vesterberg.se

My youngest son Albin, discussed with me the other day the fact that stores all over Sweden are beginning to sell ecological alternatives. What is the real motivation behind, he asked me? Is it because they are concerned about our environment or is it because people are asking for these kinds of products? If you are in business, you look for opportunities to sell. If there is a demand and you have the capabilities, you want to offer products accordingly. In the last year things have changed in Sweden. Customers are looking for eco-products and small and big stores are competing to offer the soundest alternatives. There are many more or less defined labels; for example eco-something and fair-trade.

Hopefully, the definition of the labels will not be diluted. When something becomes mainstream, not every offer is what you think it is. When we have reached one level of fair and ecological trade, there is a danger that we as customers relax because our conscious feels better. Likewise, businesses relax because they continue to make money feeling somewhat altruistic. The motivation is still centered on ourselves and on our needs, on the consequences for ourselves. A bad conscience is a weak force. A relief means that we stop moving forward and true innovation stops.

I believe we need a deeper conviction, a persuasion that has become an inseparable part of us. Even if the consequences turn out bad at first, we insist because we believe. Passionate conviction is powerful. Conviction mixed with passion means that we will not be mere spectators, but become involved. To believe in something is really to act.

We can be thankful for the people in history that believed passionately in democracy, in women’s rights, in children’s rights, in poor people’s rights. They did not stop; they pushed on, because of their conviction. They were creative, they found new ways, and they conquered governments and continued in spite of oppression.

Think about this being in us also. In the small things; we might choose a more expensive alternative because of ecological or fair trade reasons. We might choose a different kind of lifestyle. Business might choose less return of investment because of sustainable reasons.

In a bigger perspective; I have a feeling that creativity can be unleashed because of our persuasion. We can reach a new level of innovation and start to find new ways of solving our problems. Egocentric innovation is not as powerful as collaborative innovation. Monocultural innovation is not as powerful as multicultural. If we are convinced we will press a little harder, we will endure a little more and we will strive a little longer. I believe, we will discover that taking responsibility for air and water will not drain our economy in the long run. Taking responsibility pays back.

Those motivated by conviction took the first step. The others followed. Who is going to take next step? Those motivated by strong conviction.

How can I develop this passionate conviction, I said to myself? The answer that came to my mind was; “touch the reality”. Touch the reality by nakedly facing the fate of the earth and the daily lives of the majority of the people of the earth. It can be a fearful encounter. But it can also be powerful. I will challenge myself to touch other countries and other cultures. Shifting the center from my world to the outside world. Ouch!

I am reading Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough, an architect and Michael Braungart, a chemist. I read a few pages every day, just to make it last as long as I can. Why? Because I like the book very much and it is food for my thoughts.

The subtitle is “Remaking the Way We Make Things”. The book is a manifesto that presents a new approach to manufacturing. It encourages a paradigm shift and the term “eco-effectiveness” is coined. They challenge the conventional view that we should recycle, reduce our emissions and reduce our use of natural resources. Doing less harm is good, but it is even better to do good. They mean that what we call recycling is really downcycling. Buildings, neighborhoods and even whole cities can be entwined with surrounding ecosystems in ways that are mutually enriching.

Their idea is to not try to reduce waste, but to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. Sounds like a dream doesn’t it? The authors work together along this path and have created products and buildings in a new and radical way. Even the book itself is special. It is made of fully recyclable plastic with non-toxic ink. The live in their vision.

It is easy to be pessimistic about man. We have ruined and spoiled nature. We fight each other. But man has also achieved great things, even landed on the moon. Couldn’t we use our ingenuity to live in symbiosis with nature? Couldn’t we learn from the ecosystem of the nature and build our own ecosystem to reflect that. The authors think it is possible. I almost begin to believe also…

We talk a lot at home about the future, the climate and our responsibility for the earth. My children at home (13 and 15) challenge me: “what do you do for our future”. As parents we like to put savings in the bank for the future for our children, but establishing a lifestyle that is sustainable is like that, investing in the future of our children. What the world will look like when they are in their forties depends on me now.

What do we mean when we say sustainable? We mean meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The problem is: we consume too much or in the wrong way. What nature has developed and stored during hundreds or thousands of years, we consume in a twinkling of an eye. The oil in the earth we soon have emptied and the rainforests we cut down to give place for short-term cultivation. A tree that has grown for forty years is used for a newspaper that is read for ten minutes and then thrown away.

We discuss at home and try to learn how to establish a sustainable lifestyle. We take a step at a time and try to change our habits, choosing alternative products. It could be easy to think that our small contribution doesn’t count or that we don’t have time, strength or money to change. But if we do not make the change who will? We need practical and sound advice. We as consumers need to get together and put pressure on the producers that we are serious in this. We need to catch the vision and begin to work on it!

In Sweden there is a growing interest and consciousness among consumers, especially young people. There are some magazines like Camino and blogs like CSR i praktiken that discusses these things. CSR i praktiken (sorry, in Swedish only) is interesting because it gives practical examples of how companies in Sweden are beginning to take responsibility for their products and services. Something at least is happening. If you know of a similar blog in English, please let me know.

We, in the industrial countries, are all responsible for the environmental crisis on earth. Our ecological footprint is too large. If all the billions on earth would live as we do, several earths would be needed. We are consuming the resources for poor countries and for our children and our grandchildren and at the same time leaving our garbage for them to take care of. We, as countries and also as individuals have a responsibility and we ought to act on all levels. We ought to inform ourselves of what we can do. We need a personal vision about this.

We can work on all levels…
In our personal lives, choosing bike instead of car.
As lobbyists, persuading people everywhere we go.
As customers, purposely buying food and things according to the sustainable and renewable idea.
As professionals, taking the right decisions, not only avoiding things, but find new ways of doing business that is sustainable.

We need ideas and we need to be creative. We not only have to stop doing wrong things, but we have to do start doing new things. Here are som interesting links about ecological footprint; WWWF on Humanity’s Ecological Footprint and from Wikipedia.

Global warming and its effects have received much attention lately. Our future, or should I say possible future, is painted before our eyes in media and it is a terrifying scenario. Especially young people, who will inherit the earth, are rightfully scared. Scientists all agree that we have altered the balance of the earth. We have disrupted the earth’s eco-systems. It is a complex issue, because it involves economy, world trade and relationships between countries as well.

We can hide our head in the sand like an ostrich. We can accept facts and be paralyzed or apathetic. The world could end up in chaos as countries begin to fight another for oil or fresh water. Perhaps we will be forced by governments to change our lifestyle dramatically. But another possibility is to work together real hard, all of us, on all levels, to change our future while we still have time.

A real interesting effort in this direction has been made at Tällberg in Sweden. For a number of years there have been a conference in June called Tällberg Forum, where some 400 leaders, politicians, businessmen and scientists have met informally and discussed global questions, ecological systems and economy. Some of the meetings are open for all visitors.

The conference is arranged by Tällberg Foundation, a non-profit organization started in 1981. Its mission is to deepen the understanding of issues related to leadership and change in society and business. The Foundation’s main focus of activity is to gather leaders from around the world and from a variety of backgrounds for discussions and reflection. Some speakers who have visited the conferences and seminars are Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Mohammed Yunus, who founded the microfinance bank in Bangladesh.

I have not been there, but have read articles and books published by Tällberg Foundation. I would very much like to go there next summer. The future concerns us all. How can we live together? How can each one of us contribute? We need all the encouragement and practical insights we can get.

Not only individuals have to reflect over there questions, but companies also . Better to adapt to the system change in time and even see business opportunities ahead of time. I will come back to the business perspective later.