Sustainability

Listening to the vacuous speech uttered last week by George Bush regarding climate change, I was reminded of what an historian once said about the French revolution. It happened, according to this professor, because the aristocracy no longer had a function to perform.

I think in the long term, because it ultimately overwhelms everything else--even the Iraq obscenity--the unwillingness to address climate change and create a comprehensive twenty-first century energy policy is what Bush will eventually be remembered for. Even when Louis XVI was being led to the guillotine he really wasn't sure what was happening or why.

This is a continuation of Gunter Pauli's lecture about system design.

We had a visitor in Kansas City this past week, a businessman, who had an "epiphany" he said, back in 1994. Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, the largest carpet manufacturer in the world, was the first speaker in "Conversations on the Environment," a year long series of talks that will be held in KC.

Anderson's moment of transformation came after reading a book by Paul Hawken, possibly The Ecology of Commerce, which came out in 1993. Hawken might be one of a dozen or so of the most important thinkers in the country today.

As an environmentalist and entrepreneur, Paul Hawken has written extensively on commerce and sustainability. More than 15 years ago he said that the age of industrialism as we know it has come to an end, and rethinking the fundamental purpose of business is essential if we wish to survive.

How do we shift to a new global paradigm? How do we create a new business model for sustainability? Gunter Pauli offers some thoughts in imagining how.

FOR WHOM DOES THE BELL TOLL?

For those of you that purchase things, here are four businesses you might want to check out:

Ecowood Retail Displays (reclaimed and sustainable wood)

Cool Planet Jewelry (jewelry made from recycled metals)

Close the Loop, LLC (recycled products and green building materials)

Mind Trix (clothing)

I will always take a look at small, genuine green businesses wherever they're located. If you believe in how they do business and like what they sell let us know.

You want your 15 minutes of "real" fame? You want to say something about sustainability and the environment--or perhaps show people a project you have? Yert (Your Environmental Road Trip) is wandering through the U.S. with a video camera. Go to Yert. If you have an environmental project let us know.

The rich ride bicycles. The poor don't ride bicycles. Actually there's more to it than that.

The Daily Mail of London reported recently on a Department of Transport National Travel Survey. London residents, the wealthier ones, apparently have decided that the preferred choice for getting around is the bicycle. Some of the reasons include healthy living, climate change, and green options.

On the other hand the poorer one is, according to the survey, the less likely a person will ride a bicycle. Again the reasons are many, but the "stigma" of riding a bicycle appears to be a significant factor. As well, the poor are less concerned about "green" options than about making a living.

It's about thinking outside the proverbial box. It's learning from the natural world.

It sounds like the Kansas City region is creating its own "perfect" sustainability storm, based on some of the articles I've read lately in the Kansas City Star.

Fecal pollution in our streams, and downstream officials say Kansas City must take care of this problem. Of course Kansas City says it's difficult because the upstream folks in Johnson County have pollution runoffs that pollute the downstream streams in Kansas City. It's very confusing.

And there's that irritating sewer problem. Supposedly even if Kansas City spent $3 billion to stop sewer overflows, sections of KC streams would still violate state standards. But as one astute politician pointed out we can simply lower the standards--so we'd be in compliance. It's a little like the "surge" reports from Iraq.