The Right Way to Flourish - John R. Ehrenfeld

Taking a Short Break

January 12, 2009No Comments

(Credit to Dave Walker) I’ll be back in a few days.

The idea of local economies is in the air. A few days ago I met with someone I met at my last book talk. It turns out he is working to establish a local economy in the town next door to Lexington where I live. Then in the last few days, two very interesting items about local economies turned up in my daily alerts and RSS feeds from websites featuring sustainability in some form or another. [WorldChanging](http://www.worldchanging.com/) has a story about local currencies, noting their emergence in faltering economies.The economic function of such currencies is to enable people under severe… Read More

Bowing to Peer Pressure

January 9, 2009No Comments

Marketplace has this interesting audio . A growing body of research shows the most effective way to get people to go green is not through do-good appeals, but rather peer pressure. Sarah Gardner reports on the latest research findings. It makes interesting listening and is worth the five minutes it takes. I do accept the findings that peer pressure is effective in bringing about changed behavior, but I also believe that this behavior modification method leaves existing belief structures in place. It good for reducing unsustainability. Great. But it does little or even may hinder the move to sustainability since… Read More

Handle With Care

January 8, 2009No Comments

Complexity researchers, Reinette Biggs, Stephen R. Carpenter, and William A. Brock, in a new article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Only the abstract that follows is freely available to the general public. They point to the danger of waiting until signs of collapse cannot be ignored. By then the collapse may be inevitable. (Hat tip to Garry Peterson) Ecological regime shifts are large, abrupt, long-lasting changes in ecosystems that often have considerable impacts on human economies and societies. Avoiding unintentional regime shifts is widely regarded as desirable, but prediction of ecological regime shifts is notoriously… Read More

Learning from India

January 7, 2009No Comments

In an interview on the E-Commerce Times, environmental educator Trudy Heller shows how we can learn sustainability from other parts of the world. In Shillong, I would leave the guest house each morning and walk out into a scene from a sustainable economy. In the driveway and walkways, four or five women were employed sweeping up debris that had fallen from the trees during the previous night’s rain. Each woman worked with a biodegradable sweeper made of broom grass, a locally grown agricultural product. This tableau of a sustainable economy was striking to my Western senses. The system provided employment,… Read More

More Buzzword Talk from the UK

January 6, 2009No Comments

Still finding stories about sustainability becoming a buzzword. From the Guardian: The Centre for Policy Studies has published its 2009 lexicon of “contemporary newspeak” (ie irritating jargon) and it seems to have identified “sustainability” as the worst offender. In his preface, Bill Jamieson writes: Few words have become more heavily used or abused in government or corporate affairs than “sustainable”. It now occupies a lofty position in the towering hierarchy of buzzwords. It is commonplace today to stick the word “sustainable” in front of almost anything, to talk of “sustainable development”, “sustainable transport”, “sustainable housing”, “sustainable communities” and so on.… Read More

Seeing (RED)©

January 5, 20092 Comments

A few weeks ago during a break at a conference I was attending, I wandered into the Starbucks in the hotel lobby and ordered a coffee. I am not much of a coffee drinker these days, but I felt the need for some liquid refreshment. I generally prefer Peets anyway because they have great teas, and still make espresso the right way by hand tamping. Starbucks’ push button technology smoothes out all the variations that makes life interesting. But what really caught my attention was the paper insulating band. The first item I noticed was a promise to donate a… Read More

Nipping “Green” in the Budzword

January 5, 2009No Comments

[Green Inc.](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/) sort of [recognizes](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/language-watchdog-is-fed-up-with-green/) some irony in the name of their blog. > Do blogs like Green Inc. (and its predecessor, T[he Business of Green](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/on-the-color-of-money/)) have something to answer for? > People and companies employing the word “green” in environmental contexts are guilty of “mis-use, over-use, general uselessness,” according to Lake Superior State University in Michigan, which last week unveiled its results from an [annual survey](http://www.lssu.edu/banished/) – it’s 34th – of words that should be banished. > > “Environmental buzzwords are getting the axe this year,” the university said in a statement. “‘Green’ and ‘going green’ received the most… Read More

Water With Intention™

January 5, 20092 Comments

A few days ago I picked Fiji water as my first choice in Marketplace’s list of greenwashing candidates for 2008 and added another. Here is still another one that might top the list: [H2Om](http://www.h2omwater.com/mission.html). You can buy a case online in these varieties: Perfect Health, Love, Prosperity, Gratitude, Will Power, Joy, and Peace for only $34.95. Besides simply thirst quenching, this water will bring you whatever the label says. “Vibrationally charged via words, colors, music, and You!” You simply have to, “Think it While You Drink It®” The company mission > Our Mission is to create awareness and education on… Read More

Is Sustainability Becoming Another Buzzword?

January 2, 2009No Comments

Among all the year-end recaps of 2008, a [International Herald Tribune Culture column](http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/22/arts/design22.php?page=1) about design appeared to give sustainability a rousing cheer with a headline reading, “2008: The year that substance and sustainability reigned.” But reading further, the story was more about damning with faint praise. On the trend in design, their assessment is hardly consistent with sustainability. The article featured Nacho Carbonell’s “Evolution bench,” a highlight at the 2008 Milan Furniture Fair. > It’s ugly and ungainly. The colors are dirty, and it has a very strange shape. You can sit on it (though not very comfortably) by perching… Read More