Category Archives: sustainability

Sustainability Runs Deep: Fracking and You

Let’s start with a place.

It’s an infographic published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that demonstrates Pennsylvania’s Natural Gas Production growth. In words: “Between 2009 and 2011, Pennsylvania’s natural gas production more than quadrupled due to expanded horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing.”

What’s the problem?

$fracked$ Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” relies on a technique called horizontal slickwater fracturing. The headline of the video doesn’t use the term, fracking, largely, I think, because it is most frequently used by its detractors who are concerned about the environmental and social risks associated with the use of this technique which include contamination of our environment (air, water, land) and the health risks it poses to our communities and citizens.

The Detractors.

You can bet the recently released movie, Promised Land, staring Matt Damon, has the oil and gas industry all prepared with a PR campaign to counter claims made in the film that puts it decidedly in the camp of the detractors. Some of you reading this blog may know more about such plans than I, but I do know a movie like this means our citizens will find it harder to ignore this major issue as it moves to the big screen and money is invested in public relations to include that rascal of marketing, social media.

Hard to argue against, but…

For my part it looks like gas reserves are plentiful and provide the following: an “alternative” to oil; a competitive advantage to bringing manufacturing/service jobs back home; and profits to the oil and gas industry. Articles in the Financial Times with headlines such as “Europe’s public must be sold on shale’s merits” referring to a U.S. revolution of “economic, industrial and geopolitical significance” to ‘Gas strategy’ threatens carbon targets. Whoops. What’s that about climate change? “The [greenhouse gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years.” (article) That’s a real show stopper for this sustainability advocate as are other disturbing environmental and health warnings.

Downside Management.

Externalizing the risks and costs (John Fullerton of Capital Institute video) associated with negative, possibly disastrous environmental, social, and cultural consequences of high risk energy alternatives is an accepted management practice to keep the downside off the books. The impact from legal and insurance actions (or non-actions) require all of us to educate ourselves and conduct due diligence.

Education and due diligence.

As an example there is an upcoming event by The Seminar Group on February 8th that caught my eye and is the kind of education we need more of across all professions and quickly. This program on Fracking includes a review of pending litigation and legislative efforts underway in response to the increasing use of hydraulic fracking and the central role played by domestic and international insurance brokers and insurers in providing insurance policies tailored to the specific and unique needs associated with the exploration for oils and gas.

This month as reported in the Financial Times “North Sea operators face tougher insurance conditions from January 1 as part of a wider tightening of rules designed to ensure UK oil and gas explorers are practically and financially equipped to deal with major spills.” This action was inspired by the Gulf Oil Spill. One hopes for tough insurance conditions when it comes to fracking and that’s what is meant by “tailored to the specific and unique needs.”

Sustainability and YOU

Ultimately, we need to look at the situation from the three perspectives of planet, people, and prosperity. We have a track record of externalizing risks and costs that has cost us and the planet dearly, maybe to a degree that we are quite literally cooked. Fracking offers us the opportunity to re-think the where, how and what of energy economics, consumption, and public policy. This won’t happen without awareness, education, and community leadership in other words, YOU.

Three Voices of Sustainability and 1 Billion Rising

This past year we made an effort to increase the number of indigenous voices of sustainability to our collection and those of women. You see this reflected in our voices of Sustainability 2012 where we feature the animated stories of Annie Leonard, the photography of Lisa Kristine, the inspiring words of Mayan elder Flordemayo, and add a reminder of the upcoming 1 Billion Rising event – women calling for an end to violence.

Since last year the collection has grown to nearly 1,500 voices of sustainability drawing attention to the many men, women, and children from around the world who speak up on behalf of Mother Earth, her citizens, and the principle of prosperity. They include business and civic leaders, experts, teachers, consultants – citizens from all walks of life. Click on the titles to view videos and follow additional links.

Life with Annie Leonard

This last month we honored Annie Leonard by including her in our special collection, Sustainability Champions and featured her work to include: The Story of Citizens United, The Story of Electronics, The Story of Broke, The Story of Cosmetics, The Story of Bottled Water, and Cap and Trade: Devil in the Details.

Annie Leonard was the International Honoree 2012 of the tenth Annual Global Exchange Human Rights Awards.

The Wisdom of the Elders by Lisa Kristine

Lisa Kristine, a fine arts photographer, talks about how her childhood led to seeking out indigenous knowledge through her photography of people, interconnected as we are, and all sharing the gift of our first breadth. She has documented indigenous cultures all over the world. A TEDx presentation by CalicoCanyan.

We also added to our collection her very moving TEDx presentation in Maui on January 22nd of 2012, Illuminating the World of Modern-day Slavery.

Recognizing the Great Mystery by Mayan Elder Flordemayo

Keys to Recognizing the Great Mystery by Mayan elder Flordemayo of the Thirteen Grandmothers, reminding us the heart is key and the biggest challenge is to be still. If you have not heard of the International Council of Thirteen Grandmothers, please visit their site. They represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come.

1 Billion Rising – February 14, 2013

On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 2.14.13, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders. Here is their Website.

Become sustainability advocates. Use EarthSayers.tv to pepper your conversations with out-of-the-box thinking, link to fresh voices on social network discussions, especially LinkedIn, and use social media and advertising to spread the word to increase sustainability awareness.

Ruth Ann Barrett, December 31, 2012, Portland, Oregon.

Santa’s View

Yes, I believe in Santa. And I never thought of him as a toy maker but a distributor. One who spreads joy and goodwill, connecting us all. So today I watched one of my favorite videos, The Known Universe, I added to the EarthSayers.tv collection this last year. It was created and then published on YouTube by the American Museum of Natural History. It was part of the exhibit, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, held at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan in 2010.

I thought about Santa when I first saw it, so see our Universe from his perspective.

VP of Social and Environmental Sustainability

Meet Michael Kobori. He is VP of Social and Environmental Sustainability at Levi Strauss and Company.

He is the person I had in mind when in March of 2011 I wrote a blog post comparing sustainability to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and noted “Up to now the C-level sustainability officer is generally focused on environmental concerns, water and energy being high priorities, and cost reductions. At the social and environmental sustainability intersection is where companies can begin to examine their role in externalizing risks and costs, a practice and mind set that has greatly harmed the environment and all living beings.”

So look at how Levi’s represents sustainability on their Website.

Follow the leader.

Listen to a video interview of Michael by 3BL Media at the BSR 2012 conference on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, November 12, 2012, Portland Oregon

Putting Feet On Your Press Release

It’s time to wed the traditional press release with the Web, particularly social media, and to do so in a way that makes it easy for your audience – the press, supporters, partners, sponsors – to spread the word. In a presentation I have prepared, Putting Feet On Your Press Release, using the new storytelling tool, Prezi, the following is detailed and an example provided:

1. How many of the PR releases you receive are dense with copy;

2. Offer no easy method for referring people to a copy of the press release; and

3. Provide no copy to be used in a twitter, expecting your audience to boil down dense copy to 140 characters.

We use a recent press release of our own as an example in the presentation.

Start the fall off with putting feet on your press release, especially, if you are using them to announce sustainability-related issues, events, and programs. Our objective is to increase sustainability awareness and the press release is an important tool so we want to see it used more effectively.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon, August 31, 2012.

P.S. The tool, Prezi, takes a couple of minutes to get used to but basically you use arrows to follow a path I have created, so there is not much work involved once you get familiar with the buttons. There is always the option of giving you the presentation over the phone or in person, so if you want help, call me (415-377-1835).

Where’s Your YouTube Channel?

The question is not why post to YouTube, but why not?

Source: Diffbot

Many sustainability-related organizations, especially non-profits and even local governments, post their video content to Vimeo ignoring YouTube and Blip.tv. I advise to post to all three, and start with YouTube. In our video aggregation efforts where we are pulling sustainability content from multiple channels over 50% of the content we curate and select for inclusion in our EarthSayers.tv collection comes from YouTube, suggesting as to the quality of YouTube content despite beliefs out there that is is all talking dogs and viral glop.

After all, one of the primary objectives of posting content is to get it viewed and to get it viewed you need to appear ideally “above the fold” on search page results for the key terms you want to get traction on for your cause, product, service, and/or brand. Have you noticed the positive effect YouTube can have on page rankings not to mention it is the second most popular search engine?

Somethings I just don’t understand and not being on YouTube is one of them especially when you all ready have video content.

Here by the way is the rest of the infographic (on Mashable) based on an analysis of 750,000 links posted on Twitter. Diffbot‘s new Page Classifier API was used to provide this revealing snapshot of a day in the life of Twitter. The tool identifies the type of content behind any web link.

The (event) Afterlife

The afterlife of an event featuring sustainability leaders isn’t being given much thought. Where is the afterlife? On the Web and successfully so when video is used to extend the reach of the unfiltered voices of the leaders brought together, often at great expense, by event sponsors. Here are some recommendations to discuss among your colleagues who incorrectly perceive video as an added expense, rather than as an investment.

1. Live stream and/or provide video “on-demand” covering the main presenters, panels and or teaching circles. Engage partners in sponsoring the live stream and on-demand “product” much as they have done so in the past for the conference itself or for lunches, receptions, and workshops.

Case in Point: We are providing sixteen hours of streaming content for our client, The Seed Institute, for their upcoming conference, WISDOM FROM THE ORIGINS: The Mayan Calendar and Other Prophecies on the Future of Humanity this September 13-17, 2012, in Albuquerque, NM. There are over thirty presenters ranging from the best selling authors, Marianne Williamson and James O’Dea to wisdom keepers representing fifteen indigenous tribes. We will be reporting back in late fall on this experience as a model the non-profits, especially associations and educational organizations.

2. Interview thought leaders at the conference, both presenters and attendees and pepper the Web with them.

Case in point: Take a look at how 3BL Media has worked with event organizers to interview their leadership, now positioned as sustainability thought leaders on EarthSayers.tv.

3. Maximize visibility by using a search strategy identifying keywords/phrases when posting content and always include the big picture phrases, not only sustainability, but those specific to the event such as responsible investing along with names of leaders.

Case in point: We interviewed Julia Anastasio, Director of Sustainability for the American Public Works Association (APWA) at a meeting on Sustainability by the APWA. This content now contributes to her visibility as Director of Sustainability; as a subject expert in 3(e)BL; and as a sustainability thought leader in the category of transforming our economy. Here are the results:

Searching on the subject 3(e)TBL and we see this content is well seeded with Julia in the top listing:

Finally on a category search, Transforming Our Economy, the special collection on EarthSayers with Julia’s presentation in this collection, comes up in the top three rankings. This positions Julia as a sustainability thought leader and by extension her organization.

4. Post content, in whole or part, and in order of importance to search strategy on your (1) YouTube, (2) Vimeo and (3) Blip.tv channels.

Leave a trail of something other than carbon emissions. As cited in a recent article, “Air travel is incredibly destructive to our environment. Just one round-trip flight from New York City to San Francisco, CA is nearly 15% of the annual carbon emissions for the average American.” This quote is from an excellent article, “How to Lesson Air Travel’s Damage to our World,” in case you missed it. AND at the same time, reduce emissions while extending the reach and impact of our sustainability leaders.

Leverage your events to help our citizens find the voices of sustainability to be educated, inspired and motivated.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon, 97201, 415-377-1835.

Playing on the Edges? Move to the Center of Sustainability

The MIT/Sloan Management Review article, How to Become A Sustainable Company, addresses playing at the edges in one clear statement:

Currently, organizations that exhibit a broad- based commitment to sustainability on the basis of

their original corporate DNA are few and far between.

I was reminded of this statement listening to Canadian sustainability pioneer, David Suzuki, being interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now yesterday on RIO+20 and the so-called green economy. Here is the interview.

There is one observation in particular that addresses a fundamental paradigm shift that needs to be made in our thinking, in our consciousness in order to survive beyond this century. It rests on our ability as leaders to “reassess everything.”

“And if we don’t see the that we are utterly imbedded in the natural world and dependent on nature, not technology, not economics, not science — we are dependent on Mother Nature for our very well being and survival. If we don’t see that, then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economies, corporations, markets. Those are all human created things. They shouldn’t dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere. And the leaders in that should be the indigenous people who still have that sense, that the earth is truly are mother, that it gives birth to us.”

The indigenous people are our citizens who actually live in places of “extreme sources of energy” as referenced in David Suzuki’s comments and referred to by Erick Gonzalez, the founder and spiritual leader of Earth Peoples United, as the “last frontier.” Erick emphasizes the last frontier for extreme sources of energy are in the territories of the indigenous people. Give him a listen. It takes less than two and half minutes and is a move from the edges of sustainability to its center. Click here.

Next look more closely at Tar Sands as a place and what it means for the biosphere by listening to the indigenous people living there such as Clayton Thomas-Muller and Alanna Hurley and then listen to the Canadian artists, such as Garth Lenz and Edward Burtynsky present their photography as they capture in pictures what is meant by “extreme sources of energy.” Move your attention to the center, but hurry, as “Our Scarcest Resource is Time,” as emphasized by Sustainability Pioneers David Suzuki, Lester Brown, Maurice Strong, Rajendra Pachauri, Bill Ford, Sha Zukang, and Jonathan Porritt in a video of the same title. It is part of the Ray Anderson Memorial Video Series by The Regeneration Project an initiative of the think tank, Sustainability and the research company, GlobeScan and sponsored by SC Johnson and the BMW Group.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon on June 27, 2012.

Seek Out and Learn from Sustainability Leaders

In a recent article, How to Become a Sustainable Company, in the Summer 2012 issue of the MIT/Sloan Management Review they ask the question, “What differentiates sustainable companies from traditional ones?” To the answer in a minute.

Although the article references commitment to sustainability, noting that few companies are born with it, an issue arises for me that goes beyond terminology and suggests a fundamental misunderstanding – to be a sustainable company is not equal to being a company committed to sustainability. The adjective, sustainable and the noun sustainability are not one in the same. Unfortunately, the former is what is popular in business, both public and private and the answer to the question above demonstrates what I mean. According to the article the differences are:

Sustainable organizations are effective at engaging with external stakeholders and employees

They have cultures based on innovation and trust

They have a track record of implementing large-scale change

These are not unique to sustainability nor to sustainable companies. Petroleum and toxin-based companies, for example, may be successful at all three and yet have no commitment to sustainability, to the seven generations, mired as their leadership may be in the short term, and, ultimately, in denial about global warming and the inability of an economic system that externalizes risk and costs to ever bounce back.

Sustainability is a goal, a desire, a hope and it signifies the ABILITY to drive change, first, at the personal level. We need sustainability leaders to drive a sustainability culture in their organizations. This point is raised in the MIT/Sloan report:

“When leadership commitment drives the process, it usually comes from the personal resolution of a CEO to create a more sustainable company. In general, top-level executives have the ability to create an enterprise-wide vision and the clout to see that it is realized. Without this commitment, becoming a sustainable company is a “nonstarter.”

While leadership commitment is talked about as critical, the report continues with the language of ” leaders of traditional and sustainable companies” rather than sustainability leaders of companies directing our attention to how things are not working rather than who is working. Our sustainability leaders need to influence their “traditional” peers, first, to raise their consciousness as quickly as possible. There are two very effective ways to advance the personal and model the behavior that is desperately needed.

Online Video

Here’s an interview with Dominique Conseil , Global President of Aveda and Karl-Henrik Robert founder of the Natural Step, both sustainability leaders. Or listen to The Regeneration Project’s Ray Anderson Memorial video series, here is one video, Why Meaningful Progress Depends on Activists – Spotlight on Civil Society, featuring sustainability leaders Jonathon Porritt, Vandana Shiva, Nitin Desai, Lester Brown, Bill Ford, Kris Gopaladrishman, Yolanda Kakabadse and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Online Video and Research

Dr. David Hall of Portland State University stepped out of the box and advanced the personal by producing a series of sustainability leadership videos as part of his research called Native Perspectives. Here you can listen to the indigenous voices, sustainability leaders, of the Salmon Nation.

Face-to-Face

The Regeneration Project, between July and October, will host a number of Salons – curated, facilitated conversations with influential stakeholders from across industry and sector. These Salons will take place in major international cities across the world. Attendance is to be limited to approximately 50 people, on an invitation-only basis. Great work and hopefully the start of something fresh in sustainability awareness, education, and innovation. The project is an inititiave of GlobeScan, a public opinion research company and Sustainability, a think tank and strategy consultancy.

All of this is to say go ahead and read the research digging into sustainable companies, but give more time to listening to your peers who are sustainability leaders, pioneers, heroes, and innovators. Look for research and events that emphasize the personal over organizational. Rely less on processed information when you can now hear directly from the sustainability leadership as found in the hundreds of companies that are for-benefit and in the hundreds of voices of sustainability from across the Web, the reason we invested in bringing together these voices for you in one place, EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, June 19, 2012, Portland, Oregon.

The Arts and Sustainability Advocacy

I always like to do something special on my birthday hoping I can look back and remember what I did to celebrate a milestone, heavy as they can be. I remember my 4oth and 50th for example but not much in between and my all time favorite remains my 16th. So for this birthday which is an even numbered one and let’s leave it at that, I want to call out the sustainability advocates I have added recently to our collection, Artist & Musicians on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability. These men and women join business and civic leaders, teachers, consultants, experts, and citizens from all professions as sustainability advocates.

Find some time in your busy schedule to see and hear what they have to say and think about tapping into our great wealth of creative performers and artists to increase sustainability awareness. To warm up, Save Planet Earth by Tokyo Rose Band. If you are at work, put in your ear buds.

Picture this.

Interview of Canadian landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky. He talks about the focus of his latest exhibition, Oil, composed of 55 color landscapes made over the last decade. Here is a where to view his art exhibited by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and here is a trailer of the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes.

The True Cost of Oil: Tar Sands by Garth Lenz in his speech before the TEDxVictoria audience. For almost twenty years, Garth’s photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world’s leading publications. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation Photographers.

Picturing Excess by the artist, Chris Jordan‘s work addresses the unconscious behaviors that add up to catastrophic consequences which no one intended. He explores the phenomenon of American consumerism. The photo used in this blog is of his book, Ushirikiano: Building a Sustainable Future in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands
(teNeues Publishing Group, 2011).

What’s That Sound?

The band Vocal Trash’s primary goal is to teach children to use their imaginations in a meaningful and perennial regard. Recycling awareness is the secondary goal obtained through creative and inspirational performance utilizing distinguishable items that might normally end up in a Landfill, (metals, plastics, etc).

Along the same lines, percusionista, Fellé Vega is devoted to finding “the sound of life” and experiments with recyclable materials and everyday objects that have percussive possibilities, such as pails, lids and pots, which he then turns into musical instruments. His performance filmed as part of TEDxSantoDomingo.

Hymn to the Rainforest by Sarah Brightman invited by The Prince’s Rainforests Project to sing at an event they hosted to engage the financial community in the task of finding a solution to the problem of making rainforests worth more alive than dead. This is the film that accompanied her singing. The music is Nella Fantasia – used in the soundtrack of the movie – The Mission, and often called a Hymn To the Rainforest. For more information go here.

Our Generation sung by John Legend and The Roots performing Ernie Hines’ 1970 classic at Terminal 5 in New York City, September 23, 2010.

Speak Out!

What Can I do for social and ecological justice? Spoken word poet and activist Drew Dellinger says that one of the deepest questions a person can face is, What can I do?, and describes the quest to answer it as a spiritual challenge.

Our True Nature, a riff on our true nature by spoken word artist, Steve Connell.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, May 25, 2012 from Portland, Oregon.