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 local radio this week, and wondered why so many “experts” are STILL talking about the “critical importance” of government policy change? I’ve been listening to those conversations for the best part of 20 years and haven’t seen a lot of results (which is how Einstein defined insanity).
Before I moved into copywriting, I spent 20 years in Australian factories and warehouses as a business systems analyst. I learned there just how LITTLE government and consumers can do to change the design and delivery of the products and services that we use every day.
I also learned how MUCH smart designers, engineers and entrepreneurs can achieve when you get them excited about solving a challenging problem, commissioning a new technology or creating a new supply chain opportunity.
What happens when we start a different conversation?
What happens when we starting having having action-oriented, inspiring conversations about implementing the wealth of smart solutions now available from 30+ years of R&D? Solutions that DON’T required expensive compliance, government policy change and consumer frugality?
What would happen if you had a conversation with an entrepreneur about Cradle to Cradle product design?
What would happen if you had a conversation with a design engineer about how to apply physics and biology to industrial problem solving?
What would happen if we lifted our sights and started a whole range of conversations about how to achieve global cooling?
Global environmental entrepreneur Paul Hawken has built a list of 100 climate change action areas that DON’T require governments. http://www.drawdown.org/solutions
Radical Industrialist Ray Anderson radically changed the way his global commercial carpet manufacturing corporation did business AND “did well BY doing good” . Since his death, InterfaceFLOR has gone on to develop programs that take waste fishing net from Pacific Islands and returns it to making new carpet. http://www.interface.com/US/en-US/about?cmsContent=%2Fcarpet%2FNet-Effect.html
Entrepreneur Gunter Pauli analysed the range of technology innovations available and published his Top 100 in 2010. Many of the core technologies he names are in commercial use across Europe, the USA and Africa. www.theblueeconomy.org
Ellen Macarthur travelled the world’s oceans and saw the waste first hand. But she didn’t give in to despair – she founded the ultimate in waste reduction movements: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/overview/concept
What happens?
What happens when you have this sort of conversation is a whole lot of exciting, rewarding, profitable innovation – from Solarus’ unique solar thermal solutions to Watreco’s smart water technology.
Relatively speaking, it’s early days in the innovation adoption process but more and more great solutions are following smartphones across the chasm of invention into the mainstream. When we engage differently with sustainability, we have the potential to do more than SLOW climate change, we can aspire to a really activating BHAG – to REVERSE it.
What would you need to know to start having a different type of conversation?
