21st issue of Business Week had a small article in the News You Need to Know section on Wal-mart and it's 2 million labor law violations titled "Whacking Wal-Mart". Ouch! On one hand, Wal-mart is making great strides in its environmental sustainability commitments (albeit as a bit of the benevolent dictator). On the other hand it's sorely lacking in it's social and personal sustainability commitments. The Personal Sustainability Program was great for PR, but 2 million labor law violations are not the results of a thriving PSP program.

Sticking environmental sustainability in one bucket and social sustainability in another is just not smart. They are not mutually exclusive. This corporate siloing (is that a word?) strategy is not reflective of people's relationship with sustainability - of which eco or 'green' components make up just a piece. And Wal-mart doing just that is the reason why, despite the major money they have spent 'marketing green' only 18.49% of the North American population feel Wal-mart is a socially responsible brand, according to the latest intall of our SHIFT Report. Drilling into the US population it dwindles even further to 16%.

 

 

A Mexican scientist won first place at an eco design contest set up by FTF Freescale Semiconductor.  The winning design was for the Digital Sun Distiller, and it was developed by Jose Luis Rojas, Iluxon S.A de C.V from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Based on Freescale's technology, the distiller has been designed for cleaning water and reusing it at home, saving tons of water and energy since it uses solar panels.  The winning entroes were determined by attendees at the Freescale Technology Forum attendees voted. The Digital Sun Distiller received the most votes, and Rojas was recognized on stage as the winner. He received $10,000 USD and an invitation to compete in the Grand FTF Challenge with other first place global winners to vie for $50,000.  "Sustainability is the next challenge in technology development as it places considerations like power consumption and environmental impact at the forefront of embedded design," said Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO of Freescale. "We're delighted to see the level of engineering innovation and ingenuity displayed by the top FTF Americas Design Challenge finalists and congratulate Rojas on his success with the Digital Sun Distiller".  Incidentally, the second-place winner in the green FTF Design Challenge was a Canadian, Mark Donkers from OES, Inc. London, Ontario. The Clean Water Diverter is based on Freescale's technology as well. Donkers also received a cash prize.  "The world's fresh water supply is becoming scarcer everyday," Donkers said. "Using fresh water for such purposes as flushing waste water is a terrible use of a valuable resource.  Significant energy is consumed in the sterilization, transportation and post-treatment of our drinking water. The Clean Water Diverter will allow people to not only reduce their water bill but also reduce their environmental footprint."         The third-place winner is the ZigBee®-based wireless sensor network for Greenhouse Automation developed by Alfredo Cabral from CODE Ingenieria in Toluca, Mexico, and teammates Fernando Gasca, Jaime Sanchez, Jose Maria Ruiz de Velasco, and Marco Tulio Gonzales.  "Greenhouse management involves continuous monitoring and activation of different units to maintain a suitable environment for plant growth," said Cabral. "Greenhouse control is a rather difficult task to be performed manually and is susceptible to inefficient energy management and suboptimal performance. Therefore, greenhouse automation systems have become a standard for optimal performance in terms of energy consumption, costs reduction and productivity."  There are many smart and hard working people in my country. Most of the time they don't get the support from the media or the government support they should. I'm very proud and happy to see Mexican scientists developing such great ideas and of course all in favor for a better life.  For Spanish speakers, here's the link to the El Universal article(http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulos/47888.html)

 Yesterday I went to my very first conference as a creative strategist with Ci. PSFK hosts creative idea and trend conferences in cities around the world and yesterday's took place at an old military base near the water in San Fransisco. Many of the speakers focussed on technology enabling community building and one particular speaker from Apple - Chris Riley - spoke of three highly influential people Stewart Brand, Alice Waters and Paul Hawken. I just had to thank him at the end of the day. Another highlight was Max Schor from GOOD Magazine. Very refreshing, humbling and thought provokative. He asked the audience as he was getting started - "How many people want to make things better?" Not a single person did not raise their hand. The room was certainly filled with optimistic bright creative (and nerdy) bodies, minds and souls.

The best surprise for me was the fact that the Long Now Foundation was just next door and I got to see the prototypes for the 10 000 year clock! I was in heaven. I had done quite a bit of research on Stewart Brand for my thesis paper. Some call him the smartest man in America. Look him up! The Foundation exists for the sole and brave purpose of encouraging us all to open up and adopt a long term view. We're talking centuries and millenia. What a breath of fresh air considering the conference was much about cultural trends and what they might mean for us in creative industries.

More in line with the 'short view', I couldn't get over how many people were talking about Twitter! This is something I have not really been interested in adopting - maybe because I find the name a bit irritating. Hmmmm.  Perhaps I will give it a try.

Some of the recurring themes I noticed during the day - take risks, be transparent, do the right thing the right way and the business model will follow, don't be afraid to fail, be considerate, listen to people, experiment, play, and of course - collaborate! Look outside your own discipline and geography for inspiration. Oh yes, and have fun!!!

It’s amazing what you can see when you look through a specific lens - more than green, sustainability is coming to life in all areas of our lives.

Case in point...

When I first came across Add-art - a hugely popular firefox extension that blocks advertising images on web pages and replaces them with art images – I thought about Personal Sustainability. A fantastic idea, I thought, a break from the litany of messaging. But then I got to thinking about financial sustainability. As busy and invasive as they might seem, ads on web pages provide revenue for websites; revenue that ensures that we - the end consumer – don’t have to pay for the content that we consume.

No one portion of the sustainability matrix trumps the other - it’s based on needs/ wants at any particular time. Personally, I like the art. It makes for a welcome change…. yet, at the same time I’ve spent years developing a screen for the hundreds of banner ads I am presented with daily. I’d like to say that I was immune to them, but then again I’ve worked in marketing long enough to now just how persuasive advertising can be.

BTW – Anyone notice the similarities between the Add-art logo and the Sherwin Williams mark we blogged about previously?

Ci in the news:

Ci and The SHIFT Report is featured in the latest Business in Vancouver Magazine- Sustainability Special.Check out the 5 page feature on Ci and some more insights from The SHIFT Report. I must admit, we do love it when people write about us.