Author Archives: Ruth Ann

About Ruth Ann

Founder and Curator of EarthSayers.tv, voices of Sustainability, the only specialized search engine to curated video content in the service of Sustainability.

Architecting A Web Presence for Sustainability

EarthSayer special collections are communities of thought leaders, their voices aggregated together around specific sustainability topics, organizations, programs, or projects. We think of them as landing pages for communities of leaders.

Examples include the TV program Sustainable Today; the topic Transforming Our Economy; the project Native Perspectives on Sustainability; the City of Portland; the Country of Costa Rica, and organizations such as Bioneers. The community represents a level of knowledge not available on any one site. Sponsoring organizations “share” the vision, knowledge, and experience of their leaders in one place as well as position them as sustainability thought leaders, and seed their story throughout the Web to gain higher rankings on key topics.

EarthSayers does not host the content as we use database technology to manage and embed content and on our site links back to the host site for more information and commenting. Links are also important to being found.

With the Web we have entered an age of abundance or data saturation and it is out of balance with the communication and reception of information. It is important to use sponsorship and partnerships to architect a commanding presence for the sustainability movement. EarthSayers in aggregating content sees itself as part of a future where the voices of sustainability are heard around the worldwide Web because they can be easily found in a sea of information. Since 2008 the number of search results for the term sustainability on Blinkx, the largest video search engine, has gone from 21,000 to over 300,000!

To sponsor a special collection, email me at ruthann@earthsayers.tv.

Put Web 2.0 to Work for Sustainability Awareness

If we are to increase sustainability awareness, it will be necessary for organizations in the non-profit sector including educational institutions to adopt Web 2.0 tools and techniques. What are they? I find McKinsey Consulting group has the best handle on this topic and highly recommend their annual and interative report, Business and Web 2.0.

Start with understanding the tools most useful and begin a conversation in your organization if you are not using the top four. With so much emphasis on social media it is easy to loose site of the basics in terms of communications infrastructure. There is free software support out there for the top four and many community resources for help on getting your feet wet.

Here are the top four:

Sustainability and the Global 100: U.S. Companies

Each year since 2005 Corporate Knights, the magazine for clean capitalism, announces the Global 100 which are “the global corporations which have been most proactive in managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The team that crunches the numbers is composed of Inflection Point Capital Management—a sustainability-focused asset management venture founded by Dr. Matthew Kiernan, Legg Mason’s Global Currents Investment Management, and Phoenix Global Advisors LLC (a consulting and technology platform focused on sustainability).

Eleven UK companies, two Brazilian, six Australian, five French, three German, nineteen Japanese, and these thirteen U.S. companies:

VIRTUOUS CYCLE

The motivation for doing this list, which follows an interesting methodology, is to mainstream “sustainability in the business community by applying objective corporate social and environmental measures that clearly show which companies stand above their peers, our aim is to create a virtuous cycle where the most sustainable companies attract the most capital and earn the best returns. The Global 100 companies deserve to be recognized, because they are models for the art of the possible, living proof of how billion dollar entities can squeeze more wealth from less material resources while honouring the social contract.”

It’s hard to argue against this intention so I think the best thing to do is circulate the list as far and wide as possible and hear what people from the social, environmental, cultural and economic perspectives of sustainability have to say about the companies on this list.

The key performance indicators (KPI’s) are very interesting and deserve some attention:

Noted by the authors was two fundamental limitations of corporate sustainability research:

1. A lack of ESG data persists despite the growing importance of sustainability to the corporate world.
2. No single sustainability research provider is currently able to provide a total picture of global corporate sustainability due to coverage gaps and methodological biases.

All in all it is a very interesting process and the conclusions need to be subject to scrutiny, but the intention is there to take sustainability awareness and adoption mainstream and what makes this an objective, rather than a mission or goal, are measurements and feedback loops.

NOTE MORE REPORTS

Weekly reports will be issued over the month of February in three installments (Environment, Social and Governance) covering each of the 10 specific key performance indicators plus the transparency metric. On February 28, the full suite of indicators will be made available for download in xls format from www.global100.org

Changing Our Habits by Dominique Conseil

Dominique Conseil was interviewed by me at the 4th Annual International Business and Sustainability Conference sponsored by The Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability at the School of Business Administration at Portland State University. View his interview on EarthSayers.tv, Culture and Consciousness special collection. Dominique is Global President of Aveda and an earthsayer, a voice of sustainability.

Creating Material Change by Heidi McCloskey

Heidi McCloskey was interviewed by me at the 4th Annual International Business and Sustainability Conference sponsored by The Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability at the School of Business Administration in Portland State University. Help with sourcing sustainable goods and commitment to innovation and collaboration. View her interview on EarthSayers.tv.
Heidi is Communications Director of the Textile Exchange.

Sustainability and Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is an important issue not only to the sustainability movement, and in particular EarthSayers.tv, our Internet Network dedicated to the sustainability movement, but to all individuals and organizations seeking to have a voice and with a cause.

In today’s interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Net Neutrality, Josh Silver, co-founder of the media reform group Free Press, notes “And with the internet brings this possibility that any website could act as a television network, a radio network. It is the ultimate game changer in the future of how Americans access information and learn about the world.”

It’s difficult to explain how EarthSayers is a Website that’s a Network. Working on getting this clearer for the power of it can be a game changer, but only when the game changers, many of whom are not Web savvy or just plain Internet adverse, see the advantages of investing in Networks like EarthSayers. We are one of a few but, as Josh says, “any Website could,” and we have been open to sharing our know how.

We will begin in 2011 to actively seek sponsors for EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability, and from those individuals and companies who want to change the game whether it be transforming our economic system to changing culture and consciousness. There are now over 700 sustainability voices on EarthSayers and we add more each day from over forty channels, traditional and online.

P.S. Josh notes that policy hasn’t kept up with technology so part of our job as sustainability advocates is to educate the policy makers and get them on board with the program.

Sustainability is a Personal Transformation

Many people from a wide range of professions and including members of my own family are under the impression that the indicators used by scientists to talk about the hazards of climate change and the effects of global warming are just part of a normal pattern and while we are on a downward slope just now, it’s a dip leading to an upturn as we adjust some of our behaviors, push technology, and extract natural gas as the alternative to our oil depletion problems.

Here are two videos featuring the natural scientist, William Steffen, that I recommend to these many people who are being unduly influenced by shows on TV to include the History channel that take a dim view of the science and pass on information that is not supported by any kind of evidence or actual experience.

In the first, Economic Transformation Not Enough, Professor Steffen talks about how we are “eating into the capital of the Earth” and increasingly becoming more self aware about what is happening, climate change being an example and bidiversity loss another major one. He identifies flash points where too fast and too great of change may lead to collapse, and at the end emphasizes that he believes the future wil depend on some very fundamental things, not just on economic instruments or new rules and regulations, but the nature of our aspirations, our values, our preferences and our choices. It will take nothing less than a transformation to avoid a collapse scenario.

The second, Shaping the Future, is less facts, less lecture, less information, but more optimism, still emphasizing transformation.

I agree with the Professor and am working on EarthSayers.tv to be a “wikipedia” of sustainability advocates to those who are searching on the Web for information about sustainability – challenges and opportunities. I feel very strongly that by bringing the unfiltered voices, rather than text, to the fore the values, aspirations, preferences and choices of those transforming our society will be heard and shared along with the ideas, programs, initiatives, theories, rules, instruments, and products of change. Our emphasis, though, is on the people, not organizations, not networks, not institutions. Ultimately, the transformation starts with each of us becoming aware and changing our lifestyles. This is a theme heard across the sustainability landscape and captured on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability. It’s all about You.

Sustainability Awareness and Search

In November, 2008 I wrote a short paper on Prosperity, one of four elements of sustainability. I referenced our mission of increasing sustainability awareness, awareness being the number one inhibitor to change.

“I had no idea it was so serious.”

At that time I noted that search traffic on Google, an awareness indicator, was at 30M. Today it’s still at 30M.

As organizations adopt sustainability strategies, the news and conversations emanating from these actions increase the search traffic on Google, so the “buzz” hasn’t increased much. Two years ago, the U.S. was sixth in search traffic on the term, behind the U.K, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. A measurement of our success for the mission of increasing sustainability awareness was moving the U.S. from sixth to first. Over the period of the last twelve months the U.S. is in ninth place, according to Google Analytics. Interest in sustainability in Asia is rising.

A Reuters report last month referenced a study by the UK-based analyst firm Verdantix. They reported “the United States’ spending on sustainable business will double to $60 billion by 2014 from the current $28 billion.” Verdantix director, David Metcalfe also noted, “In the U.S. market, executive awareness of the business benefits of sustainability is on the rise.

Awareness rising in business circles is a positive sign, yet overall the stagnant numbers on search traffic suggest our citizens are not being motivated to learn more about sustainability and are not active in the learning cycle. Once an individual searches on the term, he or she has entered the learning cycle and on the path to sustainability adoption at some or all levels – personal, business, community.

We are embarking on a more aggressive campaign to involve more partners in our quest to grow EarthSayers.tv and stimulate sustainability awareness and adoption.

Sustainability as a Peace and Prosperity Movement

Seth Godin’s blog post, How Media Changes Politics, got me thinking this morning about why sustainability is not part of the political discourse even around such critical issues as global warming, environmental degradation, and war.*

What Seth said: “Thus, as media moves from TV-driven to attention-driven, we’re going to see more outliers, more renegades and more angry people driving agendas and getting elected. I figure this will continue until other voices earn enough permission from the electorate to coordinate getting out the vote, communicating through private channels like email and creating tribes of people to spread the word. (And they need to learn not to waste this permission hassling their supporters for money.)”

Unfortunately, it’s not the outliers, renegades and angry folk of the progressive or populist movement that are being effective in (or investing in) this post TV attention-driven world. Their strategy, whatever it is, is not effective nor connecting – more “Can’t Hear You” than anything else.

Daniel O'Connell, 1836 – by Bernard Mulrenin

It seems the primary marketing tactic for the progressives and populists are meetings, especially mass meetings. It’s all about headcount. This was also the primary tactic of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) who held a series of “Monster Meetings” in Ireland, so called because each was attended by around 100,000 people. Very effective back then and the beginnings of what continues as a primary political strategy.

So as meetings and events continue to be a major element in the marketing mix for the progressives what I fear is that the idea of “mix” may have been lost on them. Their strategy needs to be modernized and if my emails represent a trend then the “hassling for money” needs to be curtailed when a more private channel like email is used. Emails are mainly about money. MoveOn.com here in Portland, Oregon has become the event and party channel. This isn’t a bad thing as long as it isn’t the one big, monster thing in the marketing mix.

EarthSayers.tv Mission

The TRIBE

The sustainability movement, on the other hand, small but growing, is an integrating movement, rather than political. The meetings held around the movement are less about headcount and more about education and network building and, yes, decidedly more business, but not exclusively, as evidenced by regional Green Festivals and local events around health, environmental, and social equity issues. More tribe-like, less monster-like.

Integration

A strategy of integration, and for sustainability there is no choice given its breadth and depth, fits well with the Web’s video and interactive capabilities and also supports a distributive model of power, while supporting inter-connected, smaller networks. It’s not just a shift of platform but a change in what gains attention — a shift from an organizational focus — the “IT” with its programs, project, initiatives, and issues to the “WHO.”

The WHO

And when it comes to the WHO, lots of smaller lights rather than one or two big ones: a diverse, geographically dispersed leadership. This is the tack we support with EarthSayers.tv as we build the eyeball count while focused on delivering relevant and quality content of the unfiltered voices of sustainability. Over 600 voices (and growing) joining with the bigger spotlighted leaders such as Al Gore and Paul Hawkin. An integration strategy requires sustainability leaders to be more vocal and visible on the Web and at regional, local, and Web events. Being Web-adverse won’t cut it. It’s not business or politics as usual.

For Daniel O’Connell back then the alternative to politics was force.** And is force today. Sustainability advocates from all of the sectors of the world economy need to give voice to peace and prosperity and move this pairing to the top of the sustainability agenda. It will move the leaders of war up to the top of the unsustainables list along side polluters and slave traders. The sustainability movement offers an alternative to politics and force, but the voices on this haven’t risen to the top — yet. If there is to be one voice of the sustainability movement, and I think we need one in this phase of our growth, it needs to be peace and prosperity for all.

Eaches

This is an “eaches” thing – Each of us sustainability advocates must move Peace and Prosperity to the top of our personal and professional agendas. The “WHO” is you and me.

Notes:
*FYI According to a recent survey by Opinion Research Corporation and reported today by the Civil Society Institute “Independents are more than twice as likely as Tea Party supporters (62 percent versus 27 percent) to see global warming as a problem in need of a solution, compared to 39 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats.

The silence is deafening out there on the part of our political leaders, not only for global warming, but peace and prosperity.

** “The principle of my political life…is, that all ameliorations and improvements in political institutions can be obtained by persevering in a perfectly peaceable and legal course, and cannot be obtained by forcible means, or if they could be got by forcible means, such means create more evils than they cure, and leave the country worse than they found it.” Daniel O’Connell writing in The Nation newspaper, November 18, 1843.

Sustainability: Challenges and Risks

“Ideally, however, no institutions in modern society are better situated and none more obliged to facilitate the transition to a sustainable future than colleges and universities…”

This quote is from David Orr’s book, The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention. He is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and is also a James Marsh Professor at large at the University of Vermont. What caught my attention in this book was Dr. Orr’s question that followed the above statement :

“What would it mean for educational institutions to meet this challenge?”

Sustainability advocates working throughout the system might find his observations in terms of higher education applicable to other institutions. Here is his summary of the needs and risks with a few of my off-side comments in parenthesis.

– Dialogue
For one thing it would mean fostering in every possible way a broad and ongoing dialogue about concentrated economic power and the changes that will be necessary to build a sustainable economy.

(Nearly everyone I talk with cites “silos” as a major barrier to dialogue, collaboration, and the cross fertilization of ideas. In Universities they are called departments. Non-profits can be special interest silos. In business silos are formed around functions e.g. marketing or business units or even geographies.

Risk
I know of no safe way to conduct that conversation that would not threaten the comfortable or risk losing some of the institution’s financial support, a sensitive topic when the average cost of college education is becoming prohibitively expensive.

(This should sound familiar to folks in non-profits, organizations relying on advertisers, politicians, political parties…)

– Systemic Thinking
Furthermore, colleges and universities ought to equip students, by every means possible, to think systematically, rationally, and, yes, emotionally about long term technological choices and how such decisions should be made.

(Here “students” can be expanded to include customers, employees, shareholders, partners.)

Risk

That discussion, too, would raise contentious issues having to do with the meaning of progress and economic growth. And it would implicitly challenge the unbrideled freedom of inquiry, if the extreme exercise of that freedom undermines biological order, democratic institutions, and social sustainability that give rise to it in the first place. Issues of “who gains and who loses” from unrestricted inquiry will press heavily on the university and cannot be dodged much longer.

(I haven’t heard any one discuss the unbrideled freedom of inquiry and extreme exercise of that freedom which undermines biological order, but my guess is that GMO and the patenting of seeds might fall into this category.)

Greed
Finally the cynical view, pawned off as “objective” social science, that humans are only self-maximizers must be revealed for what it is: half-truth in service to the economy of greed. Increasingly the young know that their inheritance is being spent carelessly and sometimes fraudulently…

(Think economics and the free market then read Raj Patel’s book, The Value of Nothing and give a listen to Raj on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.

-Communication
What they may not know is where we, their teachers, mentors, and role models stand or what we stand for.

(This is where we have focused our efforts by creating EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability: the unfiltered voices. It’s time for leaders to step up to the plate and give voice to their views.)

Sustainability Advocate

Ruth Ann Barrett of EarthSayers.tv, Voices of Sustainability