Author: steve
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Work 2.0 Meeting the needs of the sustainable future
Working together, groups of people can present a formidable force – so you had better be clear that you are headed in the right direction before you set off. As a manager organizing work you need to make strategic decisions about the capabilities of the organization. One of them is the level of resilience against…
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Sustainable provision of water and food – the Water and Food Award
This is an extract from my presentation as Application Manager of the Water and Food Award at the recent Ambassadors event at the Marriott hotel in Copenhagen on 2 March 2010. They say that at the beginning of every century, major changes, inconceivable in the previous century, manifest themselves. In the last century few thought…
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BOOK REVIEW Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen
THANKS TO ARCHIE DUNCANSSON FOR THIS REVIEW reproduced by permission Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen, December 2009. In Storms of My Grandchildren, James Hansen, 68 years old and one of the world’s leading climate scientists, gives us the results of his lifelong work to understand the climate changes that are now occurring, and…
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The Exhibition: a story about investing in sustainability
What would it look like if we set up the economy to drive the change towards sustainability? What would we invest in, what would we pay for? Would banks have another role? I set myself the assignment of creating a vision of things to come, and decided to approach it using the techniques of imagestreaming.…
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Product development choices
Energy is going to get more expensive unless you own your own renewable energy sources, like windmills or hydropower. Energy is needed for four major phases of a product’s life-cycle: extraction of materials, manufacture, operation and disposal/recyling. This means that products developed will migrate into the two areas where energy use is less, over the…
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AVBP launches executive briefing: Develop towards sustainability
Sustainability, it seems, costs money. I have heard that business leaders have been bombarded with in-depth training lasting weeks, costing thousands and deflecting a sizeable chunk of your attention from focus on results. Sustainabilty is something built in to every human as a survival tool. Most need a quick sharp introduction to get up and…
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Water and food security should be at the heart of transforming to a low carbon economy
With energy availability peaking and demand still rising, many are promoting the idea of transitioning to the low carbon economy. But what are the priorities? Light bulbs? Ethanol cars? From my perspective we should be concentrating on that which we need everyday and that takes at least one quarter of our weekly budget: food and…
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Brave new world, insects, whales and sustainability
On holiday recently I had a real serendipity experience with a couple of books. Part of the research for the blog involved looking at books which took a similar approach – that is to say envisioning a sustainable future in order to stimulate thought leadership. Imagine my surprise when I walked into a tiny village…
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Connecting people to sustainability: the uncomfortable truths
Attending a recent workshop on sustainable development and regional development, I got involved in a working group looking at the challenge of connecting people and sustainability. The whole exercise gave food for thought so I thought I would share my notes here on my blog. Suppose you were on the management team of an organization…
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Time for a holiday over New Year
Link to cartoon from Folke Thanks to all my readers for 2009! And I look forward to more exciting developments towards sustainability in 2010. HAPPY NEW SUSTAINABLE YEAR! Back around the 13th Jan.