Paradox 1: Tradeoffs for the environmentally concerned

A friend from back home emailed me a little while ago and asked me about one issue that is particularly bugging her about becoming more environmentally conscious.

There’s all these great new innovations/products etc etc designed to decrease greenhouse gas emmissions, decrease waste production/landfill trash, decrease fossil fuel consumptions etc etc. But it seems like by being conscious of one aspect of “saving the environment”, you almost inevitably increase another.

She brought up a lot of good points. For instance, hybrids are great during their useful life, but what about their afterlife? Supposedly, they can’t be recycled like most cars and are thus meant for the rough and polluting graveyard.

I responded to her with a “yeah! cool that you’re reading my blog!” but also with some answers on the environmental paradoxes.

We have to live with trade-offs – that’s a matter of life. And almost everything we do will inevitably hurt the environment or give us cancer. C’est la vie quoi;) However, a more useful answer actually comes from one of the courses I’m taking right now.

Let’s start looking at the whole lifespan of a product.

This is called Life Cycle Assessments. It takes into account all of the environmental impacts along the entire lifespan of a product. With things like this you can compare the impacts with a more solid ground.

There’s a lot of push right now for businesses to start doing more LCA studies on their products to figure out where they can find efficiencies through the supply chain. After a quick search on it, just found out that Montreal actually just had a conference on it last week. Cycle 2007: Modern Society’s Economic Model is Outdated. Here too.

Interesting stuff and it helps answer some of these questionable environmental choices that we’re faced with. I have to say though: after doing flowcharts after flowcharts and thinking about emissions to air, emissions to water blah blah blah…. it’s a good scientific way of figuring out what you already know. Be smart. Be efficient.

Paradox 2 will be coming shortly;)

Suomi updates: Today I was happy that the sky was a little brighter. And by that I mean light gray… not dark gray. Yesterday was terrible and wet. And all I can say is that it’s going to get darker… I don’t know if I’m prepared for months without sunlight. Let me know if my blog becomes a bit too depressing….

Sorry.. don’t get me wrong though. Life is still good here;)

No more leaves really but liked this one- ahh..Fall. Happy Halloween everyone.

GiveMeaning on the Hour

Just a quick one, I should be going to bed…

While reading up on my feeds today I noticed that my friend Tom Williams had just done an interview with George Stoumbouloupolous on CBC’s the Hour. Had to check it out.  Good video of the whole thing.

Tom and I met at  mesh in May and our ideas really clicked.  I actually went to Toronto for the conference specifically to get in touch with him and another friend now, Will Pate. Their ideas on philanthropy and building communities seemed to jive with what I wanted to get out of a social media conference. And to be honest, I can still pull up the energy that I got at the conference when thinking of new ideas on businesses, projects, environment marketing etc etc etc. It’s amazing what happens when like-minded people start talking.

Anyways, Tom’s site GiveMeaning.com is doing quite well.   In short, “GiveMeaning.com is an online fundraising site emphasizing creative fundraising ideas and other unique forms of charity donation. “   Take a look and give him your thoughts if you’re keen on it. He’s pretty open to it.

Cheers.

Hey Entrepreneurs! Let’s start connecting the dots.

Great post over on the Instigator Blog on How Entrepreneurs Can Save the World.

It’s great to read someone else’s thoughts and realize that they correspond seemingly well with your own. It makes you feel like you’re not so in left field…

My thoughts on it? Perfectly stated, but I just added that we need to start connecting the dots. We’ve already got the problems. (We’ve got many of them!) And we’ve got great entrepreneurs. Let’s start fixing the problems that we have already and stop contributing to them.

(p.s – that’s Archimedes sitting in the bath. I thought this was a suitable picture for the post considering the term

For the Generation Y’s:

Scott Fusco added the comment that he thought the topic was very targeted to the Gen Ys. I agree and I’m one of them.

So for all the gen Y readers (perhaps you Facebook readers?) that are itching to start your own business, read the article and just think about the business possibilities.

People try so hard to make “interesting” business models with new technologies and new “solutions” that will solve problems that never really existed in the first place. (i.e.  infomercials anyone?)  Just take a look around! There are opportunities everywhere we look. From the way we package our fruit to the way we flush our toilets. (Great analogies eh?)  Smart solutions are needed. 

I hope to see more of these eco-entrepreneurs become millionaires and lead the markets in the future. It’ll be interesting to watch.

Where’s the iron ring for business graduates?

Someone once asked me. So… what’s the difference between what you’re doing (Corporate Environmental Management) and real business? I was a little peeved at the question.My answer was quite simple. I’m specializing. Same as there are specializations in marketing or finances etc… this is environmental management. What more do you want me to say?

But in reality, if I reflect a little more on the issue, it’s true.

Sustainable development = “Built to last” business

Business and sustainable development go hand in hand. If you want to build a company that lasts (i.e… a sustainable company) then perhaps you should think about risk management and future resource issues.

But after four years of business education, I can honestly say that they never really touched on this concept aside from a few optional geography classes and the one mandatory ethics class.

Put it this way: when engineers and doctors graduate they are reminded of the social duty bestowed upon them as professionals. So where’s the iron ring for business leaders? They can often be rewarded much more for their efforts, yet we don’t put them up to the same standard? Hmm…interesting.

I’m not saying that all businesses should have treehugger written all over them. I’m saying that all businesses should completely understand their social and environmental impact. Eco-efficiency is possible. It takes a bit more effort and a more holistic way at looking at the balance sheet, but being responsible and being profitable is the only way forward if we ever want to start fixing up some of the issues we have today.

Sustainable development will only happen in a capitalistic fashion and business education has to step it up to make this a reality. Not just in specialized masters programmes, but in the core curriculum.

Make money and be responsible. Who argues?

p.s. Jay – still thinking/writing on some better arguments on efficiency and conservation for the short and long term. Haven’t forgotten;) But yep, it’s a tricky challenge.

My thoughts on global warming: I don’t care.

Does this statement shock you? Coming from someone studying it – it probably should.

I just posted the same argument on two Globe and Mail articles. It’s unnerving to read the back and forth foolish conversation. You’re either a Harperite (right-winger for those int’l readers) or a crazy leftist or a denier or an alarmist. It seems as though we’ve never graduated from kindergarten.

So why don’t I care about the one of the biggest debates covering the news? I don’t care because I feel like people are attacking the science and forgetting the common sense.

 But here was the gist of my post:

I’m not going to pretend that I know all of the science behind the causes and effects of climate change. I can research it and study it but at the end of the day, I’m not a scientist. And most likely, nor are most of the people debating these scientific theories.

 

But let me ask you all this:

 

• Are you against conservation?
• Are you against efficiency?
• Are you against making smarter choices so that we take care of our natural resources for the generations to come?

 

Let the scientists debate about the actual science, but just look at the issue with common sense.

 

• Population is increasing (can you debate that?)
• Demand for natural resources is increasing (can you debate that?)
• Natural resources are essential to life (can you debate that?)
• Natural resources are being depleted faster than they can be restored
  • (read the Natural Step and for hard data, go to Earthtrends.org if you’re questioning this point)

Combine the basic facts that you know….then make your judgment.  We all have to live with uncertainty.

I don’t really care what side of the “global warming” fence you’re on (or any environmental discussion for that matter) but are we so passionate about debating that we forget about the actual issues?

Problems are happening all around us – whether we choose to believe it or not – and we’re not helping solve these issues when everyone (including the non-scientists) simply argue scientific conclusions back and forth.

I’m not saying don’t question, just don’t be ignorant.

In terms of my own personal stance on global warming?

I’ll believe what I want to believe but one thing is sure: I’m not going to sit back and wait for “scientific consensus” to start making changes. My common sense is telling me which path to take.

Gladwell, telling it like it is.

Wow, I feel like I’m a Globe fanatic. So nice to read about Canada though!

Today’s Globe had an interview with Malcolm Gladwell. I’m a big fan of both Tipping Point and Blink. He’s commonsensical (yep, it’s a word;) and he always manages to find the most compelling of arguments to support his theses.

I’m showcasing it here because it actually touches on many of the topics that I’ve talked about (i.e. we need more math! labour crunch, smarter people – ok perhaps I haven’t blogged too much about that yet but it’s been in my head)

I hope the government listens though and beefs up our education system. Mind you, I have to say that school back home was much harder than the school here (at least for the moment).

He also, points to the way the web should be. Call it web 3.0, or whatever you want but he’s right. We need to start getting smarter about weeding out the crap and getting access to the right info.

How do you see technological advances changing the workplace in the coming years?

I don’t know. That’s the kind of question I think one only embarrasses oneself by trying to answer. But I know that the next problem we need to solve is, we have given people virtually unlimited access to data, to information; the next question is, can we give them better tools for making sense of that information?

In any case, thought it was a good read.

Finland updates: Feeling settled, had a great sauna/potluck dinner on the weekend, school is good and I’m learning more languages! Slowly but surely I’m picking up the Finnish, I’m taking Spanish on the side with the help of a girl from the Canary Islands and in the winter I’ll be taking beginner Chinese. Should be fun.

Hyvää yötä!